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This guy visited all SR-71 Blackbird planes. By kebbins.
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Funny story by a SR-71 pilot - 5 minutes that you will replay for your friends!
https://digg.com/video/la-speed-check-blackbird-story
I once picked up a crated military load at White Sands, then was given a schedule and route to explicitly follow to haul it to the Skunkworks in Cal. An unmentioned black Suburban with black tinted windows followed me the entire trip. One of the crates wasn't nailed all that good and a top corner gradually started working open and I was getting pretty nervous about it but I wasn't about to stop and take a look at it. When I arrived they directed me to a portion of the airbase apron to unload, right beside 4 SR-71's staged there for refurbishment. I was literally 50 yards from the closest one and I was impressed.
Sure was, but I could only see it with one eye, peeking out of the crate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusty
I knew that not lookin' in that crate was the right thing to do. :cool:
I saw the one on the Intrepid.... it was still outside on the flight deck and they didn’t have it roped off; you could walk right up and touch it.
Story on how a group of Swedish fighter jocks managed several missile radarlocks on the "Baltic Express" SR-71 (doing 2.98M @ 70 500 ft) during the eighties:
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/vigg...h-3-spy-plane/
There is a NASA SR-71B at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo in Kalamazoo Michigan. It is the only B model in existence (notice the trainer cockpit). You can walk up and touch the aircraft. It is eerily displayed with very dim, reddish lighting and it looks pretty sinister. The Air Zoo is a great aircraft museum and well worth the visit, especially if you take an extra few hours to visit the nearby Gilmore Car Museum, which hosts an outstanding collection.
If you see both in the same visit, your testosterone level will double! :D
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I got to support some "activities" at Edwards AFB many years back and met the last SR-71 pilots (retired USAF) who by then were working for NASA flying the last two SR's. They were rated in both U-2 and SR-71... talk about both ends of the spectrum! I also got to know one of the last Skunkworks Electricians who traveled all over the world supporting the aircraft during its active life. He said that NASA cherry picked the two best tails that were ever built, and he knew them all. He went on to say that if there was any reason the aircraft couldn't fly its mission it would be because of an electrical problem. The mechanical systems, including the fuel transfer system, were elegantly simple and nearly failure proof. A big part of electrical problems was damage from the intense heat experienced in flight. It would bake the wires making them extremely brittle. Touching a bundle would break some. Fixing one would break 3 more, and on it went. He said it was so bad that the Electricians had to fuel the aircraft and de-fuel it to fix the almost certain electrical problems. Mechanical techs were never needed for launch. The U.S. base in England was cold, wet, and getting JP-7 fuel all over yourself wasn't pleasant either.
I've studied the SR-71 for the Engineering marvel that it was. There's not a bump or crease on that aircraft without some purpose. There's only one "Off The Shelf" component on that aircraft, but everything else was developed from scratch, from the tires to the windshields. Of course the Inlet Spikes to prevent supersonic shockwaves causing "unstarts" did have to be developed. It is the only aircraft to fly its entire mission in afterburner. It leaked fuel on the ground, due to its expansion joints never having a sealant developed that could stand the heat. The windshield is solid quartz. The techniques for working Titanium had to be pioneered by the Skunkworks, as it broke every drill bit or tool used on it. Each piece of fuselage of each aircraft was kept on 3x5 cards in the event a replacement part was ever needed - no two were ever the same. The Titanium used throughout the airframe had to be obtained from the one place with copious amounts of the stuff and no ready market at the time... the Soviet Union (Russia), using various CIA "front companies" all around the world. The space suits worn by the crew were used on the early Shuttle Missions. There are so many amazing things about that aircraft and it's capabilities are still shrouded in secrecy after all these years. What was the OTS component? The Pratt J-58 engines developed for a never finished Navy P6M SeaMaster.
This, too!Quote:
Originally Posted by DIYSwede
https://www.popularmechanics.com/mil...-71-blackbird/
And I had my pointy index finger at the ready; case you did. . .Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusty
Very interesting explanation of cockpit operation by a former SR-71 pilot.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/fli...orks-17441312/
To be around those aircraft or to know anyone who flew, built or maintained them is pretty damn cool. The SR-71 is without a doubt the most amazing example of American aircraft ingenuity. I've read several books on Kelly Johnson and the Skunkworks team. To be able to design and build that beautiful, high-speed bird without the aid of any kind of modern computer is simply mind-boggling! What those engineers accomplished using slide rules and 'smarts' is truly incredible. There will be successors that will fly higher and faster, but I don't believe that their accomplishment can ever equal what went into the Blackbird!
It's important to note that the U2 and SR-71 were the product of a skunkworks development atmosphere. This work climate was characterized by a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy. Briefly, the engineers were "set loose" and allowed to develop not what management wanted but rather what would work for the problem to hand.
It's even more important to note how seldom the lesson of the success of the skunkworks has been adopted in other businesses.
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Assembly line of the SR-71 Blackbird at Skunk Works.
https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...skunkworks.jpg
Reminds me of the story about the guy walking past the looney bin and he could hear people in the yard shouting "Twelve, twelve, twelve ..." over and over. Curious, he looked into a knothole in the fence to see what was going on and someone immediately poked him in the eye with a finger and all the people in the yard began chanting "Thirteen, thirteen, thirteen ...".Quote:
Originally Posted by Toolmaker51
Well, to be fair, by the time the skunkworks was established, Kelly Johnson had a very well established track record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_..._contributions
Famously 3M lets (or used to, at least) engineers have unsupervised 'play time' to work on projects; and it's paid off for them, too, witness the Post-It.
A co-worker (ex Air Force Master Sgt) worked in the field with the SR-71s in the Vietnam era, they used to fly in and out of the base he was stationed at (IIRC it was the Phillipines, or it may have been Thailand.) They were too hot to work on for about for hours after landing.
SR 71 lived at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa in Vietnam days. Interesting that the local Okinawa residents called the SR 71 "The Habu" (snake) There was a point off the base that looked down on part of the runway. Locals would park there to take pictures of the SR71. Someone posted a sign there that said "Habu lookout point"
Then it was Okinawa where my friend was. He's got some old video from the hangar area and flight line that he;s shown me, I see if I can snag a copy...
I would be interested in seeing his picks. I haven't been to Okinawa in 35-40 years. My wife is Thai and seems Thailand is only place I go to overseas now. ....That isn't a complaint though
SR-71s were nearly the fastest non-experimental aircraft ever made. The CIA's single seat A-12's were the fastest.
An SR-71 Blackbird is towed to the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, Georgia. 1990.
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SR-71 Blackbird J58 engine tour. 4:49 video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZfBFlTC_c
I have a sr71 almost parked in my back yard... about 3 miles down the road at the armament musseem at Eglin afb hear in fl. it is 1 of a kind, not just like the others. but still the same. a sr 71 was based at kadena for long tyme. it was still there in 76 when we left there to come hear the hurlburt afb about 10 miles down the road the other way. dad flew the black birds and retired out of hurlburt. I saw the sr 71 (HABU)almost daily on Okinawa when it took off and later landed from it's missions. totaly awesome sight!!! dam I miss those days. but I still have fighters flying directly over head daily as eglin is now a big training base for the F35 vertickle take off fighter's(and more). those sucker's are getting good work out's!!! my hearing is almost gone now but I can still hear them and feel them too.the sound of freedom.
There was only ever one fatal Blackbird flight accident. An SR-71 disintegrated at 79,000 feet and the two crew bailed out. Jim Zwyer was killed; Bill Weaver lived. Here's Weaver:
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3:03 video. Some hokey re-enactment scenes, but you do get to see Weaver talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnEgS3buPb8
More: When his SR-71 Disintegrated, This Pilot Free Fell From Space & Lived to Tell About It | CHUCKYEAGER.ORG
That's a "never pay for another beer in your life" kinda story. I read an account (probably the same one, since it sounds very familiar) in Air&Space Magazine a few years ago, in the special issue that the video was about.
There was another accident which resulted in the death of a crew member. That was when an A-12 converted to an M-21 variant was launching the D-21 Reconnaissance Drone from its position between the two vertical surfaces. As soon as the D-21 fired its ramjet motor and was released, it encountered the pressure wave surrounding the M-21 causing instability then collision, breaking the M-21 in half. Both Pilot and Launch Control Officer survived ejection and landed safely, but the LCO drowned at sea 150 miles out. Some really good information at this website: Loss of M
Good call Duke_of_URL. I found some footage of the accident. 3:48:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMyC2urCl_4
crap Im old, that was so long ago....and yet I can still remember almost being able to reach up and touch it as it mad it's slow turn
over camp Courtney 10 meter swiming pool tower we were always jumping of of. so close you could see the pilot oh so clear and yes the plane was about 90 degrees in the turns that seems to last for ever. about a year lator I was living on kadena afb and watching it take off....straight up. I wish dad would of got me a ride......but he wasent that kind of dad.....1 thing he did teach me was ..how not to be a dad. his loss was my gain in the end. I have 2 awesome daughters, 1 a dr. and 1 a diplomat , now learning Albanian for her up coming assignment in kosovo for 2 years. yes Im very proud of them.
Lockheed Martin SR-72 concept, rumored to be flying by 2025.
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More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_SR-72
When you order an SR-71 Blackbird plane from Amazon.com:
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Hummmm.... really cant tell these crates pertain to SR 71 can you? This could be a travelling carnival and the crates contain a huge load of stuffed animals.
Clearly, it's bait for really big porch pirates.
That area does look like it's near Palmdale...
The second, smaller crate probably houses the D-21 Drone. Would like to know the back story on this transportation.
Did they include an allen wrench?
Try googling sr-71 in box (Google images)
Looks like something shipped from Transylvania!
It does look like a toe pincher...Quote:
Originally Posted by Rattlerjake
Here's the one in the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson. It's definitely worth a visit if you're in that part of the US. Plus it's the only way to tour the Air Force bone yard next door.
https://i.imgur.com/7tFvZsS.jpg
and near by is another favorite.
https://i.imgur.com/ipvvTcv.jpg
with the gun the plane was built to carry next to it on the right.
