SR-71 Blackbird
In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of MuammarQaddafi's terrorist camps in Libya . My duty was to fly over Libya and take photos recording the damage our F-111's had
Inflicted.. Qaddafi had established a 'line of death,' a territorial marking across the Gulf of Sidra , swearing to shoot down
Any intruder that crossed the boundary. On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph.
I was piloting the SR-71 spy plane, the world's fastest jet, accompanied by a Marine Major (Walt), the aircraft'sReconnaissance systems officer (RSO). We had crossed into Libya and were approaching our final turn over the bleak desert
Landscape when Walt informed me that he was receiving missile launch signals. I quickly increased our speed, calculating
The time it would take for the weapons-most likely SA-2 and SA-4 surface-to-air missiles capable of Mach 5 - to reach our
Altitude. I estimated that we could beat the rocket-powered missiles to the turn and stayed our course, betting our lives
On the plane's performance.
After several agonizingly long seconds, we made the turn and blasted toward the Mediterranean . 'You might want toPull it back,' Walt suggested. It was then that I noticed I still had the throttles full forward. The plane was flying a mile
Every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit. It was the fastest we would ever fly. I pulled the throttles to idle just south
Of Sicily , but we still overran the refueling tanker awaiting us over Gibraltar .
Scores of significant aircraft have been produced in the 100 years of flight, following the achievements of the WrightBrothers, which we celebrate in December. Aircraft such as the Boeing 707, the F-86 Sabre Jet, and the P-51 Mustang are
Among the important machines that have flown our skies. But the SR-71, also known as the Blackbird, stands alone as aSignificant contributor to Cold War victory and as the fastest plane ever-and only 93 Air Force pilots ever steered
The 'sled,' as we called our aircraft.
The SR-71 was the brainchild of Kelly Johnson, the famed Lockheed designer who created the P-38, the F-104 Starfighter,And the U-2. After the Soviets shot down Gary Powers' U-2 in 1960, Johnson began to develop an aircraft that would
Fly three miles higher and five times faster than the spy plane-and still be capable of photographing your license plate.However, flying at 2,000 mph would create intense heat on the aircraft's skin. Lockheed engineers used a titanium alloy to
Construct more than 90 percent of the SR-71, creating special tools and manufacturing procedures to hand-build each of the40 planes. Special heat-resistant fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluids that would function at 85,000 feet and higher also had to
Be developed.
In 1962, the first Blackbird successfully flew, and in 1966, the same year I graduated from high school,
The Air Force began flying operational SR-71 missions. I came to the program in 1983 with a sterling record
And a recommendation from my commander, completing the weeklong interview and meeting
Walt, my partner for the next four years He would ride four feet behind me, working all the cameras,
Radios, and electronic jamming equipment. I joked that if we were ever captured, he was the spy and
I was just the driver. He told me to keep the pointy end forward.
We trained for a year, flying out of Beale AFB in California , Kadena Airbase in Okinawa, and RAF
Mildenhall in England . O n a typical training mission, we would take off near Sacramento, refuel over
Nevada, accelerate into Montana, obtain high Mach over Colorado, turn right over New Mexico, speed
Across the Los Angeles Basin, run up the West Coast, turn right at Seattle, then return to Beale. Total flight
Time: two hours and 40 minutes.
One day, high above Arizona , we were monitoring the radio traffic of all the mortal airplanes below us.
First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed. 'Ninety knots,' ATC replied.
A Bonanza soon made the same request. 'One-twenty on the ground,' was the reply. To our
Surprise, a navy F-18 came over the radio with a ground speed check. I knew exactly what he was
Doing. Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the
bug-smashers in the valley know what real speed was 'Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground,'
ATC responded.
The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walt's mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walt startledthe controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace.
In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, 'Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the ground.'
We did not hear another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast.
The Blackbird always showed us something new, each aircraft possessing its own unique personality. In time, we realizedwe were flying a national treasure. When we taxied out of our revetments for takeoff, people took notice. Traffic congregated
near the airfield fences, because everyone wanted to see and hear the mighty SR-71 You could not be a part of this programand not come to love the airplane. Slowly, she revealed her secrets to us as we earned her trust.
One moonless night, while flying a routine training mission over the Pacific, I wondered what the sky would look like from84,000 feet if the cockpit lighting were dark. While heading home on a straight course, I slowly turned down all of the lighting,
reducing the glare and revealing the night sky.
Within seconds, I turned the lights back up, fearful that the jet would know and somehow punish me. But my desire to see
the sky overruled my caution, I dimmed the lighting again. To my amazement, I saw a bright light outside my window. As myeyes adjusted to the view, I realized that the brilliance was the broad expanse of the Milky Way, now a gleaming stripe
across the sky. Where dark spaces in the sky had usually existed, there were now dense clusters of sparkling stars.
Shooting stars flashed across the canvas every few seconds. It was like a fireworks display with no sound.
I knew I had to get my eyes back on the instruments, and reluctantly I brought my attention back inside. To my surprise,with the cockpit lighting still off, I could see every gauge, lit by starlight. In the plane's mirrors, I could see the eerie shine of
my gold spacesuit incandescently illuminated in a celestial glow. I stole one last glance out the window. Despite our speed,we seemed still before the heavens, humbled in the radiance of a much greater power. For those few moments, I felt a part of
something far more significant than anything we were doing in the plane. The sharp sound of Walt's voice on the radiobrought me back to the tasks at hand as I prepared for our descent.
San Diego Aerospace Museum
The SR-71 was an expensive aircraft to operate.
The most significant cost was tanker support, and in 1990, confronted with budget cutbacks, the Air Force retired the SR-71.
The SR-71 served six presidents, protecting America for a quarter of a century. Unbeknownst to most of the country, theplane flew over North Vietnam, Red China, North Korea, the Middle East, South Africa, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Libya,
and the Falkland Islands . On a weekly basis, the SR-71 kept watch over every Soviet nuclear submarine and mobile
missile site, and all of their troop movements. It was a key factor in winning the Cold War.
I am proud to say I flew about 500 hours in this aircraft. I knew her well. She gave way to no plane, proudly draggingher sonic boom through enemy backyards with great impunity. She defeated every missile, outran every MiG, and always
brought us home. In the first 100 years of manned flight, no aircraft was more remarkable.
The Blackbird had outrun nearly 4,000 missiles, not once taking a scratch from enemy fire.
On her final flight, the Blackbird , destined for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, sped from Los Angelesto Washington in 64 minutes, averaging 2,145 mph and setting four speed records.
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