SR71.....Blackbird history

Cpl Dennis F. — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 17:10:05 -0400

I ran across this story in my travels and thought that I would share. While I was in the Marine Corps I was made aware of this amazing aircrafts existence in 1967, due to post flight Marine security placed on the craft. This was less than a year after the beginning of mission flights and well before very many even knew of the plane. Enjoy.

The following is Brian Shul's memoir of flying the SR-71

In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin
disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's
terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and take
photos recording the damage our F-111s 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 Maj. Walter Watson, the aircraft's reconnaissance
systems officer (RSO). We had crossed into Libya and were approaching
our final turn over the bleak desert landscape when Walter 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 to pull it back,' Walter
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 Wright brothers, 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 a significant 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.

As inconceivable as it may sound, I once discarded the plane.
Literally. My first encounter with the SR-71 came when I was 10 years
old in the form of molded black plastic in a Revell kit. Cementing
together the long fuselage parts proved tricky, and my finished
product looked less than menacing. Glue,oozing from the seams,
discolored the black plastic. It seemed ungainly alongside the
fighter planes in my collection, and I threw it away.

Twenty-nine years later, I stood awe-struck in a Beale Air Force
Base hangar, staring at the very real SR-71 before me. I had applied
to fly the world's fastest jet and was receiving my first
walk-around of our nation's most prestigious aircraft. In my
previous 13 years as an Air Force fighter pilot, I had never seen an
aircraft with such presence. At 107 feet long, it appeared big, but
far from ungainly.

Ironically, the plane was dripping, much like the mis-shapen model I
had assembled in my youth. Fuel was seeping through the joints,
raining down on the hangar floor. At Mach 3, the plane would expand
several inches because of the severe temperature, which could heat
the leading edge of the wing to 1,100 degrees. To prevent cracking,
expansion joints had been built into the plane. Sealant resembling
rubber glue covered the seams, but when the plane was subsonic, fuel
would leak through the joints.

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 b egan
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 the 40 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 week long interview and meeting Walter, 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. On 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 twin 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 Walter's mike
button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter startled
the 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 realized we 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 program and 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 from 84,000 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, and I dimmed the
lighting again. To my amazement, I saw a bright light outside my
window. As my eyes 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 gage, 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 radio brought me back to the tasks at
hand as I prepared for our descent.

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 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 Angeles to Washington
in 64 minutes, averaging 2,145 mph and setting four speed records.

The SR-71 served six presidents, protecting America for a quarter of
a century. Unbeknown to most of the country, the plane 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 dragging her 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.

With the Libyan coast fast approaching now, Walt asks me for the
third time if I think the jet will get to the speed and altitude we
want in time. I tell him yes. I know he is concerned. He is dealing
with the data; that's what engineers do, and I am glad he is. But I
have my hands on the stick and throttles and can feel the heart of a
thoroughbred, running now with the power and perfection she was
designed to possess. I also talk to her. Like the combat veteran she
is, the jet senses the target area and seems to prepare herself. For
the first time in two days, the inlet door closes flush and all
vibration is gone. We've become so used to the constant buzzing that
the jet sounds quiet now in comparison. The Mach correspondingly
increases slightly and the jet is flying in that confidently smooth
and steady style we have so often seen at these speeds. We reach our
target altitude and speed, with five miles to spare.

Entering the target area, in response to the jet's new-found
vitality, Walt says, 'That's amazing' and with my left hand pushing
two throttles farther forward, I think to myself that there is much
they don't teach in engineering school.

Out my left window, Libya looks like one huge sandbox. A featureless
brown terrain stretches all the way to the horizon. There is no sign
of any activity. Then Walt tells me that he is getting lots of
electronic signals, and they are not the friendly kind.

The jet is performing perfectly now, flying better than she has in
weeks. She seems to know where she is. She likes the high Mach, as
we penetrate deeper into Libyan airspace. Leaving the footprint of
our sonic boom across Benghazi, I sit motionless, with stilled hands
on throttles and the pitch control, my eyes glued to the gages.
Only the Mach indicator is moving, steadily increasing in
hundredths, in a rhythmic consistency similar to the long distance
runner who has caught his second wind and picked up the pace. The
jet was made for this kind of performance and she wasn't about to
let an errant inlet door make her miss the show. With the power of
forty locomotives, we puncture the quiet African sky and continue
farther south across a bleak landscape.

Walt continues to update me with numerous reactions he sees on the
DEF panel. He is receiving missile tracking signals. With each mile
we traverse, every two seconds, I become more uncomfortable driving
deeper into this barren and hostile land.

I am glad the DEF panel is not in the front seat. It would be a big
distraction now, seeing the lights flashing. In contrast, my cockpit
is 'quiet' as the jet purrs and relishes her new-found strength,
continuing to slowly accelerate. The spikes are full aft now, tucked
twenty-six inches deep into the nacelles. With all inlet doors
tightly shut, at 3.24 Mach, the J-58s are more like ramjets now,
gulping 100,000 cubic feet of air per second. We are a roaring
express now, and as we roll through the enemy's backyard, I hope our
speed continues to defeat the missile radars below.

We are approaching a turn, and this is good. It will only make it
more difficult for any launched missile to solve the solution for
hitting our aircraft. I push the speed up at Walt's request. The jet
does not skip a beat, nothing fluctuates, and the cameras have a
rock steady platform.

Walt received missile launch signals. Before he can say anything
else, my left hand instinctively moves the throttles yet farther
forward. My eyes are glued to temperature gages now, as I know the
jet will willingly go to speeds that can harm her. The temps are
relatively cool and from all the warm temps we've encountered thus
far, this surprises me but then, it really doesn't surprise me.
Mach 3.31 and Walt are quiet for the moment.

I move my gloved finder across the small silver wheel on the
autopilot panel which controls the aircraft's pitch. With the deft
feel known to Swiss watchmakers, surgeons, and 'dinosaurs' (old-time
pilots who not only fly an airplane but 'feel it') I rotate the
pitch wheel somewhere between one-sixteenth and one-eighth inch,
location a position which yields the 500-foot-per-minute climb I
desire. The jet raises her nose one-sixth of a degree and knows I'll
push her higher as she goes faster. The Mach continues to rise, but
during this segment of our route, I am in no mood to pull throttles
back.

Walt's voice pierces the quiet of my cockpit with the news of more
missile launch signals. The gravity of Walter's voice tells me that
he believes the signals to be a more valid threat than the others.
Within seconds he tells me to 'push it up' and I firmly press both
throttles against their stops. For the next few second I will let
the jet go as fa st as she wants.

A final turn is coming up and we both know that if we can hit that
turn at this speed, we most likely will defeat any missiles. We are
not there yet, though, and I'm wondering if Walt will call for a
defensive turn off our course. With no words spoken, I sense Walter
is thinking in concert with me about maintaining our programmed
course.

To keep from worrying, I glance outside, wondering if I'll be able
to visually pick up a missile aimed at us. Odd are the thoughts that
wander through one's mind in times like these. I found myself
recalling the words of former SR-71 pilots who were fired upon while
flying missions over North Vietnam. They said the few errant missile
detonations they were able to observe from the cockpit looked like
implosions rather than explosions. This was due to the great speed
at which the jet was hurling away from the exploding missile. I see
nothing outside except the endless expanse of a steel blue sky and
the broad patch of tan earth far below.

I have only had my eyes out of the cockpit for seconds, but it seems
like many minutes since I have last checked the gages inside.
Returning my attention inward, I glance first at the miles counter
telling me how many more to go until we can start our turn. Then I
note the Mach, and passing beyond 3.45, I realize that Walter and I
have attained new personal records. The Mach continues to increase.
The ride is incredibly smooth.

There seems to be a confirmed trust now, between me and the jet; she
will not hesitate to deliver whatever speed we need, and I can count
on no problems with the inlets. Walt and I are ultimately depending
on the jet now - more so than normal - and she seems to know it. The
cooler outside temperatures have awakened the spirit born into her
years ago, when men dedicated to excellence took the time and care
to build her well. With spikes and doors as tight as they can get we
are racing against the time it could take a missile to reach our
altitude. It is a race this jet will not let us lose. The Mach eases
to 3.5 as we crest 80,000 feet. We are a bullet now - except faster.

We hit the turn, and I feel some relief as our nose swings away from
a country we have seen quite enough of. Screaming past Tripoli, our
phenomenal speed continues to rise, and the screaming Sled pummels
the enemy one more time, laying down a parting sonic boom.

In seconds, we can see nothing but the expansive blue of the
Mediterranean .I realize that I still have my left hand full-forward
and we're continuing to rocket along in maximum afterburner. The TDI
now shows us Mach numbers not only new to our experience but flat
out scary. Walt says the DEF panel is now quiet and I know it is
time to reduce our incredible speed. I pull the throttles to the min
'burner range and the jet still doesn't want to slow down. Normally,
the Mach would be affected immediately when making such a
large throttle movement. But for just a few moments, old 960 just sat
out there at the high Mach she seemed to love and, like the proud
Sled she was, only began to slow when we were well out of danger.

I loved that jet.

Response by MSgt Curtis Ellis made Aug 23 at 2015 5:19 PM

MSgt Curtis Ellis — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 17:19:41 -0400

Some of the most amazing Air Force pilots out there with the most amazing aircraft...
I never got the opportunity to work on these during my time as an aircraft maintenance guy as I was stationed at Nellis AFB, NV at the time, but I do remember my first encounter with one while assigned to Crash Recovery. One came in IFE at an altitude so high, it had to spiral down to make our runway... we then cleared out the Phased Inspection hangar (largest on the flight line) and let the aircraft taxi into the hangar, engines running and all, which was a no-no at the time! LOL! I even got to "touch" it, which was a pretty big deal to an E3 at the time! Definitely an awesome piece of machinery and an awesome piece of memory for me!

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 23 at 2015 5:46 PM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 17:46:03 -0400

THAT is one hell of an aircraft.
Built in 1962!
Makes one wonder what we've come up with since...

Response by Col Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 23 at 2015 11:39 PM

Col Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 23:39:44 -0400

I love the SR71.

Response by SSgt Alex Robinson made Aug 23 at 2015 11:41 PM

SSgt Alex Robinson — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 23:41:08 -0400

Cool post!

Response by SrA Renee StClair made Jun 27 at 2018 9:34 AM

SrA Renee StClair — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 09:34:49 -0400

I love the Blackbird. She was always a sight to behold. I was stationed at Mildenhall and I loved hearing hearing them take take-off. Such a sweet sound it was. A very sad day on base when our birds left.

Response by SGT Steve McFarland made Nov 2 at 2019 11:23 AM

SGT Steve McFarland — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 11:23:10 -0400

I've seen that story before, but the true capabilities of the Blackbird still boggle my mind.

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Nov 2 at 2019 1:00 PM

SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 13:00:49 -0400

Excellent share Dennis.