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Rare photos of the SR-71 Blackbird show its amazing history
The SR-71 Blackbird is, without a doubt, the most advanced airplane ever built in relation to the technology available at the time. It broke all aviation records, it flew incredible missions, and it became the stuff of legend. (sploid.gizmodo.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
My most treasured photo of myself is of me and 3 friends sitting on the right leading edge of an SR that was parked at the south side of EDW in summer 1999 among several other aircraft on static display. It was well inside the gates. We were there on business at NASA Dryden and got a VIP tour. I remember walking among all of them thinking the drawings and photos in the combat aircraft compendia of my youth and all come to life at once. It was as close to overwhelmed as I've ever been.
Stationed at Kunsan AB, South Korea in 1971, crash phone rang in FSO one day with a modified B57 with one engine flame out on final. Instructions were for FSO to make sure I was on the response. No, I had just came over from Kirtland at ABQ and had no idea what a modified B57 was. It was also fishy as to why I was personally requested on response. We got into position on flight line, hovering off to one side, had about a 1500' ceiling. Out of the clouds came the blackbird and I was the only one on base with PSD experience for the suits as we had U-2's at Tucson. He landed, chopper set down, chief put me in a foil firesuit. We brought him into a hangar, closed the doors and allowed the cooldown, extricated the pilots and left, never to see it again until a couple of days later as it was repaired and took off. Before it was landing, there was a C141 from Kadena enroute with new engines, starters(yeah it took a special starter as nothing regular was fast enough, and a full habu-approved repair crew.
Thanks for posting. I'd seen snippets of the story and am glad to see the whole thing in one place. 8-)
2 big buick V-8s unmufflered in that starter.
Yep, that's what one of the Habu guys told us. Buick Wildcats, idk what size.
430 cubes about 360 horses each.
I wasn't sure of the size but the regular FMS starters were only about 1/2 that size and they worked pretty good on everything else. I know we went on shift at 0800 the day they left and were about 1/2 mile from their hangar. You didn't have any problem hearing them as he started up getting ready to leave. They even brought their own tug to shove him out with. I mean, once it parked, nobody but the HABU crew from Kadena went anywhere near it. That 1 hangar had about half of base security took up for a couple days and nights. There was a solid line around it for the duration and they had pre cut stencils saying HABU APPROVED for anything on the base they used.
The Concorde argument is interesting because there are no pictures of the Concorde flying at supersonic speeds because nothing else could stay with it at the same altitude - it is all very interesting to quote max speeds etc but it has to be stated at what altitude. Therein lies the brilliance of the technology in Concorde - they solved the drag problem with some amazing aerodynamic solutions and, of course, it had a vastly greater payload at mach 2.0 than anything else ever built.
As a Briton I am very proud of the Concorde and what it achieved, just as my friends in the USA are proud of SR71s. Both are iconic aircraft and how could you ever say Dolly Parton was better or worse than Muhammed Ali for example?