Battle Stations - SR-71 Blackbird Stealth Plane -Full Documentary

faster than a speeding bullet and, unlike any other aircraft ever built, raced toward the Sun flying at speeds of 2,000 miles per hour in the top 1% of Earth's atmosphere. It holds all the important speed and altitude records for an air

plane

. You did all this effortlessly. and that was the feeling you had that you were in control of so much power that it was the first

stealth

aircraft in the world that flew over enemy territory and photographed a hundred thousand square miles of the Earth's surface in an hour when you were sitting in front of those one hundred and a two meter long spear penetrating enemy airspace, you were truly the tip of the sword, if anything went wrong we would be on the 6 o'clock news, once shrouded in secrets,

battle

stations

now reveal through archival films and color recreations the undercover world of mrs. -71

blackbird

During World War I, the first reconnaissance aircraft was developed to photograph the enemy in an attempt to gain a tactical advantage.

World War II saw more sophisticated aircraft and camera technology play a vital role in the Allied victory after World War II. The world was left with two ideologically opposed superpowers, the Cold War had begun and the United States wanted to keep a watchful eye on the events behind the Iron Curtain. The United States was desperate for information about Soviet nuclear stockpiling of fighter capabilities and the bomber threat. In early December 1954, the task of creating the next generation of reconnaissance aircraft was assigned to the visionary design of Kelly Johnson and his elite team from Lockheed's advanced development program known as Skunk Works.

I think Kelly's operation of Skunk Works was probably unique in the aviation industry to begin with. a very, very small group of people, he care

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y selected everyone who worked for him, they were dark, the secret of Altamonte, there was absolutely no leak within the system that was guaranteed, and he also set out to locate his engineers and producers In the same place. the people who were building the

plane

so the engineer could make the drawing and he would go out to the hangar floor and talk to the man who is bending metal. I can't stress enough the engineers directly with the shop staff all the time and Kelly when you had a problem he would have a meeting and decisions would be made then and there, he is always very fair, he could be very harsh, he wasn't a pussycat I will tell you that Kellie's skunkworks produced its first spy plane in 1955, YouTube, in an effort to evade Soviet radar the U2 was designed to fly at an altitude of 75 thousand feet in 1956 it began flying over the Soviet Union on reconnaissance missions, but The latest Soviet radar systems were more advanced than had been anticipated when the CIA-piloted YouTubes began.

During their operations over the Soviet Union they were shocked to discover that the Soviets were tracking them, even on the first mission every U2 flying over the Soviet Union was in grave danger, YouTube was being tracked and that was a big concern so they wouldn't Our country might like it, but Lockheed, who had promised that this plane would never be seen determined to create the ultimate spy plane, Kelly Johnson went back to the drawing board and began designing a new supersonic plane that could fly faster and more higher than the U2 with the least possible presence on enemy radar screens then, on May 1, 1960, disaster struck a U-tube piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down by an SA-2 missile.

The powers survived and had a very public trial designed to humiliate the US and deter them from taking any action. More reconnaissance flights, but with tensions between the superpowers rising, the need for reconnaissance was more urgent than ever. Kelly Johnson's plans for an advanced supersonic spy plane became the number one priority to create an aircraft capable of operating at the speeds and altitudes Kelly envisions. His Skunkworks team would have to overcome a series of enormous technological problems and the biggest problem that he was going to face and he knew that this from the beginning was going to be the temperature, the temperatures that the plane would encounter at those phenomenal speeds, it was clear. that a traditional aluminum airframe would not withstand these extreme conditions, you couldn't fly a plane at more than 2.6 Mach and it was barely mega, so with aluminum because the plane had just turned to jelly, the decision was made to build the aircraft structure with titanium.

Titanium was light. strong enough to reach altitudes in excess of 80,000 feet and strong enough to withstand the enormous temperatures generated by Mach 3 flight. No one had ever built an airplane with titanium, so he had to start from scratch. We didn't even have tools you could use. Develop titanium and bend it into shape to make an airplane, so we had to start by designing tools. It was a gigantic task. Creating an aircraft capable of flying at Mach 3 was difficult enough, but Skunkworks also had to face the challenge of combining. this level of performance with the new science of

stealth

to avoid features that would create strong radar reflections, the aircraft had adopted a revolutionary shape, the wings were fused with the body and the long surfaces on the forward fuselage known as the child were designed to Deflect incoming enemies. radar waves such as with the twin fins angled inwards, the pointed engine cones and the almost flat lower fuselage, a special radar absorbing plastic or compound was also developed to incorporate into all leading edges when looking at an SR-71 , 20% of what you'll see, is composite, you know, it's just amazing at the time and it was developed in our workshops.

An SR-71 had a radar return one hundred times smaller than an F-14 that is only half the size and was developed ten years later, so that was really the first aircraft designed specifically with stealth in mind. December 1964, the SR-71 was launched onto the flight line at the Lockheed plant in Burbank coated with radar-absorbing black ferrite paint. The Blackbird, as it became known, was an extraordinarily futuristic aircraft. Lucky test pilot Robert Gilliland would be the first to reach the cockpit as we got underway. In fact, for the first real flight I had 383 elements open. These are things that were supposed to work and don't work, so that's how it was. a basic operation for the first flight and you could say that this kind of thing could be dangerous, but there are many other people who would like to be in my position.

I tell you the throttle when we made the first engine I ran and they had those afterburners in there and that thing is pulling those cables and I felt like this is really going to be something. The flight lasted just over an hour and reached top speeds of over a thousand miles per hour, a phenomenal achievement for a first flight of any aircraft. Kelly Johnson was there and some of her guests were there and I can't remember who everyone else was there. , but the entire team and caboodle were very happy including me, it seemed like Kelly had created her ultimate spy plane, but she would do it.

Being able to evade radar and fly high and fast enough to escape Soviet fighters and missiles flying at speeds above Mach 3 at altitudes above 80,000 feet. The SR-71 Blackbird was the world's fastest and highest flying aircraft in 1966. The first SR-71 spy plane was delivered to Beale Air Force Base in California. The 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron now needed a force of elite aviators to fly it well. My first thought was: I hope to be selected for the show. I want to say that. The last thing was to be selected for the program, in order to qualify for the sr-71, you had to be very good at what you were doing so far in your aviation career, in fact, he had to be practically the best at it. what did you do.

To be considered a candidate, each Blackbird needed two crew members, the pilot and the RSO, the reconnaissance systems officer. It was extremely exciting just checking into Beale Air Force Base and thinking that I would be preparing to fly this airplane. You can't wait, but the selection interviews and evaluations lasted a week and included a rigorous physical examination, the same as that experienced by the astronaut corps, and the first two days were physical examinations for the astronauts, in a sense, take a kilo of knee on a treadmill and a

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body x-ray. just a very extensive physical exam, they also wanted to know if you were the kind of person they could live with down the road because we had to spend a lot of time together, you know, in the sense that he's part of your family and they wanted to evaluate. people to see if they would be a good member of that family, the pilot began his real training with long hours in the T-38 and in the SR-71 simulator, the intense simulator sessions tested the crew members to their limits, they basically made it more and more experienced, they would just give me multiple malfunctions to deal with, in fact, they keep giving you another problem on top of another problem until you're juggling five, six or seven balls at a time. time and eventually you have to start dropping them and they evaluate how you prioritized which ball you drop after months of training the crews were ready for their first flight together the extreme speed and altitude required special protection and this came in the form of the pressure suit of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars that the technicians suit you up, you put on it, you put your arms and it goes all the way to your back, the boot is separate from the suit and they are just real, normal combat boots, the gloves are specially handmade for you and they fit with little o- A ring is placed on your suit, then we put the helmet on, it is quite heavy and once they take it down, you hear yourself breathing for a few moments and feel a bit claustrophobic.

I did it anyway, the suit was designed to have one hundred percent oxygen and a nasal cavity. and then compressed air into the rest of the suit, so if you lost cabin pressure at twenty-five thousand feet or more, the nitrogen bubbles in your system would come out and your blood would boil, so you need some kind of environment around you. around. that's what the pressure suit provided. The pilot and RSO are ready to be escorted to the plane for their first flight together. There are three people doing nothing more than strapping it into the cockpit, and unlike many airplanes, this cockpit is lowered. in the bowels of the plane, they put you inside the cabin and strap you in and then the canopy lowers on top of you, you don't even lower it yourself, someone has to do that for you and lock it. like it becomes part of the plane and is becoming part of you.

An injection of triethyl piercing gas ignites the fuel and the J58 engines ignite. The really impressive thing is when it starts coming out of the Hanged and it's 110 feet long and so on. This thing keeps coming out, keeps coming out, keeps coming out and all of a sudden you realize it's an amazing looking plane as it gradually leaves the hangar, so here we were looking at a plane that was going to fly two thousand miles away. per hour and Its design was so futuristic that it was unlike any other airplane ever designed because it was going to fly in an environment that no other airplane had ever been in.

I would never forget what it feels like to turn on those afterburners and feel one light before the other does and it shakes you quite hard and accelerates quite quickly, just in a matter of seconds you reach 180 knots, the indicated airspeed rises to 210, making sure of retracting the gear before it exceeds the speed of 300 knots and you keep raising the nose to try to reach 400, not leaving and in less than two minutes from when you release the brake you are leaving after burning your level of 24,000 feet, it is quite a trip. I remember the first time I took the plane up to speed and altitude I went through Mach 1, then I approached Mach 2 and went through Mach 2 without the slightest hint of any problem and I marveled at it and then it went through Mach 3, of course, None of us had been that fast. before, but you definitely did all this and that was the feeling you had that you were in control of so much power in this plane that it was almost unlimited as the sr-71 accelerates to Mach 3, the triple sonic boom is followed by a burst of heat. radiated off his black skin reached temperatures of 1,100 degrees it really flew through the air like a hot knife through butter it really did it was pointy at all ends but it had elegance to me but it was an elegance designed to work after 10 months of grueling training the SR-71 crews were ready to go into operation flying over heavily defended areas in enemy territories would push both the aircraft and the crews to the limit on March 21, 1968 the first operational sortie of the SR-71 left Kadena Base of the Okinawa Japan Air Force the Vietnam War hadhad been raging for five years and the United States was determined to contain and defeat communism in Southeast Asia.

The role of the sr-71 would be to gather photographic and electronic intelligence of its enemies which would be flown daily. about territories where a mistake could cost the life of the crew and cause an international incident in this program that the margin of error was so narrow almost zero that it really was the pressure to fly the mission without problems so that, because if something went wrong, It would be on the 6 o'clock news The SR-71 missions were always carefully planned in their briefing, the crews carefully studied the mission route and surveillance areas and warned of possible enemy threats.

Well, we try to stay well informed about the capabilities of our adversaries and their capabilities. their ability to track our movement our aircraft any potential surface-to-air missile that may be a threat to us or any aircraft that may be a threat to us during a flight three hours before the mission undergo a medical checkup and eat a meal Rich in protein from meat and eggs, the crew chief and his staff spend hours inspecting the SR-71 for possible mechanical problems before the plane's flight that begins around midnight, we said for about six o'clock. seven in the morning and there are many procedures and the cameras must be charged.

The bays are in the forward section of the chines and then the cameras were raised electrically. We always carry a light load of fuel for the mere fact that it is much easier on the airframe, it is much easier on the tires, the landing gear and so on, there is always excitement in the air, electrifying every time you hit a look at the plane, everyone with Keita, everyone did their job. and he did it extremely well and he took it very, very seriously, everyone worked together and it was a team effort and everyone knew that they were striving for that one thing and that was perfection.

The sr-71 demanded it because there was no room for error when you prepare to launch the plane, there things are happening so fast that you sent a plane and of course you will worry if you come back or not, you are constantly thinking if everything is correct or not and those questions are to slip into your mind above 60,000 feet the crew cuts off all contact with air traffic control only a few know where the Blackbird will go next the pilot of the sr-71 spent all his time flying the plane the plane operated on autopilot that's true but you had to manually fly the autopilot, it demanded your attention all the time, so the guy in the back seat, the reconnaissance systems officer, held all the auxiliary systems sitting on the rear cockpit, the RSO must keep the airplane on the black line.

The pre-planned route to the target when they reach enemy territory focuses on radar and defensive systems trying to block enemy communications in the event of a missile launch. We were carrying the same type of jammer that was used throughout the Vietnam War by all the fighters and bombers that attempted to jam communication between the radar site and the missile itself, once they began communication, our cockpit indications would go from warning to jamming and they would be blocking that communication link with the missile, but sometimes the enemy tries to attack the SR-71 by launching a missile without any radar guidance.

We were coming out of the water towards the interior and the pilot says: Hi reg, look out the right window and here's what looks like a telephone pole about a hundred and fifty meters away. away going up, he said it was close enough when I said yes, that was close enough. Our main defense we were shot against was speed boost and we were able to gain a hundred, not shut down in just a matter of seconds, which is a lot. of differential and speed so that a missile can cope with the approach to the target area, the RSO concentrates on operating the high-tech surveillance equipment, the six different cameras were able to photograph one hundred thousand square miles in one hour producing images with a resolution as high as that of vehicles.

The license plate could be clearly identified. The surveying capability of the plane was fantastic because you went in a straight line for 2,000 miles and you could look all the way to the horizon and from horizon to horizon, that's what you could survey for the crews flying. in the top 1% of the atmosphere gave them a unique perspective on the world. The first thing you notice that is phenomenal is the change in color of the sky at about sixty thousand feet, the sky turns a deep indigo steel blue that fascinates you. I just want it, you just want to see it, it's fascinating if I flew the plane close to the Arctic Circle and could go from dawn to dusk and back two or three times.

I have seen the sun rise and said three times in one flight that it is very unusual and we are actually flying faster than the Earth's rotation, so we are leaving the Sun behind when landing. The top priority is to download the cameras known as sensors as quickly as possible. Everyone was deeply concerned that their sensor worked so well. It was designed to be done and scheduled today, so there were a lot of serious concerns and there was a lot of happiness because the plaintiff went on a successful mission and his equipment was at home, the films were sent quickly for processing and analysis, but the photographic interpreters were a brilliant group of young aviators and they could watch that film and they could detect that something had moved or that a new facility was being built.

They were great at it and would call their supervisors if they saw anything of interest. Know? That needed to be flagged and brought to the attention of the intelligence people. One of the things I enjoyed about flying the Blackbird was knowing that information is power, the information we would gather could very well prevent bombs from having to be dropped, it could save a lot of money. people's lives by having the right information at the right time, Blackbird crews successfully infiltrated enemy territory and gathered a wealth of intelligence on their adversaries, but with the Iron Curtain still firmly in place and the Soviet technology constantly improving, how long would the SR-71 last?

Continued to fly safely in such dangerous areas in October 1973, they would face their most crucial test in the early 1970s. The world's attention focused on tension in the Middle East between US ally Israel and its Arab neighbors. was reaching a breaking point on October 6, 1973. Backed by Egypt and Syria, they attacked Israel and played dramatic territorial games with the Middle East trapped in Cold War politics. An Israeli defeat would bring the threat of nuclear conflict. The Soviets had launched their Cosmos Five Nine Six satellites that would immediately bring them intelligence from the

battle

fronts and put them one step ahead of the United States, it was time to bring in the Blackbird, the SR-71 would fly directly from the US Base.

Griffith Air Force from New York to the Middle East, the flight would last more than 11 hours with six refuelings. No member of the Blackbird crew had ever experienced such a long and complex mission. I flew on a 10 and a half hour training flight and when I got off the plane I was beat. I said, "That's the farthest I can fly, but when they said you can fly 11 hours in 20 minutes you jump up and say yes sir, you know I'll be happy to do it. I chose Jim Shelton as the first pilot to fly the mission. I knew that he was an extremely reliable man, highly qualified and had done extremely well in all his training and everything, so he had complete confidence that if the mission could be accomplished, the gym would do it on October 12th under the code name giant The mission began.

We took off from Rome, New York, around 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning because you want to be over a target area between 11:00 and 1:00 o'clock, this allows you have some shadows so the photo interpreters producers can go ahead and judge the elevation, but still get For you, the best position of the Sun you can have, at 10 in the morning, the SR-71 had reached its second refueling point over Portugal due to the highly classified nature of this mission, no one other than the tanker crew knew they were coming on the During that particular refueling, the tanker crews said that Portuguese control kept calling to a plane in relation to the tanker and the tanker says: you know, we don't see anyone, of course they knew it was us, but I'm sure they could tell.

In his scope, something was happening because the two points merged for a while for 20 minutes and then it accelerated. Jim Shelton approached the Egyptian coast. The Egyptians were well equipped and their Soviet allies were constantly replenishing their supplies. Russia was developing the SA5 which was a missile that would go up well above your altitude and come back down at you and yes that was a concern with 160 SAM missile sites many of them secretly commanded by Soviets and sophisticated tracking systems by radar, they were on full-scale alert watching the skies for any enemy Infiltration as soon as we came within range of the Egyptian Sam sites, they began tracking us.

The Egyptians alerted an unidentified aircraft that appeared on their radar systems and, assuming the plane was Israeli or American, rushed to launch their surface-to-air missiles. 80,000 feet above them, traveling at speeds of more than Mach 3, Jim Shelton's Blackbird was gathering thousands of feet of film capturing the extent and whereabouts of the Egyptian military forces. You had the radar receiver in the rear cabin. Gary could tell me yes, now. We are being tracked by some Sam missile, we have to do something so that at that particular point we block the speed when the Egyptian missiles were ready to fire, the sr-71 had already cleared its airspace and was accelerating towards Israel, but the strongly The Israelis were also unaware of this

blackbird

covert operation and immediately went on high alert when we arrived at the first pass over Israel.

My defensive system just lit up like a pinball machine and I signaled to my pilot. I received all these instructions here. he simply said you know maybe keep your eyes open because it looks like someone is shooting at us despite launching a barrage of missiles the Israelis failed to shoot their presumed enemy from the sky the black bird returned to the United States we have it all We got it assigned the task of recovering the plane and that is the first time the plane. Yes, our 71 flew 11 hours and 20 minutes after landing. The next few days, Gary and I were invited to the Pentagon.

Admiral Moore, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wanted to thank us. For the work we had done and they showed us some photos. The photographs were detailed enough to show how many Israeli tanks had been destroyed in the initial battles. We were to press on and resupply the Israelis with some of their lost equipment, so the photo interpreters. We are counting the number of tanks we would replace, so it was a very crucial point for the SR-71, it was a very delicate mission and there was a lot of pressure to finish the first one. Jim and his backseat made it.

Every target and everyone was absolutely elated. Eight more successful Blackbird missions provided detailed information that the war was now turning in Israel's favor. With this information, the United States was able to negotiate an eventual ceasefire on October 24. I think Mr. 71 contributed a lot to the resolution of that war, no one knew that the plane could fly that far and perform a mission like that and come back and deliver the product to the intelligence people. The Blackbird also broke records on September 13, 1974, Kelly Johnson's Mr. 71 flew across seven time zones from London to Los Angeles in a race with the Sun that took just three hours, 47 minutes and 39 seconds for the record flight.

I was in the FAA control center and the controller is a huge screen and he said here's a 747 leaving Phoenix and, beep, beep, it moved about 1/2 inch or a quarter of an inch, okay, get ready, here The SR-71 comes from Canada and is ready and moves us out of the way because it was right overhead and was starting to slow down, but it managed to blow out the windows of a producers' house in the Hollywood Hills the same year that the Blackbird had made a record flight from New York to London fifty-two years earlier. Charles Lindbergh had flown approximately the same distance in 33 hours.

The SR-71 made the flight in one hour 55 minutes and 42 seconds. But the SR-71 would soon be needed in a more serious capacity. Another Soviet-backed Middle Eastern enemy was in war footing and was determined to humiliate the United States there would be no better way than to shoot the SR-71 out of the sky. The tension betweenThe United States and much of the Arab world continued in 1972 when Libya's revolutionary leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, announced that he was giving aid to terrorist organizations. In Europe and the Middle East he issued repeated threats to the United States and indicated that those who crossed the Gulf of Sidra would be crossing a line of death in the spring of 1986.

Global terrorism had reached unprecedented levels. President Reagan's patience was wearing thin. Gaddafi deserves to be treated as a pariah in the world community, we call on our friends in Western Europe and elsewhere to join us in isolating ourselves if these measures do not put an end to Gaddafi's terrorism. I promise you that more action will be taken and then on April 5, 1986 a bomb will be dropped. exploded in a West Berlin nightclub among 232 US military casualties The United States found clear evidence that Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi was behind the attack on RAF Mildenhall in England SR-71 pilot Brian Shul knew that They were now on their way to retaliate.

We knew something was up because suddenly the Mildenhall base had an extra security arm of guards around it. Our BOQ homes had armed guards at the doors. The next thing we knew, all the tankers and air force were practically landing to kill Mildenhall. There were new planes on the ramp that you hadn't seen before and it was no secret to all the British plane spotters that something was happening: the British government would allow the United States to fly the missions from their bases in England at 9:30 A.M. On April 14, SR-71 crew members were ordered to attend a top-secret briefing and were informed that the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing at Lakenheath would strike selected Libyan targets within hours when we heard the words: "You know this." tomorrow at 2:00 a.m.

The F-111s are being launched, we were a little surprised that well, this is real, it is happening. The job of the SR-71 would be to record the results of the air strikes against Tripoli and Benghazi that night the F-111s began their mission, so that when we try to sleep in the middle of the night you wake up to the roar of the F-111s taking off, listen it was pretty serious at the time because we knew that maybe some of those people wouldn't do it. When the SR-71 crews arrived to prepare for their mission, the F-111s were already bombing Libya and the US Feds.

At seven p.m. Eastern time, the US air and naval forces launched a series of attacks against terrorist headquarters facilities and military assets that support Muammar Gaddafi's subversive activities today we have done what we had to do if necessary, we will do it again. The Eleven had a number of objectives to take out missile defense sites and things like that, but also all the terrorist training camps and actually attack Gaddafi's headquarters, basically to show them that we're going right into his backyard. Our job was to come and evaluate everything that was done. Collect photographs and target data for possible successive attacks that arrive directly.

After a bombardment, the cruiser could expect Libya's sophisticated air defense network to be on high alert and eager to retaliate. We were subsonic off the ground and we were getting ready to get to the tanker and we saw the F1 lemons coming back and my back seat Walter was counting the planes as they came back and passed us and he came up short and he knew someone hadn't come home and we were so sad in the cockpit at that time, before even starting, we had lost an entire crew, but nevertheless, it gave us greater resolution after refueling and now traveling at supersonic speeds, near the Gulf of Sidra and the target area of ​​Libya We were going over 2,000 miles per hour at this point and we were like a speeding bullet, except faster and we had crossed the line of death with impunity, but the Libyans equipped with the latest Soviet long-range missiles and great altitude pose the greatest threat yet to the Blackbird.

It was at this point that Walters began picking up some missile signals. He got two indications and Then we got a launch indication and we had to make a big decision about where we were. We were running towards the target area before turning. Do we continue to that point where Gaddafi's headquarters was or do we turn around now to save ourselves? of the missiles and our decision was to push the throttles forward, we thought in 14 seconds we could beat that missile to that point and then make the turn, we made the turn and we got our feet wet, we got to shore and I'll tell you it was probably the fastest.

I have ever seen the SR-71 and fly, they do not run. Miss life gathered the photographic intelligence and now we are moving away from the danger zone. Walt said, "Okay, you can, you can take it back now when iris my hand was." still locked in the forward position there we were seeing somewhat scary Mach numbers that we hadn't seen before and the plane did it effortlessly the intelligence photos that were brought back clearly showed that the bombing mission had been a success, it was decided there There will be no need to risk more lives of American airmen in Libya with more bombing raids than we brought confirmation: whether we needed to re-enter or not, what we had actually done where their defenses were what they really had, but we made a statement for Gaddafi and, if you look, remember, you didn't hear much about him for a long time after that, but despite the success of the SR-71s in Libya, his days were numbered, in the late 1980s it was decided that the the cost of operating the sr-71 was no longer sustainable the blackbird program was terminated from now on all US surveillance will be carried out via satellites the reason given was that it was too expensive, well reconnaissance is what a Sometimes glass can be very expensive and if you don't have recognition you are quite blinded and now they like to say that satellites can do everything, so satellites can do a lot and there are magnificent capabilities, but there are things that they can't do and there are things that are unique. that only the sr-71 can do on december 20, 1989, the sr-71 made one last pass along the runway of the Lockheed Burbank plant in honor of all those who worked on this exceptional work.

Kelly Johnson was there to pay an emotional goodbye to his favorite creation. I can't say enough about Kelly Johnson himself, you know he is an absolute aeronautical genius working for Lockheed. I think he has built the best airplane that ever existed. There is something about the elegant sr-71 that makes it. a unique class, there is no other impressive until the last, said the Blackbird for international speed records while being delivered to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. People love a winner. They love when someone is the best in their field. This plane was the best.

In its field, it was the fastest speed machine in the world. All the speed and altitude records they had said he holds to this day. The SR-71 Blackbird served under six different presidents and saw action on hot and cold war fronts alike and despite being shot at. More than four thousand times no aircraft was lost due to enemy fire. It is the only operational aircraft in US Air Force history in which no Air Force crew member is killed. It is a record that no other aircraft has and if the environment is taken into account. in which it flew the speed the altitude the temperatures that's a real credit to Kelly Johnson.

I flew the plane for almost nine years and initially checked it out in early 1957, so I flew the plane long after mr. Powers were reduced in 1960, including all Cuban missions and in Vietnam and missions and other places around the world. Well of course when it was being selected for the show none of us had seen the plane so now we knew of its existence and had seen pictures of it and everyone was very excited now that it had been flying for u2 for almost nine years, so I knew that my days and that show were destined to be numbered and usually, what happens when you leave a show like that? to a headquarters in a staff position and you can fly on a desk for several years and I certainly didn't want that to happen.

I wanted to continue flying like all pilots do when they gave me the opportunity to start over with another one. It was a completely new program. I was absolutely delighted to fly the plane in the transition from the u2. It was a pretty radical transition because the plane was much larger, heavier and handled considerably different. The u2, for example, had a head, a yoke on a wheel like a multi-. The plane is powered whereas the sr-71 had a stick like most fighters would have and having been flying fighters for many years before going into reconnaissance I was very happy to see a stick in the cockpit instead one wheel, but the B-58 pilots I think those who came into the program probably found that transition very easy because I think it handled subsonically much like the B-58 Hustler bomber did.

When the transition was made to supersonic performance, the aircraft became very demanding on the pilot and the rear seat RSO. reconnaissance systems officer demanded your full attention all the time you didn't dare have spent a lot of time looking at the landscape or watching the world go by you had to be flying that plane every second of the time and in contrast to the u2 which If you had known the subsonic speeds , so it wasn't anything too demanding. He had a good autopilot. I've taken naps, written letters, and read a chapter of a book when flying the U2 over the ocean or wherever I am.

They don't ask me to do anything to get from point A to point B, you would never do that in the sr-71, you have to fly the plane at all times, but again, it is still a very very honest plane, I don't think anyone flew did the plane have any reservations about the nature of the mission or what we were doing with the mission where we were flying what our mission objective was what we were trying to collect the weather was it electronic intelligence or was it a photograph or a radar that we all had those systems on board the aircraft, so we had multiple targets that we were looking for and some of them involved flights and some of them involved peripheral work and I don't think anyone was really concerned about that aspect of the mission at all. in fact, it used to be quite fun when MiGs were launched to intercept the sr-71 because they loved trying to do it.

They would love to have been able to shoot down an sr-71, of course they never could, but you could see it. Contrails from the MiGs when they were climbing and climbing and it was like pinching the tail of the Lions, you know you could ignore them and watch them fall from the sky and get on with the mission, in that sense. It was a bit of entertainment for us to fly the plane at Mach 3. It was almost disappointing because there was no particular feeling of speed. You were too far above everything to have a sense of speed.

The most impressive thing would be to look at the instruments. And seeing the incredible Mach number you would go through, I remember the first time I took the plane up to speed and altitude. I had been supersonic before and several airplanes, but suddenly in this airplane I went through Mach 1. and then I approached Mach 2 and it went through Mach 2 without the slightest hint of any problem and that amazed me and it continued until Mach 3 and, by Of course, neither of us had been that fast before, but depending on the plane. That particular day, if it was a good day and the plane was kind to you, why did you do all this effortlessly and that was the feeling you had that she was in control of so much power in this plane, it was almost unlimited and when you arrived At the desired speed and altitude, you actually had to decelerate and you would be cruising at 2,000 miles per hour with the throttle well away from your normal full power climb performance, so the impression you got is that you had just had a vehicle. with unlimited power and speed potential, but the two years I was Wing Commander 73 to 75 I think there were two events that highlighted the Terr I had from that command: one was, of course, the October missions over the Middle East and the Another was the opportunity to for the first time put the plane on public display overseas and in the process of getting there they were allowed to set some world speed records and take the plane to the Farnborough air show and in the UK, take it there. and showing it off was enough to get us all very excited, but then they allowed us to set the speed record that we knew we would set anyway, whether they recognized it or not, but they allowed us to do the official race and document the speed race, so again I chose Jim Sullivan, who at that time was the head of standardization.

I always chose my boss and my board of directors as my number one man to fly the big mission and again this was going to be a pre-announced attempt at a world record andwe had to do it once you were ready. I announced it, you can't afford to fall, so we were very worried about this going as planned. We actually launched two planes from California and the record attempt was going to be from New York to London, so we had two planes flying. I think they were 30 minutes apart and if something happened to Sullivan before he got to New York because once he started he was on his own, but if something happened to his plane before he got to New York for some reason, then the second plane would make the trip.

He did the speed run, but his plane ran perfectly the whole way, so he set that speed record of I think it was an hour and 55 minutes from New York to London and then we were given the opportunity to send another world record of speed. the return flight, so I chose another crew this time I chose a young crew. I wanted young people to know that they too had the opportunity to participate in these things, so I chose a young crew. Buck Adams was the pilot who later retired as a general. official, but Buck flew from London to Los Angeles and set a world speed record in three hours and 55 minutes.

Now those records would have been much shorter, except we had to refuel in flight. We had planned to go to London without fuel. The plane is perfectly capable of doing that, but the London weather was terrible, it was strange to say, so we knew that we were going to get to the London area anyway and that we would still be at speed and altitude over London, so we had to go over the English line. I funneled halfway to Paris and back to descend and decelerate to get back to the farmer or the land and I knew where we would defuse when you put all that together and we had to have completely good visual conditions to be able to try it.

Much to Kelly Johnson's dismay, I told him we had a mid-air refueling and he called me on the phone as soon as he heard the news that he was very upset with me for doing that refueling and I said, Kelly, It's going to add maybe 10 more minutes it'll be a world record, no matter what they say, yes, but I want to do it without refueling, the plane can do that, I said, I know what it can do that, but it can't do it safely in these climatic conditions. It's a shame we don't even begin to meet the Air Force requirements for fuel reserve and if we get into an instrument condition up there, Jim has to have some fuel reserve, so he finally let us out, I He let him do it, but he wasn't there. very sad, but he was there when the plane landed, as was I, we were all in London, Farnborough, waiting for the plane and when it landed, Kelly Johnson was absolutely elated and was very happy, she threw a big party for us that night and that's how it was all. forgiven after the record was set, it was a 55 minute hour from New York to London, yeah that was pretty good, the previous record was something like four or five hours owned by a British pilot, military pilot, no, no one could, will never be surpassed. a weapons system of the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command the SR-71 a highly sophisticated reconnaissance aircraft from the 1960s still ahead of the state of the art in the 1970s was first announced in February 1964 the program was initially started with a system the project office was given specialized management authority and reported directly to Air Force headquarters.

As the program progressed, the specialized management authority was transferred to the current office of the advanced systems program with complete administrative engineering and logistics responsibilities the now accepted pattern for several key Department of Defense programs Lockheed advanced development projects nicknamed "skunk works" since the early 1940s well known for its ability to produce in an atmosphere of tight security was selected to continue this highly sensitive program a global reconnaissance system that would maintain altitudes in excess of 80,000 feet at speeds in excess of 2,000 miles per hour with the experience gained in the YF-12 interceptor program the task of producing the SR-71 airframe and systems design was underway.

The design of the airframe and systems was quickly finalized. Publication of the engineering drawing was accelerated. Titanium, a lightweight, high-temperature resistant metal, was selected to withstand the tortuous environment of sonic flight. An already trained workforce working with titanium expanded as production tools and assemblies took shape. Ship number one moved into final assembly, another milestone is soon reached while maintaining strict security. and under the cover of darkness serial number nine five-o leaves the assembly plant the convoy delivering the first aircraft arrives at the flight test facility this new member of the blackbird family made its debut just 22 months ago The evaluation soon arrived at the Edwards Flight Test Center around the same time as Lockheed and Air Force flight test efforts demonstrated that the aircraft and systems, while While facilities at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California were preparing to receive new Mach 3 plus aircraft, members of a new team were being trained. arrived at the base daily the Lockheed ADP field engineering support group formed at the beginning of the test program arrived at the operational base composed of a small group of engineers, logistics and systems personnel equipped with rapid response procedures, provided all the support manufacturers as close as the commander Officers telephoned the Physiological Support Division who was busy processing flight crews selected from many highly qualified volunteers from across the Air Force.

The staff were scheduled for training. Animated aids familiarized students with the internal workings of the engine and system components. Functional aids that use real airplane parts. used to develop operational and maintenance skills indoctrination with a spacesuit life support system required by crews provides newly assigned team members with first-hand information related to the hostile operating environment of the SRS the transition to the SR was being accomplished rapidly with the introduction to the flight simulator the goal of flying the Blackbird is in sight flight crews experienced the operation and performance of the aircraft and reconnaissance systems in a realistic flight simulation flight crew training and maintenance went as scheduled the most important day is here and eagerly awaited the team members the team arrives at the base this first blackbird received by the 9th strategic reconnaissance wing was an sr-71 be an enthusiastic trainer the team members are available to congratulate the commander and welcome the stellar performance the pace is quickening additional planes have arrived new birds are flying busy The program crews are eager to take to the skies.

The dagger-shaped SRS is propelled through the sky with more power than 45 diesel locomotives during flight. The cabin remains comfortable while outside the plane's skin temperatures exceed a scorching 600 degrees. The men who fly this phenomenal machine. Soon we were routinely flying Mach 3 and above, the team is proud of their bird and the crews who fly them established an exclusive club in an impressive ceremony. Each crew member receives a Mach 3 plus pin and certificate in honor of their first 2,000 mile per hour flight. Strategic Air Commands Nine Strategic Reconnaissance Wings have flown thousands of hours at Mach 3. They have pioneered sustained operational flights above 80,000 feet at speeds exceeding 2,000 miles per hour, carrying forward the tradition of unarmed reconnaissance while living up to their motto. peace through surveillance by providing information for the security of the united states and the free world the sr-71 in a single flight has flown more than 15,000 miles in one mission is capable of mapping a section of the world equivalent to a road 60 miles wide from san francisco to new york The incredible Blackbird and the team that operates them are rightly proud guardians of peace through surveillance.