[BITList] Fwd: SR-71 Blackbird Designed with slide rules

Mon Aug 16 14:47:29 BST 2010

Interesting reading.

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-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's reconnaissance 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 to pull 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 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. 

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 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 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  . 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 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 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. 

< /SPAN> 
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, 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 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 radio brought me back to the tasks at 
hand as I prepared for our descent. 

San DiegoAerospace 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, 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. 

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. 

!

= 

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