Enjoy this tribute to the Great SR-71

[rojawe]

http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/SR-71/index.htm

[deepwater]

It's a shame that such a perfect machine is retired. you'd think that it if works so well you would keep it around for the future.

[shooter32]

Love that Blackbird!!

[Pathfinder]

Amen to all of the above.

I loved the line about throttling down south of Sicily and overshooting the tanker by Gibralter. Now that is moving.

[twyacht]

I have been a Blackbird fan since I can remember. Probably the closest thing to "sex" as you can get. American ingenuity and whoop ass, made an aircraft that transcends even the 21st century.

Don't think for a minute, in some X-Files, Dept.,of our gov't,  one isn't on standby if needed on short order.

I say good! What that aircraft did, set the bar.

I would love to talk to the pilots that jumped in, held on, and rode that thing, it must have been awesome.

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

It's a shame that such a perfect machine is retired. you'd think that it if works so well you would keep it around for the future.

Why keep an OLD toy when you have something newer and better, Aurora, is still classified but Aviation journals claim it is a "Pulse Jet engined aircraft".
The only reason the SR 71's LAST flight set speed records is because the others are all classified.
Like Predator it was originally designed, built and operated (single seat version ) for the CIA. 

[someguy]

I've got that email in its entirety, if anyone wants it.  The slideshow cuts it up a bit.

The author is Brian Shul, who wrote Sled Driver, which is now out of print.

And yes, as everyone has echoed, it was a $hit-kicker of an airplane...

[someguy]

It says a lot about Kelly and his entire staff at Lockheed when you realize that while these planes are on static display scattered around various museums where you can walk right up to them, the engines and cameras remain classified.

[tombogan03884]

It says a lot about Kelly and his entire staff at Lockheed when you realize that while these planes are on static display scattered around various museums where you can walk right up to them, the engines and cameras remain classified.

It is also worth noting that this aircraft was designed using basically the same engineering tech and skills as when he built the P 38, these guys used paper, pencils and slide rules. The only computers belonged to NASA and they could not get the use of them because it was a Black project.

[Big Frank]

Anyone who hasn't stood close enough to touch one needs to see it in person. Awesome, while being an overused word, is not an overstatement in this case. It could fly from N.Y. to L.A. and cross the time zones so fast it gets there a couple hours before it left. Most of the world records for speed and altitude are still classified. They only say Mach 3+. Faster than a bullet or missle. Air friction heats the leading edge of the wings up to 4,000 degrees. The fuel lines and every other connector is loose and leaky when it's sitting on the ground cold, then when it's running it heats up and expands. It uses "non-flamable" fuel. The plane expands several inches in length from the heat. After it lands they have to sit in there an hour and let it cool off before they can get out. Instead of having a battery powered starter motor, they plug it into a cart that has 2 big Buick race car engines to spin it up. When they were looking for hi-temp hydraulic fluid one thing they tried was some kind of powder like plastic granules. It's the first plane to use stealth technology like RAM as used on the F-117s in desert storm. There's a lot more amazing stuff about it but that's just off the top of my head. Not bad for 1950s technology designed with a slide rule, pencil and paper.