Posted on 10/06/2016 7:37:27 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Then disaster struck. On May 24, an A-12 stalled, went into an unrecoverable spin and crashed during a test flight in Utah. Fortunately, pilot Kenneth Collins ejected and survived.
Even in remote Utah, it’s hard to hide a crash. A local deputy witnessed the incident and a vacationing family snapped away with a camera. The CIA promptly seized their photographs and paid $25,000 each to the deputy and the family to keep quiet, according to a 2010 story in the Seattle Times.
The Blackbird wouldn’t stay officially secret for much longer. Pres. Lyndon Johnson would run for election in 1964, and to counter criticisms from Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater, revealed the SR-71 during a speech on July 25.
More than a half-century later, the SR-71 is a museum piece. But secret aircraft projects, and strange sightings over the western United States, have not stopped. When observers notice and publicize their suspicions, an anonymous official is somewhere, surely, typing away notes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
The aerodynamic properties of the atmosphere haven’t changed despite CAGW.
Didn’t help when pres. Johnson announced we had it.
Keeping the SR-71 Blackbird (the World’s First Stealth Plane) Secret Was Near Impossible-——especially when hitlary is selling our military secrets to the Russians
Actually, it was Kennedy. He misnamed it the SR-71 and it HAD to become that. Before it was designated the RS-71, IIRC.
Does Johnson hold the record for renaming aircraft projects?
The Blackbird was supposed to be designated RS-71, but Johnson called it “SR-71” so the name was changed.
The Huey was supposed to be the HU-1 (HUey nickname,) but Johnson called it the UH-1 so its name was changed also.
At least that’s the stories I’ve always been told.
I stand corrected then. My bad.
Just wondering how the cia knew that family was there and took pictures. Plus, at that time, didn’t you have to take the negatives to a shop to have them developed?
$25K at that time was quite a bit of money too.
***The Blackbird wouldn’t stay officially secret for much longer. Pres. Lyndon Johnson would run for election in 1964, and to counter criticisms from Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater, revealed the SR-71 during a speech on July 25.***
Reminds me of when Jimmah Carter spilled his guts on the Stealth bomber during the debates with Ronald Reagan.
The US military was LIVID that he did that!
But then he was a Democrat! Must keep our “enemies” informed!
Huey though was rationally designated for UH as Utility Helicopter.
Okay - just remembered something about it in an aviation book where it said Johnson announced it, oh well, can’t trust stuff you read on history all the time.
Read more, with lots of photos, of transporting the A-12 (AKA SR-71) here!
http://roadrunnersinternationale.com/transporting_the_a-12.html
There was an earlier version built for the CIA, the 12/Archangel.
The link below is a fascinating history of this CIA earlier model of the SR71.
Getting it to Area 51 was a tremendous task in itself. Here’s a link to the transportation job required:
http://www.roadrunnersinternationale.com/transporting_the_a-12.html
One chilly day in 1966 during lunch recess one of the guys yelled "Look!!!" and pointed up at the overcast sky. Descending through the clouds in slow lazy turns were several planes that looked just like the pictures on the Revell model kit (1/48 scale) for the YF-12A. Every male on the playground spend the rest of recess staring up at the sky with our mouths open. I counted 8 before the bell rang.
That was the day the SR-71 entered squadron service at Beale.
JFK, LBJ and the RAT party took credit for a bunch of things that Ike started. The major one being the Civil Rights Movement.
Not sure how any of the photos were found?
A friend with the 5th SFG RVN, was passing through Da Nang (?), saw an unusual aircraft and took some pictures.
He sent the film off in the standard Kodak mailer, the airplane photos were ‘redacted’.
He was later requested to return all other prints and negatives.
In his book, Sled Driver, SR-71 Blackbird pilot Brian Shul writes: “I’ll always remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day as Walt (my backseater) and I were screaming across Southern California, 13 miles high. We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft as we entered Los Angeles airspace. Though they didn’t really control us, they did monitor our movement across their scope. I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its groundspeed.”
“90 knots” Center replied.
“Moments later, a Twin Beech required the same.”
“120 knots,” Center answered.
“We weren’t the only ones proud of our groundspeed that day as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted, ‘Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests groundspeed readout.’
“There was a slight pause, then the response, 525 knots on the ground, Dusty”.
“Another silent pause. As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation this was, I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my backseater. It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison.” “Center, Aspen 20, you got a groundspeed readout for us?”
There was a longer than normal pause.... “Aspen, I show 1,742 knots”
“No further inquiries were heard on that frequency”
_______________________________________
In another famous SR-71 story, Los Angeles Center reported receiving a request for clearance to FL 60 (60,000ft).
The incredulous controller, with some disdain in his voice, asked, “How do you plan to get up to 60,000 feet?”
“The pilot (obviously a sled driver), responded, “We don’t plan to go up to it, we plan to go down to it.”
He was cleared...
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