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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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...
Back in 1970 I was a DOD contractor working at Otis AFB on Cape Cod doing Avionics and Electronics, mostly at that time on RB-57B’s and EC-57’s.
Working the night shift, I was dragooned by an AF Major and two armed MP’s and taken to a runway off in the woods that I didn’t even know existed.
There I found a big black beast surrounded by light towers, and literally dripping fuel. I had been around long enough to immediately know what it was, but it was still an awesome sight.
I was pointed to a panel and told the problem was in there.
I then asked, “What’s it supposed to do?”
Major - “You’re not cleared for that.”
That was surprising to me since due to some previous government work, I knew I had the highest security clearance in our company, higher even than my bosses, which really pissed them off, who kept wanting to know what I worked on to need one that high. It didn’t help when I told them they weren’t cleared for that. LOL
When I next asked about schematics, specs, anything, I was again told, “You’re not cleared for that.”
Pulling the panel and taking it back to the shop, I noticed the MP’s seemed a lot more nervous, looking around like they were afraid Russians were going to swoop in and steal this panel of relays.
Back at the shop, I started ringing out each relay coil and contact until I found a bad one, and replaced it.
The Major now wanted to go, but I told him I wanted to finish checking ALL the relays. He was mad, but quickly cooled off when I found two more bad ones.
Back at the plane, I reinstalled the panel, and waited while the pilot powered up and ran some checks. Then after a few minutes, he gave a thumbs up and we were back in the jeep heading back to the shop.
Dropping me off, the Major said, “You were never there.”
I looked back at him and said, “Where?” and smiled.
He said, “Right.” and drove off.
Thinking I was done, I was surprised to see the Major show up again the next night. He then thanked me, and said that besides the original problem, I had also fixed a couple of small nagging writeups that no one had been able to fix before.
That’s what happens when you don’t start with the basics.
No one saw this coming.
Worked with Ken Collins for a couple years, though he was a program manager and I a lowly engineer.