Posted on 07/04/2013 3:36:10 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
SR-71 Blackbird: The Cold War's ultimate spy plane
Colonel Rich Graham spent 15 years as a Blackbird pilot and wing commander. He told BBC Future some of his incredible stories about the world's fastest plane.
After a Soviet surface-to-air missile battery showdown with a USAF U-2 spy plane near the closed city of Sverdlovsk in 1960, the US government realised they needed a reconnaissance plane that could fly even higher – and outrun any missile and fighter launched against it.
The answer was the SR-71 Blackbird. It was closer to a spaceship than an aircraft, made of titanium to withstand the enormous temperatures from flying at 2,200mph (3,540kph). Its futuristic profile made it difficult to detect on radar – even the black paint used, full of radar-absorbing iron, helped hide it.
WATCH: How to fly the world's fastest plane
A whole high-tech industry was created to provide the Blackbird's sophisticated parts. For example, the fuel, a high-tech cocktail called JP-7, was made just for the Blackbird.
Based at Beale Air Force Base in California, detachments of the SR-71 flew from Mildenhall in the east of England and from Kadena on the Japanese island of Okinawa.
Just a handful of pilots ever flew the plane. BBC Future interviewed Colonel Rich Graham at Imperial War Museum Duxford, in front of the very plane he used to fly. Here are some of his stories about what it is actually like to fly this top-secret spy plane.
The Soviet Union actually helped build the Blackbird: "The airplane is 92% titanium inside and out. Back when they were building the airplane the United States didn't have the ore supplies - an ore called rutile ore. It's a very sandy soil and it's only found in very few parts of the world. The major
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
The J-58 was a marvel. From 0 to about 1,100 mph, it operated as a turbojet. At high speed, it operated as a ramjet. In its day, nothing could touch it.
At Beale, we used to watch them take off, down the runway, then straight up till out of sight.
Worked on KC-135Q refueling aircraft.
I’ve seen SR-71s in various states of disassembly during major maintenance operations. Very impressive aircraft.
One maintenance procedure was the “hot gig” test where hydraulic fluid at elevated temperatures (several hundred degrees, to emulate in-flight conditions) is pumped through the system to check for leaks and check for proper hydraulics operation. The mechanics would don metalized suits for protection against the hot fluid. While this was going on one day I recall looking through Lockheed’s Palmdale hangar and seeing a blue haze or smoke rising from the hot gig cart’s heater.
Beale AFB has a great open air display of a couple of vehicles near the flight line. A pylon-mounted Blackbird about 10-15 feet above ground, gear-up flight configuration in a slight bank/nose up attitude, gives real appreciation for its size and form. In its shadow is a D-21 drone (which was originally intended to be launched by the SR-71 predecessor M21 mothership).
Beale and Kadena Okinawa. So THATwas the plane (then) Vice President -to-beBush flew to Paris in!
IIRC when the Smithsonian took delivery of its Blackbird, the plane took off from Edwards AFB (?) flew out over the Pacific and circled back around to head east. Just before hitting the coast line it refueled and when the refueling nozzle detached they pounded the throttle. It landed at Dover AFB less than an hour later.
My BIL was an engineer on the Pratt & Whitney crew that did the R&D for the SR71, and he assured me it went way higher and way faster than they said.
My favorite airplane! I got to work on it in ‘72. Awesome aircraft...
-— If they built this 50 thirty years ago, imagine what they are capable of today. -—
50 years? It doesn’t seem possible. Great stories in the article. Truth is more interesting than fiction.
Can you tell us what Habu was short for?
I mean without having to kill us all, of course...
Does anyone remember the movie D*A*R*Y*L?
Yep - I lived in the Santa Clarita Valley, north of L.A. and pretty much due west of Edwards, and knowing that this was gonna happen, did an "ears up" and heard the sonic boom as it headed back east....never saw it, but did hear it. Ditto with some of the Edwards shuttle landings.
Sorry but they are not nearly as capable. Men like Kelly Johnson only come along once every few generations. Now it is more about project management than results. The can do spirit is nearly dead. No way in hell would the following happen in todays world:
http://roadrunnersinternationale.com/transporting_the_a-12.html
I'm quite sure that many of the craft you are suggesting have been viewed and reported as "UFO's"...and subsequently dismissed by the govt.
1. 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 back-seater) 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 ground speed. “90 knots” Center replied. Moments later a Twin Beech inquired the same. “120 knots,” Center answered.
We weren’t the only ones proud of our ground speed that day...almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted, “Uh, Center, Dusty 52 requests ground speed 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 back-seater. 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 ground speed readout for us?” There was a longer than normal pause... “Aspen, I show 1,742 knots.” No further inquiries were heard on that frequency.
I’ve seen a couple that made emergency landings at Barksdale in the 70’s. One thing I would love to seen, is the AG-330 start cart spinning up the J58’s
I'm not that man but I was a good friend of one of the pilots of the SR-71.
You wonder what they are doing now? Well thirty years ago they were working on Hyper Sonic. Anyone living in the L.A. Area then should remember the ultra-loud sonic booms on Thursday afternoons.
There was always a lag waiting for the metals to catch up with the engineers design plans.
Those were vary heady days working there then, also there were no Snowden’s working there as they were never compromised.
Habu is a venomous snake found in Asia. Dunno why the name got attached to the plane, maybe the unique shape of the nose/head with the chines reminded someone of the snake.
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