Someone more adept at posting pictures will have to help out.
478 total people have flown the Blackbirds. More people have climbed to the top of Mount Everest than has flown this aircraft.
Although a few Lockheed crewmembers were killed during the testing stages of the Blackbird, the U.S. Air Force never lost a man in the entire 25 years of active service.
The SR-71 flew for 17 straight years (1972-1989) without a loss of plane or crew. Considering the environment the Blackbirds flew in, that is an enviable safety record.
What a wonderful country this was when Presidents worried about titanium for airplanes for defense instead of titanium for golf clubs for longer drives.
My Uncle(Dead now) worked on that plane-electronics tech. When I see it a great sense of sadness comes over me-we ain’t got Kelly Johnson no mo!
what is one of the most amazing things about this aircraft is that they could roll out out of the museum, blow the dust off of it and as soon as it hit the runway, it would be the baddest boy on the block.
Museum of flight in Seattle has an M-21 Blackbird. Went there last summer. Great museum.
Same era when we went to the moon. Will we see the likes of these men again?
We have one parked out in front of the Space & Rocket Center here in Huntsville. And I bought the Hallmark ornament of the SR-71 Blackbird. They sold out here.
(Brings me back to my USAF days as a young Airman who worked on these fantastic airplanes.)
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Get over it. They didn’t build this. Everyone knows the Government builtd it for them. Just ask Zero.
(Isn’t amazing what we could once do in this country when Government was one heck of a lot smaller!)
I saw an interview with a pilot who flew one over Libya when they were being especially bad.
He described how the radar detection lit up and he knew missiles had been fired.
He opened the throttle and he said the plane just wanted to fly faster and faster. When he finally eased off, it was nearly to wherever he was going.
This article left out the contributions of muslims and LGBT service members without which the plane would never have flown...
From the article:
“Cutaway illustrations of the twin cockpit variant of the SR-71. Notice the inlet funnels that increased the air speed in front of the J58 engines.”
The ‘spike’ altered airflow to ensure subsonic air speed at the engine inlet.
I think I saw Howard Stark in that first photo!
Fantastic, thank you for posting the link
Recommend the book “Skunk Works” By Ben R. Rich & Leo Janos
“They didn’t build that. Someone else made that happen”.
FUBO
11 blackbirds in one pic at the site. That’s a whole bunch of quicker than a bullet in one place.
Bet those builders looked forward to going to work.