Free Republic

A pilots story about the SR-71 the Black Bird In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and take photos recording the damage our F-111's had inflicted. Qaddafi had established a "line of death," a territorial marking across the Gulf of Sidra , swearing to shoot down any intruder that crossed the boundary. On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph. I was piloting the SR-71 spy plane, the world's...

ABC News' Jonathan Greenberger reports: If she makes it to the White House, Sen. Hillary Clinton said today her husband will take on the same responsibilities as traditional presidential spouses, with no access to National Security Council meetings. "I think he would play the role that spouses have always played for presidents," said Clinton, in an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos. "He will not have a formal, official role, but just as presidents rely on wives, husbands, fathers, friends of long years, he will be my close confidante and adviser as I was with him."

Something big is in the works at Nevada's legendary Area 51 military base. A massive new building is under construction at the top secret location. Aviation experts say there's a good chance that a new, highly classified aircraft might soon be zipping around the Nevada skies. What kind of aircraft? One possibility is a successor to the SR-71 spy plane, the SR-72. The SR-71 Blackbird is widely regarded as the greatest airplane ever built. It sliced through the sky at Mach 3 and still reigns, officially anyway, as the fastest plane in history. Groom Lake, also known as Area 51,...

Lots of SR71 aircraft pictures with brief discriptions of various accidents that occured over the life span of the aircraft.

The flying days of the SR-71 Blackbird in the Antelope Valley are truly over, as one of the last vestiges of the aircraft's flight tenure in the Valley has departed. The only SR-71 simulator, housed at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, has been shipped to an aviation museum in Dallas. The simulator came to NASA when the flight test facility took control of three SR-71s when the aircraft were first retired from military service in 1989. Dryden used the aircraft for high-speed flight research, and NASA pilots trained on the simulator. The one-of-a-kind system was...

Airplane Talk [Aviation ...... Note: For those that don't know, "The Sled" is the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane from the 1960's and still the fastest airplane.] 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...

PALMDALE - The sleek black airplane, designed for high-altitude information gathering, secretly took to the skies from a remote Nevada test site in 1955. The public found out about the Cold War spy plane five years later when pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down in one during a mission over the Soviet Union. Now, five decades later, the Air Force still uses the aircraft to gather intelligence. NASA uses it to conduct scientific experiments. And on Saturday, Mark Hagan used the plane to teach his daughter about aerodynamics. Hundreds of people visited the Blackbird Airpark on Saturday to celebrate...

YUKON, Okla. - NASA engineer and champion aerobatic pilot Marta Bohn-Meyer was killed Sunday when her plane crashed during practice for next week's National Aerobatic Championships. The crash occurred shortly before noon near Oklahoma City, where she was piloting her home-built Giles G-300 airplane. She had been joined there by her husband and fellow aerobatic pilot, Bob Meyer. "Flying and doing things with airplanes is my passion," she once said. "Given a choice, I'll go fly airplanes." According to the International Aerobatic Club, Bohn-Meyer had pulled into a vertical maneuver when the cockpit canopy came off. The airplane then crashed...

<p>The coolest spy plane ever built, SR-71. I was watching Modern Marvels on the History channel last night. This aircraft broke all kinds of international speed and alitude records which still have not been beaten today. It was nothing for them to fly at 80,000 feet and it was a piece of cake to fly at about mach 3, or about 2100 mph. For those of you old enough, remember the sonic boom days? About 750 miles would create a sonic boom, or a doppler effect.</p>

An "air-breathing" test plane will attempt to break a world speed record for the second time in a year by flying at nearly 10 times the speed of sound. Nasa's X-43A will use a revolutionary "scramjet" engine in an attempt to smash its previous mark of Mach 7. While capable of reaching rocket-like speeds, it does not carry an oxidiser on board to ignite its hydrogen fuel; it gets its oxygen from the air. The unmanned flight will take place over the Pacific Ocean on Monday. Scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) technology could one day usher in a new generation of...

In what could be the largest top-secret aircraft program since the B-2 bomber, the U.S. Air Force is racing to develop a stealthy, supersonic, long-range unmanned reconnaissance plane that would give commanders better intelligence on the ever-shifting targets in the war on terrorism and elsewhere. And allow them to strike those targets. The Air Force wants to develop an unmanned airplane that combines attributes designers historically have said were difficult, if not impossible, to blend: high speed, high stealth, high altitude and, most important, high persistence — the ability to remain over a given spot for a day or more....

WASHINGTON - If the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall is aviation's Mecca, the pilgrimage now has a second site. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, named for its primary backer, opened adjacent to Dulles International Airport in December, providing a cavernous showcase for the Smithsonian's larger aircraft and space vehicles, as well as many others that couldn't find room in the traditional space. Unlike the Mall site with its sleek, boxy exterior, the new center across the river in nearby Virginia invokes the aviation history inside with its massive hangars and control tower observation deck. Whereas the...

LANCASTER - It's all about "thrust" and "drag." That which makes you go, and that which holds you back. Steve Justice, from Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, essentially told more than 100 high school students Friday that the way to get ahead is to minimize drag and use everything they have to succeed. "Don't be bound by the limits of current knowledge," Justice said at the 24th annual Mathematics Field Day at Antelope Valley College. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics jumped on board two years ago in hopes of piquing interest in the fields of engineering and aerospace. Justice, who has been with...

Beginning this weekend, aircraft buffs will be able to stroll up to and touch about half dozen historic aircraft at the city's newest public facility, the Heritage Airpark. The airpark, at 25th Street East and Avenue P, is a memorial to the aircraft designed, built and tested at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 since the facility was established in 1951. The airpark is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays beginning Jan. 17. A formal ceremony marking the opening of the facility will be held in March, noted Mayor Jim Ledford. Meanwhile, volunteers will continue to prepare...

President Bush secretly landed an hour ago and is currently eating Thanksgiving dinner at my undisclosed location. Anticipate a press release after he takes off. ChiefKujo

They are among the most recognizable aircraft in the world: U-2, SR-71 Blackbird, B-2 stealth bomber and F-117 stealth fighter. But in the beginning, few outside the cloistered world of their development knew of their existence. There were rumors of strange black shapes in the skies over Area 51 in Nevada's desert. But not even the families of those who designed, built and flew these top-secret machines knew what was really taking shape. Now, many of the tales of those "black world" airplanes can be told. Six pilots from those programs shared their stories recently at the Society of Experimental...

Legendary aircraft designer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson was a visionary not only in the exotic aircraft produced by his top-secret "Skunk Works," but in the environment he created to foster such works as the Blackbird family of aircraft. "His way was to be quick, be quiet and be on time," said Rogers Smith, a former NASA research pilot who flew the SR-71. Smith and fellow NASA research pilot Edward Schneider spoke about Johnson and his famed Blackbird at a recent Society of Experimental Test Pilots' symposium in Los Angeles. "Kelly Johnson is my hero," Smith said. "He actually made 'better,...

PALMDALE - Travelers hurrying down Sierra Highway may have noticed the return of a familiar and friendly presence - the mischievous skunk of Lockheed Martin's famed black project workshop, the Skunk Works. He bears a nodding resemblance to the Warner Bros. cartoon character, Pepe LePew, and for decades he couldn't even come out in public. It would be a national security breach to identify yourself as an employee of the Skunk Works. With the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. officially observing the 60th anniversary of the famed hot project shop inaugurated by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, the skunk emblem is back up...

LANCASTER - The five latest additions to Lancaster's Aerospace Walk of Honor will bring to 70 the number of aviation pioneers honored since the walk's inception in 1990. The experience of this year's honorees - James D. Eastham, Robert C. Little, Bruce Peterson, the late Russell M. "Rusty" Roth and Rogers Smith - all flew in the skies above the Antelope Valley during their careers in a series of firsts. Eastham tested and developed the world's first three Mach 3-plus aircrafts, the A-12, YF-12A and SR-71 Blackbird and Little took the F-101A Voodoo supersonic on its very first flight at...

LANCASTER - He has flown 240 different kinds of aircraft, logging 16,700 hours of flight time while setting records and performing test piloting feats that are the "right stuff" of aviation history. Contrary to the popular image of high-flying test pilots, however, the one thing that everyone who has met Fitzhugh "Fitz" Fulton notes is his courtly "Southern gentleman" manner. Despite his many noteworthy accomplishments and awards, Fulton remains "so humble," said Paula Smith, executive director of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. "He always seems surprised when someone honors him." Fulton's already long list of awards was lengthened recently...

PALMDALE - Many students spend spring break partying at the beach or on the slopes. However, a handful of Antelope Valley College airframe and powerplant students spent two days of their spring break restoring airplanes for display at Palmdale Plant 42 Heritage Airpark on Avenue P between 20th and 25th streets west. Jerry Shatzer, 46, and Betsy Luahiwa, 45, kept busy manufacturing a panel to cover an access panel near the tail end of a 1960s-era Navy A-4 Skyhawk, while Stephen Lopez, 39, Tim Gaines and James Dillard, 21, worked on the top of plane. "We're covering access panels no...

Blackbird secrets finally revealedLaurels group honors 'Best of the best'This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press April 29, 2002. By DENNIS ANDERSON Valley Press Editor LANCASTER - This story is TOP SECRET. If I tell you this story, I'm going to have to kill you. No, not really. Not like that. Not anymore. But that's the way it was. In recording the laurels of the fame and lore of the legendary Blackbird spy plane fraternity, Blackbird pilot yarns fall in the category of "Now it can be told." Now is about 10 years after the end of the Cold...