I had the privilege of being a Mission Programmer for the Sr-71 for 4 years in the late 80’s. I lived on a hill in base housing that overlooked the flight line and used to love to sit on the porch a night when they were doing engine burnoffs after returning from missions. You could here and see the raw power of that beautiful aircraft.
Watching one take off is an experience that never grows old and is never forgotten.
Unfortunately all those years in the Air Force apparently did nothing to enhance my “speeling” ability. :-)
I am envious.
Have never seen the Blackbird on takeoff or landing.
Met a Ham Op who was part of the support crew, was interesting to hear him talk about the special sump in the hanger for leaked fuel and some of the problems with maintaining it.
But I was privilaged enough to see and feel (the vibration) night take-off of the B1-B’s at Dyess. I taught night classes there for a couple of weeks during 2 summers a while back. AMAZING, AWESOME, POWERFUL Stuff.
USAF had originally designated the plane as the RS-71..but when LBJ was giving a speech, he referred to it as the “SR-71” and that it was, from that day on..
My wife worked for Skunk Works on the SR-71 program. I asked how fast it can go. She said max speed is classified but it can go from San Francisco to New York in just under an hour.
“Watching one take off is an experience that never grows old and is never forgotten.”
Yes indeed. It was my favorite airplane. I was privileged to work on it in ‘72. Somewhere on the plane, it used tiny little ball bearings and many of us would take one and put it on our key chain. That way, if some officer took issue with our appearance and said, “Sergeant! Where’s your military bearing?!”, we could whip out our keys and say “Right here, Sir!” I never did hear of anyone who had the guts to do it....
I would have loved to seen the AG 330 start carts spool up those 58’s