Wow...Epic SR-71 story.

[189Herk]

Great SR-71 story...

http://gizmodo.com/5511236/the-thrill-of-flying-the-sr+71-blackbird

[Guest Rubber_Side_Down]

THANK YOU for posting this. I just read the whole thing--an incredibly well-written and amazing account. This thing reads like Skunk Works.

[WeatherManC130]

Great SR-71 story...

http://gizmodo.com/5511236/the-thrill-of-flying-the-sr+71-blackbird

What a great read! I had the privilege a few years ago of meeting the first man to break mach 3 in the SR-71. Can't remember his name though

[bfargin]

Good stuff. One of my good memories was a cross country T-38 trip to Beale AFB back in 1985 out of Willie. We were taking off right at sunset on one of our legs to get in some night work and a SR-71 was ready to launch. I was sitting at the approach end (still on the taxiway) waiting for clearance when the -71 was cleared for takeoff. They used a special taxiway that was at a slight offset from the runway and once they were ready they obviously had priority. Both of our canopies were still up when he started his roll and as I was lowering the canopy he was rolling right in front of my jet in full burner. The flames were at least 100 feet long (maybe longer) and you could see the distinctive rings of the AB stages. But, the cool look was secondary to the incredible sound. Even after we had our canopies down and locked the sound was deafening. I tried to cover my ears but the helmet was in the way. It took both of us in the jet (me and the IP) 3 or 4 minutes after his launch to have our hearing back enough to tell tower that we could now hear them and were ready to go. They said they had called us 2 or 3 times since the -71 had been cleared for take off. It was incredible to see that launch while waiting number 1. It was an amazing jet.

[BADFNZ]

Great read. I wish I could have seen one of those fly, but they were a bit before my time. I was an airshow junkie as a kid, but I don't remember ever seeing one.

[amcflyboy]

I grew up in the Antelope Valley, near Edwards AFB, CA in the late 80's. My dad was a Marine Corps veteran himself who left AD for a job as a civilian working for Rockwell International. He was a test conductor for the B-1B, and later went to Northrop working on the B-2 production line in Palmdale. While he was working at Edwards, I had the privilege attending many airshows at Edwards and saw the mighty Blackbird in a roped off hangar. A couple of times they had aerial fly-by's of the SR. There would also be days of when the SR was out flying and would fly over my school during broad daylight with 2 T-38 chase planes. What a spectacular plane that was! After reading that story, I was pleased to hear about what it actually did because growing up during that time, you didn't hear about what missions it did (for obvious reasons). I remember when they retired it in the early 90's. Every now and then, I would ask myself what missions that plane flew during it's days. I also remember when I was introduced to the U-2. Whenever that plane flew over my house, man what a mighty roar that thing had!

Thanks for posting that story.

Edited April 7, 2010 by amcflyboy

[Carpetbagger]

Great post.

[KennyB]

Affirm. Damned good post sir.

[flynhigh]

If you can find his book, Sled Driver, it's worth the read. Not very long, but full of great stories and pictures. Photography was one of his hobbies, so he snapped plenty of pictures while in the air.

[Springer]

In the pic of the of the two crew members, the guy in the front is a/c Ed Yeilding. He holds the transcon speed record, LA to Wash DC. I believe he retired from NWA last year.

[Bergman]

Great story from a great book. Good luck finding a copy, however.

[Vice]

My Basic Training flight photo was taken at the static SR-71 they have on display over at Lackland. Enormous aircraft

[flynhigh]

Great story from a great book. Good luck finding a copy, however.

I looked a few years ago and found the same. I ended up finding it at the local library. Good read. It would be nice to have on the shelf however...

[BQZip01]

There would also be days of when the SR was out flying and would fly over my school during broad daylight with 2 T-38 chase planes.

Seems to me those T-38s might be a little underpowered to be chase planes for the Sled...but then again, so is just about anything else expect the X-15...

[BFM this]

Seems to me those T-38s might be a little underpowered to be chase planes for the Sled...but then again, so is just about anything else expect the X-15...

The 38 is a lot of things, slow not being one of them. For pattern and transition work, no prob.

Ain't nothin chasin that girl once she was off the leash, though.

[Schmity]

Brian Shul is the guest speaker at a CABAA event at the Rockford Airport (Near Chicago)on July 16th. Any of you in the northern Il area looking for a copy of the book (or hearing him speak), he will be signing them, I think, they are going for around $200. If anyone is interested, let me know and I can try and get more information for you.

CABAA

[Aerdale]

I was a Navy pilot in the 60's/70's. I knew a helo driver who ended up as a station pilot out in the California desert (Fallon? I can't remember). He said some of the pilots were sitting around one day when they heard of an emergency on station. They walked out to see what was going on and saw the strangest aircraft they'd ever seen (this was the late 60's). It was a Blackbird (they had never seen one) landing hot on their longest runway with some type of emergency. After stopping he taxied well off from everyone rather than proceeding to the flight line. They were intrigued so they decided to walk across the field to see what this strange bird was. They got part way across the field when all of a sudden an Air Force C-130 came in for a landing hot and heavy. As the 130 sped towards the Blackbird the rear ramp came down, the 130 came to a sudden halt close to the the 'Bird and a lot of guys with machine guns poured out and surrounded the 'Bird. This guy said all of the pilots he was with just looked at one another, didn't say a word, turned around and walked back to the hangar. You knew these guys were not to be messed with.

[Beaver]

The last ~150 books are going for $427 on his website. Zoinks.

Edited July 16, 2010 by Beaver

[Prosuper]

I was given the book a few years back as a xmas present, I was at EGUN during Eldorado Canyon launching out KC-135Q's chasing Habu for battle damage assessment. IT was a night that I will never forget, very rarely did they launch both SR-71's and all the supporting KC-135Q's plus the two KC-135Q's that were from Plattsburgh which usally flew with dirty tanks and only got cleaned up to carry JP-7 only when a Beale Q model broke hard. The other days at EGUN I never got tired of watching the SR-71 takeoff plus I loved the sound of the start carts with their Buick 454's going to max rpm to turn the J-58's so they can light them of with the TEB triethylborane tabs to get the JP-7 fuel to burn.

[Learjetter]

Another good BlackBird yarn...sent to me by a buddy via email...

Subject: Slowest Blackbird flight

"What was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird?"

Brian Shul, Retired SR-71 Pilot, via Plane and Pilot Magazine

As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question I'm most often asked is "How fast would that SR-71 fly?" I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I attend.

It's an interesting question, given the aircraft's proclivity for speed, but there really isn't one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little more speed if you wanted it to. It was common to see 35 miles a minute. Because we flew a programmed Mach number on most missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run out to any limits of temperature or speed.

Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own individual high speed that he saw at some point on some mission. I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max power was in order. Let's just say that the plane truly loved speed, and effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadn't previously seen.

So it was with great surprise, when, at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked: What was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird? This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story I had never shared before, and relayed the following:

I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall , England , with my back-seater, Walt Watson; we were returning from a mission over Europe and the Iron Curtain, when we received a radio transmission from home base. As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 fly-past. The air cadet commander there was a former Blackbird pilot, and thought it would be a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low approach.

No problem; we were happy to do it. After a quick aerial refueling over the North Sea, we proceeded to find the small airfield.

Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment in the back seat, and began to vector me toward the field. Descending to subsonic speeds, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in a slight haze. Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were close, and that I should be able to see the field, but I saw nothing. Nothing but trees as far as I could see in the haze.

We got a little lower, and I pulled the throttles back from the 325 knots we were at. With the gear up, anything under 275 was just uncomfortable. Walt said we were practically over the field, yet there was nothing in my windscreen. I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver in hopes of picking up anything that looked like a field. Meanwhile, below,

the cadet commander had taken the cadets up on the catwalk of the tower, in order to get a prime view of the fly-past.

It was a quiet, still day, with no wind and partial gray overcast. Walter continued to give me indications that the field should be below us, but, in the overcast and haze, I couldn't see it. The longer we continued to peer out the window and circle, the slower we got. With our power back, the awaiting cadets heard nothing.

I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me I better cross-check the gauges. As I noticed the airspeed indicator slide below 160 knots, my heart stopped, and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed two throttles full forward. At this point, we weren't really flying, but were falling in a slight bank.

Just at the moment, both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame (and what a joyous feeling that was), and the aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the tower. Shattering the still quiet of that morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their face, as the plane leveled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer than expected, maintaining what could only be described as some sort of ultimate knife-edge pass.

Quickly reaching the field boundary, we proceeded back to Mildenhall without incident. We didn't say a word for those next 14 minutes. After landing, our commander greeted us, and we were both certain he was reaching for our wings.

Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 fly-past he had ever seen, especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could only be described as breathtaking. He said that some of the cadets' hats were blown off, and the sight of the plan form of the plane in full afterburner, dropping right in front of them, was unbelievable. Walt and I both understood the concept of breathtaking very well, that morning, and sheepishly replied that they were just excited to see our low approach.

As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight suits, we just sat there: We hadn't spoken a word since the pass. Finally, Walter looked at me and said, "One hundred fifty-six knots. What did you see?" Trying to find my voice, I stammered, "One hundred fifty-two." We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt said, "Don't ever do that to me again!" And I never did.

A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officers' club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 fly-past that he had seen, one day. Of course, by now the story included kids falling off the tower, and screaming as the heat of the jet singed their eyebrows. Noticing our Habu patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, he asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred. Walt just shook his head and said, "It was probably just a routine low approach; they're pretty impressive in that plane."

Impressive indeed.

Little did I realize, after relaying this experience to my audience that day, that it would become one of the most popular and most requested stories. It's ironic that people are interested in how slow the world's fastest jet can fly. Regardless of your speed, however, it's always a good idea to keep that cross-check up -- and keep your Mach up, too. In God We Trust.

[spudsmac]

Great story from a great book. Good luck finding a copy, however.

The ERAU library has one. You Worldwide guys might be able to snag the copy for a bit if you request it. I checked it out and it gave me goosebumps reading it in the door of my car right after I checked it out.

[HuggyU2]

Brian's shop is still in Marysville, about a 15 minute drive from Beale's main gate. He no longer shoots aviation photos, and has moved into nature photographer. He's an avid hiker up in the Sierra. It's more than a "hobby", I'd say.

As for the T-38 chase,... it was called "Pace Chase",... it wasn't just SR guys in the T-38. U-2 pilots that were IP's could get checked out in the Pace Chase program. The T-38 would chase the SR through the overhead, and would low approach with the SR doing a T&G, and then rejoin on on the Sled.... rinse, repeat.

It's certainly been posted somewhere on here, but since everyone is enamored with Brian's gift with the English language, here's a gem from a speech he gave in Chico right after 9/11:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/570378/posts

[PolyestherDuck]

Just re-read it all... Will our Air Force ever be as great as it was in the 1980s and very early 90s? Yes, technology and tactics have improved, as well as the tools with which we train, but can anyone here argue that our fighter force gets far fewer hours than they probably ought to and squadrons are bereft of significant experience?

Edit: Regarding experience, I'm not talking hours turning circles over OIF or non-contested NT-ISR or the occasional CAS in OEF.

Edited June 29, 2011 by PolyestherDuck

[HuggyU2]

... non-contested NT-ISR or the occasional CAS in OEF.

Seems to me that those are significant skill sets that the AF needs. Do you think that 20 years ago we were even close to the level we are at now in these areas? If you ask the Task Force guys on the ground their opinion, I'd say you'd have some big supporters.

While I wish we had $1 trillion more to allow everyone to fly 5 times a week and be King Kong in their weapons system, that's not the reality.

We're in a COIN war now... fight and train appropriately.

[PolyestherDuck]

Seems to me that those are significant skill sets that the AF needs. Do you think that 20 years ago we were even close to the level we are at now in these areas? If you ask the Task Force guys on the ground their opinion, I'd say you'd have some big supporters.

While I wish we had $1 trillion more to allow everyone to fly 5 times a week and be King Kong in their weapons system, that's not the reality.

We're in a COIN war now... fight and train appropriately.

No disagreement on the need for COIN, but I'd argue we're rapidly losing our ability to do the other stuff even remotely as well as we used to.