"The Sled"-You can see the fuel leaking out because it hasn't reached altitude yet
This story has been getting around for a few years but it’s a great read and I thought you guys would enjoy it. I’m a 500 hour private pilot and aviation junky at heart however, I appreciate that I’ve had my butt saved more than a few times by close air support (sometimes danger close). Especially true in Afghanistan, I can’t tell you how many times I was praising Allah for the B-52 or F-18 overhead and the JDAM’s that were soon to rain down!!!
The full story and link are at the bottom.
By: Major Brian Shul
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 ,” 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 fastest jet, accompanied by Maj Walter Watson, the aircraft’s reconnaissance systems officer (RSO). We had crossed into Libya and were approaching our final turn over the bleak desert landscape when Walter informed me that he was receiving missile launch signals. I quickly increased our speed, calculating the time it would take for the weapons-most likely SA-2 and SA-4 surface-to-air missiles capable of Mach 5 – to reach our altitude. I estimated that we could beat the rocket-powered missiles to the turn and stayed our course, betting our lives on the plane’s performance.
After several agonizingly long seconds, we made the turn and blasted toward the Mediterranean. “You might want to pull it back,” Walter suggested. It was then that I noticed I still had the throttles full forward. The plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit. It was the fastest we would ever fly. I pulled the throttles to idle just south of Sicily, but we still overran the refueling tanker awaiting us over Gibraltar. Click here to read the rest on Airline Pilot Forums
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If you like this article; this Smithsonian lecture on the SR-71's predecessor, the A-12 Oxcart is a must hear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT4uwr_eJnY
My father was an AF-JAG back in the mid 70's, and was stationed at one of the bases where SR-71's operated out of. He still maintains that it's the most awe-inspiring and beautiful aircraft he'd ever seen.
Insane plane that's for sure
I've had my eye on that book for a while. I'll definitely be picking it up, thanks Brandon.
You got it brother.
Dunno if it's true or not (I like to think it is), but this has always been my favorite SR-71 anecdote.
http://www.econrates.com/reality/schul.html
Awesome!
Nice!
That just makes me smile.. ;-)
although I still get a little edgy hearing people say specific numbers in relation to that platform as much of my upbringing that was rather frowned upon.
I went to RAF Duxford on Aug 19th this year, to see the Blackbird 61-7962 which is a permant part of the collection at Duxford.
What made the trip even more amazing was the pilot who flew Blackbird 61-7962 , Colonel Richard Graham was there on that day giving a lecture/talk on the plane and his experiences.
He told us some amazing statics about the plane as well as his experiences flying the plane operationally. he walked about the plane with such confidence, poking and hitting the plane to demonstrate the different function of each part and the materials used.
Blackbirds flew above the weather! Colonel Graham said the only thing the pilots cared about was:
How clear the air was.
How cold the air was.
Which leads me to the story below.
The most incredible story he told was whilst surveilling the soviet fleet in the red sea was the conditions were so cold and clear that he reached top speed for the aircraft on 10% thrust and had to back off even more to stop climbing and gaining speed! Those jet engines are amazing…….
I know that Colonel Graham as a few books on his operations in the Blackbird.
Whew that was an essay, congratulations if you got the end! I will bore off now.
Great follow on Will. -Brandon
my elantra did that last week. Unimpressive
yeah but you probably had to stop and refuel every 30min
I worked with that platform on some of its last missions back in the day and was very sad to see it go, not that it's payload was great but it was an amazing aircraft. It strikes me as sad that 40 years later we can't build a prompt global strike platform (or prompt global ISR platform).
Don't you just love progress?
Every time I see an SR-71 I am amazed. it's incredible that it can go that high and that fast.
Help me out please, what book is the story from? Sled Driver? Thanks…..joe
This plane is the reason why I wanted to be an AF pilot, they just don't make them like that anymore… I really should have been born during the Cold War (actually I was, just too late for it to matter), back in the days where the AF flew planes that didn't fly themselves :/
I blame Robert McNamara personally. For those of you unfamiliar with the history of the plane, he ordered the extremely sophisticated and precise tooling necessary to build the planes titanium components destroyed, because the AF was looking to develop the aircraft into an armed interceptor. He felt that the plane would jeopardize the F-4's success because the AF would have an alternative and the Marines/Navy would be forced to swallow the costs on their own. So, there went the tooling after a production run of some 30 or so aircraft, but what a magnificent 30 or so aircraft they were.
It actually turned out that the thermal effects caused by skin friction were causing the titanium molecules to re-align and strengthened the airframe as time went on, meaning that the airframe had an effectively unlimited lifetime!
Excellent feedback Chaos….I would have loved to be a WWII Mustang pilot myself…..
One of the best planes ever that can kick a UAV and crappy Stealth planes butt in performance. Kelly Johnson was the John Browning of airplanes.
We had three SR-71's (local name Habu) flying out of Kadena during the 1970's. Loudest damn things on the planet! Oh and I'm pretty sure that the JP-7 fuel you see "leaking" in the picture is after disconnect from a KC-135Q.
I'm quite fond of the sign hung at the gates to the base (IIRC): "Though I fly through the Valley of Death, I shall fear no evil… For I am at 80,000 feet and climbing."
I had the distinct privilege to work on the SR-71 and U-2 at Beale, Kadena and Mildenhall from early '78 to summer '81 in the 9th AMS ECM/ELINT shop. I am only now appreciating fully the magnificent beast called Habu and Blackbird.
I can tell you this much: 3+ and 100K doesn't come close to the actual performance our tech reps showed us on mission tapes.
JP-7 permeated fatigues still hang in my closet. A night takeoff was Star Wars for real. Too many great times and memories.
I still get chills every time I go down and see the one at the parade grounds at Lackland AFB…what an AWSOME machine. MacNamara was a twit
In 68-69 I was housed on Kadena AFB on Oki but worked at Torii Station. Our barracks weren't too far from the flight line and we often had the opportunity to see the Black Bird 'launch.' And launch it did. You'd hear this god-awful noise coming from the flightline, see a black sliver accelerating,no, screaming down the runway and then literally rocketing up at a phenomenal speed at something like 80 degrees to the horizontal. Is sent shivers down my back watching that beast leap into the sky.
I knew a former either squadron or wing commander, the former I think. He told me that as much as there was an "Mmo" the real limitation was heat build-up on the points around the fuselage. Like the tip of the shock cone, the forward tip of each vertical stab, the top of the cockpit canopy, etc. Any KNOWLEDGEABLE pilot of maybe a Sled driver want to comment on that.