SR-71 Over Hanoi - A Bit of History

gurrera

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Designed by the Greatest Generation, flown by two more generations, one of the last and greatest airplanes ever!


Pretty cool video. Hard to think this was over 40 years ago

I didn't realize it had flown over Hanoi to let our POW's know they were not forgotten. Not one, but three of them


Amazing Tales of SR-71 Blackbird Plane


Gurrera
 
It is worth the trip to the Museum of Flight in Seattle just to look at the the plane.
The SR-71 is probably one of the most beautiful man made objects I've seen.
 
One of my favorite aircraft. Built using slide rules and pure engineering. I didn't know about the booming the foreign heads of state part. Gave me a little chill up my spine. Don't think anything like that could happen today with our lame ass leadership. Thanks for posting.
 
The Air Force museum at Wright Patterson AFB is one of my favorite places. If you are ever near there it's a must see. Don't forget the presidential and experimental hangers either, there is a shuttle because they are on the base but open to the public. I could spend days in there. They have all of the X-planes an SR and X-16 and XB-70 Valkyrie there also.
 
Thanks for posting the video. Yes, I also got chills when they mentioned flying supersonic of foreign heads of state as they proceeded to discuss how to undermine foreign policy.

At March AFB several years I got a chance to sit in the cockpit of the SR-71 on display there. Yes, I made sure my wife took pictures! :laugh:

At that time Donn A Byrnes ( a former sensor test engineer and flight test engineer ) was there promoting his book "Blackbird Rising", Birth of an Aviation Legend.

He signed it for me and we had a nice 5 to 10 minute chat. It was an honor to spend time with a true American that contributed much to this country.

Several You Tube videos show what the duties of the pilot and navigator were on board the SR-71. If you like what the SR-71 is about you will really enjoy watching them.

Somewhere in one of those videos is a rear facing shot while the plane is cruising... you can tell it is haulin a$$ ! :laugh:
 
When my father was in the Air Force and we were on Okinawa I actually saw and heard the SR-71 (called Habu on the base, after the Okinawa version of a rattle snake) fly. Very awesome sight. Thanks for the post!
 
It leaked gas while sitting and did so all the way to altitude.
Once there it's skin and specs shrunk from the speed and altitude and the leaks stopped.
I had a huge model of one growing up. Awesome plane. Skunkworks....
 
A little mention from one of the SR-71 pilots on You Tube somewhere. Some of the SR-71 pilots during training didn't make the level of being certified to fly missions. It was due to the difficulty of flying the SR-71 slow enough to refuel with a K-135 ( ? ) while it flew at top speed during the refueling. It really makes me grasp the level of piloting skills it took to fly one of these planes.
 
A little mention from one of the SR-71 pilots on You Tube somewhere. Some of the SR-71 pilots during training didn't make the level of being certified to fly missions. It was due to the difficulty of flying the SR-71 slow enough to refuel with a K-135 ( ? ) while it flew at top speed during the refueling. It really makes me grasp the level of piloting skills it took to fly one of these planes.

Due to the leaking it took off with only enough fuel to get it to altitude. Once there, shrunken and sealed they would fill it up.
 
I also didn't know we used them in Hanoi.

I was in the middle of the Intimidation years over there. I remember they landed a Blackbird where we were. We were not even supposed to exist here and here this thing came in for a landing. I remember it leaked like hell. I thought it must have had to have landed for an emergency or something. Nope. Turns out they leak like hell at low altitudes and not at high altitudes.

They were using it to probe radar defenses to see what kind of coverage they had. It could outrun anything they shot at it. They apparently shot at it pretty often. They were mapping out all the Radar lines up and down the coastlines. They came to our facility to eat and download film while they got re-fueld. The pilots were like Mehhhh.....no worries. Man was that thing cool to watch take off! Straight the hell up.

In turn they would send Russian Bears over us trying to get us to engage them. They purposely wanted us to look up and see them.
 
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