Bye-Bye Blackbird

BYE BYE SR-71  BLACKBIRD   FROM AN SR-71 PILOT.......Very  interesting read.... SR-71 Blackbird     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 photographs 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 fastest jet, accompanied by a Marine  Major (Walt), the aircraft's reconnaissance systems  officer (RSO).   We had crossed into Libya , and were  approaching our final turn over the bleak desert  landscape, when Walt 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,'  Walt 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 ...   Scores of significant aircraft  have been produced, in the 100 years of flight,  following the achievements of the Wright brothers,  which we celebrate in December.   Aircraft  such as the Boeing 707, the F-86 Sabre Jet, and the  P-51 Mustang, are among the important machines, that  have flown our skies.   But the SR-71, also known  as the Blackbird, stands alone as a significant  contributor to Cold War victory, and as the fastest  plane ever, and only 93 Air Force pilots, ever  steered the 'sled,' as we called our  aircraft.     The SR-71, was the brainchild  of Kelly Johnson, the famed Lockheed designer, who  created the P-38, the F-104 Starfighter, and the  U-2.   After the Soviets shot down Gary Powers  U-2 in 1960, Johnson began to develop an aircraft, that  would fly three miles higher, and five times faster,  than the spy plane, and still be capable of  photographing your license plate.   However,  flying at 2,000 mph would create intense heat on the  aircraft's skin. Lockheed engineers used a titanium  alloy, to construct more than 90 percent of the SR-71,  creating special tools, and manufacturing procedures to  hand-build each of the (40 planes..  (Wow ! ! ! 40  planes???? I thought only 7.) Special heat-resistant  fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluids, that would function at  85,000 feet, and higher, also had to  be developed.   In 1962, the first Blackbird  successfully flew, and in 1966, the same year I  graduated from high school, the Air Force began flying  operational SR-71 missions.   I came to the program  in 1983, with a sterling record and a recommendation  from my commander, completing the weeklong interview,  and meeting Walt, my partner for the next four  years.   He would ride four feet behind me,  working all the cameras, radios, and electronic jamming  equipment.   I joked, that if we were ever  captured, he was the spy, and I was just the  driver.   He told me to keep the pointy end  forward.   We trained for a year, flying out of Beale  AFB in California , Kadena Airbase in Okinawa , and  RAF Mildenhall in England ..   On a typical  training mission, we would take off near Sacramento ,  refuel over Nevada , accelerate into Montana , obtain a  high Mach speed over Colorado , turn right over New  Mexico, speed across the Los Angeles Basin, run up the  West Coast, turn right at Seattle , then return to  Beale.   Total flight time:- Two Hours and Forty  Minutes.   One day, high above   Arizona ,  we were monitoring the radio traffic, of all the mortal  airplanes below us. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air  traffic controllers to check his ground speed. 'Ninety  knots,' ATC replied. A Bonanza soon made the same  request. 'One-twenty on the ground,' was the  reply.   To our surprise, a navy F-18 came over  the radio, with a ground speed check.   I knew  exactly what he was doing.   Of course, he had a  ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to  let all the bug-smashers in the valley, know what real  speed was, 'Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the  ground,' ATC responded.   The situation was too  ripe.   I heard the click of Walt's mike button  in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walt  startled the controller by asking for a ground speed  check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled  airspace. In a cool, professional voice, the controller  replied, 'Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the  ground.' We did not hear another transmission on  that frequency, all the way to the coast.   < /SPAN> The Blackbird  always showed us something new, each aircraft  possessing its own unique personality.   In time, we  realized we were flying a national  treasure.   When we taxied out of our revetments  for take-off, people took notice.   Traffic  congregated near the airfield fences, because everyone  wanted to see, and hear the mighty SR-71.   You  could not be a part of this program, and not come to  love the airplane.   Slowly, she revealed her  secrets to us, as we earned her trust..   One  moonless night, while flying a routine training mission  over the Pacific, I wondered what the sky would look  like from 84,000 feet, if the cockpit lighting were  dark.   While heading home on a straight course,  I slowly turned down all of the lighting, reducing the  glare and revealing the night sky.   Within  seconds, I turned the lights back up, fearful that  the jet would know, and somehow punish  me.   But my desire to see the sky, overruled my  caution, I dimmed the lighting again.   To my  amazement, I saw a bright light outside my  window.   As my eyes adjusted to the view, I  realized that the brilliance was the broad expanse of  the Milky Way, now a gleaming stripe across the  sky.   Where dark spaces in the sky, had usually  existed, there were now dense clusters, of sparkling  stars.   Shooting Stars, flashed across the  canvas every few seconds.   It was like a  fireworks display with no sound.   I knew I had to  get my eyes back on the instruments, and reluctantly, I  brought my attention back inside.   To my  surprise, with the cockpit lighting still off, I could  see every gauge, lit by starlight.   In the  plane's mirrors, I could see the eerie shine of my gold  spacesuit, incandescently illuminated, in a celestial  glow.   I stole one last glance out the  window. Despite our speed, we seemed still before  the heavens, humbled in the radiance of a much  greater power.   For those few moments, I felt  a part of something far more significant, than anything  we were doing in the plane.   The sharp sound of  Walt's voice on the radio, brought me back to the tasks  at hand, as I prepared for our descent.   San Diego   Aerospace   Museum The SR-71 was an expensive  aircraft to operate. The most significant cost was  tanker support, and in 1990, confronted with budget  cutbacks, the Air Force retired the SR-71. The SR-71  served six presidents, protecting America for a quarter  of a century.   Unbeknown to most of the country,  the plane flew over North Vietnam, Red China, North  Korea, the Middle East, South Africa, Cuba, Nicaragua,  Iran, Libya, and the Falkland Islands. On a weekly  basis, the SR-71, kept watch over every Soviet Nuclear  Submarine, Mobile Missile Site, and all of their troop  movements. It was a key factor in winning the Cold  War.   I am proud to say, I flew about 500 hours in  this aircraft. I knew her well. She gave way to  no plane, proudly dragging her Sonic Boom through enemy  backyards, with great impunity. She defeated every  missile, outran every MIG, and always brought us  home.   In the first 100 years of manned flight,  no aircraft was more remarkable. The Blackbird had  outrun nearly 4,000 missiles, not once taking a scratch  from enemy fire.   On her final flight, the  Blackbird, destined for the Smithsonian National Air  and Space Museum , sped from Los Angeles to  Washington in 64 Minutes, averaging 2,145 mph,  and setting four speed records.