THE SR-71 BLACKBIRD
In 1968
(1967?) a SR-71 made an emergency landing at Grand Forks AFB and
was "parked" between two B-52 hangers close to the N/S road that
paralleled the base runway. The
aircraft was completely visible to anyone using the road. Immediately after landing, GFAFB security
established machine gun "nests" close to the plane. The two man crew could not exit the plane
until a C-130 arrived from Edwards AFB with the ground support equipment and
aircraft technicians to evacuate the crew and "fix" whatever the
problem(s) were. Of course, everyone on
the base came to see the 71 and security had to control traffic. After the "fixes" were
accomplished (two days?), the 71 exited the base heading north. A few minutes
later it returned at a very low altitude at tremendous speed in a fly by. It
was awesome and was probably witnessed by about everyone on the base.
Eye candy for
people who like airplanes
Grab your beverage and relax for a few minutes of awesome beauty. The SR-71 was the creation of Kelly Johnson, Lockheed, Eisenhower and the Air Force. It was envisioned in the '50s, first flew in the early '60s, retired in the '80s, briefly brought back in the '90s.
In all, 13
units of the single seat A-12 were built, and 32 of the Pilot + Recon two seat
SR-71 units were built. Five A-12 were
lost, one is stored. Twelve two-seaters
were lost. The remaining 27 are on display around the USA . The closest is at Atwater, the
old Castle AFB museum at Merced with 50 other
classic warplanes. You probably
have a better opportunity of viewing the one in San Diego.
So enjoy. One more thing. The author of the captions
to the picture in this video made one misstatement, due to youth. The U-2 Recon aircraft was created in 1955,
flew operationally in 1956. Kelly
thought the USSR would shoot it down in 18 months.
Lucky us, it flew until Gary Powers was downed on 1 May 1960.
But Kelly Johnson already had the go-ahead from Ike for the A-12. It first flew in 1962, JFK kept the manufacture of it active. No one told LBJ, 'cause everyone knew he would spill the secret. He wasn't told until the week after JFK left us. And sure enough, LBJ gave out the secret in a matter of months.
Anyhow, the
most interesting, most exciting five years of my life were spent in the
program, as a KC-135 refueling pilot. Where the Blackbird went, we went. You
will see several refuelings in the following.
Enjoy.
Click here to view the slideshow: