The Blackbird

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These are pictures of the very first SR-71, the 950. The plane that Robert Gilliland flew on the first flight, December 22, 1964

January 1967, it was burnt up during a test flight of the anti-skid braking system at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. The main tires blew out, leading to a massive fire that destroyed the airframe. Test pilot Art Peterson was at the controls and safely evacuated.

Because this was an experimental test flight, the RSO seat was empty. The white circle around the nose was used to keep track of it during early flights.

Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

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Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

McDonnell F-101 Voodoo

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The SR-71 was made of titanium, a very strong, durable metal that was imported from Russia. The Russians had no idea who was buying the titanium, but it was really the United States CIA that believed the titanium for the A-12 and then later the SR 71. The CIA uses dummy companies to disguise themselves. Very clever.

Written by Linda Sheffield

#SR71 #AirForcejets #blackbird

@Habubrats71 via X

[usafpantom12]

July 26, 1968. Over the hostile skies of Hanoi, North Vietnam. One of the most dangerous places on the entire planet. An SR-71 Blackbird is ripping through the mission at Mach 3+ (roughly 1,720+ mph / 2,765+ km/h) at 83,000 feet when the Reconnaissance Systems Officer suddenly sees the “L” light flash on his ECM panel. Missile launch! Surface-to-air missiles have just been fired at them. In any other aircraft, this moment meant you were probably already dead. But this wasn’t any other aircraft. What happened next became one of the greatest displays of aerial invincibility in history. 🧵 1/4

Post 2/4

Pilot Major Tony Bevacqua and RSO Major Jerry Crew didn’t flinch. They didn’t dive. They didn’t turn. They didn’t even accelerate. They stayed on their sensor run like nothing had happened. Why? Because the SR-71 was already moving so impossibly fast and so high that the SA-2 missiles never stood a chance. The North Vietnamese had fired too late and too low. By the time the missiles could have reached altitude, the Blackbird was already miles ahead... literally outrunning the threat at 2,000 mph. The crew simply kept flying.

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After landing back at Kadena, the film told the full story. The cameras confirmed it: Two SA-2 missiles had been fired directly at them. This was the first time surface-to-air missiles had ever been launched against an SR-71. Over the entire Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese would fire roughly 800 SAMs at Blackbirds. Not a single one ever hit. The SR-71 didn’t just survive... it operated in the most heavily defended airspace on Earth with near-total impunity.

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No SR-71 was ever lost to enemy action in its entire career. The locals on Okinawa gave it a name that perfectly captured its nature: The "Habu" after a deadly venomous pit viper native to the island. They called it that because of its sleek black shape and the silent, lethal way it moved through the sky. This single mission (and hundreds like it) proved something extraordinary: an aircraft so advanced that even when the enemy got a shot off, it simply didn’t matter. Untouchable. The plane that could outrun missiles, and did it while calmly finishing its mission. Absolute legend! To those of you that have tried Habu Sake🫡. 🖤 #SR71 #Blackbird #Habu #AviationLegend

@F15’sRdaBest via X

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SR-71 was basically a flying fuel tank. The Brown area in the picture. That’s where the fuel was. It’s not true that it had to be refueled after takeoff because so much fuel was leaking. Yes, it leaked but not enough to have to be refueled in some cases the SR 71 could take off with a full tank that’s 80,000 pounds.

A few more facts: this airplane was called a wet wing. It did not have fuel bladders. The wiring was fed through the fuel tanks.

Here are some fun facts about the SR 71 and a question: where is the doghouse?

The SR-71 was the first aircraft to use its own fuel for hydraulic fluid. It was called the fuel hydraulic system.

An engine-driven pump provided 1800 psi of recirculating fuel to accurate various engine components and then returned it to the aircraft fuel system to be burned. Fuel was used in the actuators to control the afterburner nozzles, which maintain the proper exhaust gas temperature and control the thrust output. The fuel was also used in the engine actuators to shift the two-position inlet guide vanes from their axial position to the cambered position and back again. This was just another of the many first-ever inventions of the SR-71.

The J58 engine was hydromechanically controlled and burned a special low-volatility jet fuel mixture known as JP-7.

Emergency fuels could be used in the SR-71 if the crew was low on fuel and had to use ANY tanker (as already explained, the Blackbird relied on KC-135Q tankers [that could simultaneously carry a maximum of 74,490lb of JP-7 and 110,000lb of JP-4 for their engines]. Still, the SR-71 could also be refueled by standard Stratotankers in the event KC-135Qs were not available or if the Blackbird crew had to deal with an emergency) they could find to avoid the loss of the aircraft. The emergency fuels were JP-4 or JP-5, but they limited the Blackbird's top speed to Mach 1.5. There were six main fuselage tanks. All 80,285 pounds of JP-7 fuel were carried in six main fuselage tanks.

The tanks numbered one through six moved forward to aft (back) tank 6B. It could hold 7,020 pounds of gravity-fed fuel and two tank sumps.

This was also called the “doghouse” and was located in the extreme back portion of the fuselage.

These are just a few interesting facts I found by reading Rich Graham’s “SR 71 Revealed the Inside Story.

Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

[coffeenuts]

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Two SR 71s in the California fog.

I have this picture up in my home .

@Don Campbell

Don very generously sent me a beautiful print.

Eric Schulzinger: photographer

@Habubrats71 via X

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On this day in 1990, our Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird made a last flight befitting its incredible career, setting a new speed record while flying from LA to DC in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 2,124 mph.

@airandspace via x

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They weren't even supposed to be trying to set the transcontinental speed record. They just said, "It's our last flight ever. Why not?"

That plane is now at the Smithsonian.

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Pilot Rick McCrary tells his story: We unlocked the back doors, turned on the lights, and I thought, "Oh lord, there's a spaceship." They took me out to a small hangar and opened the door to show me the SR-71

I had never seen it before. Very little was known about it by anyone else. It was still sight-sensitive. You could see it, but you couldn't walk up and touch it, or look at the cockpit, things like that. It was never out for public display. It would fly missions and always taxi right into the hangar. It flew sensitive reconnaissance missions, so very few people outside the community knew anything about it. I only knew what was in the public record, as well.

Seeing the size of it was just... awesome. Until you see it, you don't have a feel for how big it is for a fighter-type aircraft: 107 feet long is a big airplane. Because of the black color, it has this massive look to it, with those giant engines out there on the wing.

Again, just an incredible sight, and unlike anything else I'd ever seen before. I was hooked at that point. You would get a couple of sunsets and sunrises, because at those northern latitudes, you often would see day to night, and then a terminator line, almost like a black velvet curtain, where you can see how it's light on this side, and dark on the other side. It's the most amazing thing you can imagine.

@Habubrats71 via X

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Which one is your favorite?

@Habubrats71 via X

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22 December 1964. First flight of the Lockheed D-21. American supersonic reconnaissance drone. Launched from an M-21 carrier aircraft, a variant of the Lockheed A-12, two-seat variant of the Central Intelligence Agency’s A-12 Oxcart Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft.

@Habubrats71 via X

[skunkworksairpower]

A-12 Oxcarts at Palmdale

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A Lockheed SR-71A at Greenham Common on 22JUL83 (anidaat)

@kadonkey via X

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I’m taking the old 71 around the block……

@refueled via X

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Project “Nice Girl” anniversary concluded today, November 3, 1967

Why was the SR-71 Blackbird chosen over the A-12 Oxcart?

From Oct. 20 to Nov. 3, 1967, the A-12 and the SR-71 were pitted against each other in a recon fly-off, code-named “Nice Girl” over the US, that included refueling, flying identical routes 1 hour apart on three different days, and both would complete the whole sortie with collection sensors operational.

This is part of an article I wrote a few years ago and shared in the Aviation Geek Club.

One thing should be clear about the A-12 and the CIA, they like to allude that their Blackbird was faster than the Air Force's Blackbird, the SR-71

It was not faster. Both airplanes had the same limitation: the engine temperature could not exceed 427 °C.

One fact is actual: the A-12 was lighter than the SR-71, as it had only one cockpit and less fuel space. So it’s possible that it could fly a little bit higher, but that doesn’t do you any good to fly a little bit higher when the air is that thin; the result is the same: flying is very unsteady. It could not be maintained for very long.

What couldn’t be revealed was classified in 1967.

The SR-71 had new ECM electronic countermeasures. The A-12 did not have the same capability. However, some of their cameras were considered better than the ones on the SR-71. The man that flew the test missions are listed below.

The conclusion was they picked the SR-71 to continue flying.

The A-12s were retired. The A-12s were put in hangars until 1984.

Lt. Col. Al Hichew and I, Maj. Tom Schmittou flew mission #1.

Maj. John Storrie and Maj. Coz Mallozzi flew mission #2

Maj. Bill Campbell and Capt. Al Pennington flew mission #3.

I knew all of those men with the exception of Al Pennington.

Jack Weeks flew all three A-12 missions.

I have read the documents and there was a better fight between the CIA and the Air Force for control of this program.

The CIA could not prove how fast their bird could fly, but a Air Force could. Do you really think that the Air Force would publicly announce just how fast their airplane can go so that anyone in the world would have this information?

I know what I think about that.

What do you think?

written by Linda Sheffield

Thank you to Robert Hall for his daily SR-71 news

@Habubrats71 via X

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spying on the spies