The Top 40

I read this a couple of years ago.

I think this is the full link.

http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2007/11/19/sr-71-now-that-was-some-airplane/

If the link doesn't take, the book it came from was 'Sled Driver'. I think.

And the SR-71 is really that old.

One Sunday a few years ago the pilot of the Blackbird that sits in the Smithsonian visited my church. His name was Ed Yeilding (sic) and he was then employed as a transcontinental airline pilot.



The time mark for the flight began when the 'bird crossed the beach in California and stopped when the plane became over water of the Atlantic. Elapsed time: 64 minutes.



He said they always took off with a half-fuel load because of weight, then refueled aloft. The SR-71 gulped fuel at a prodigious rate. At afterburner, he said they had to refuel every 90 minutes. But of course they had flown 3,000 miles.



One time he was on a proficiency flight above the US and was monitoring Denver Center. He heard a student pilot call the center, give his altitude as 5,000 feet and request a ground speed check.



"100 knots," came the answer.



Then a Navy pilot apparently decided to rub the nose of the student pilot and he called in for a ground speed check, giving his altitude as flight level 350 (35,000 feet). "650 knots," came the answer.



So Ed keyed the mike and said, "Denver Center, this is Air Force [tail number], request ground speed check at flight level 900."



"1,775 knots," the center responded (2,042 mph). And all was quiet thereafter.



Then there's the old story of the sled driver who asked a flight-control center for permission to head on a certain course at flight level 700.



The center controller chuckled and said, "If you can get to it, you can have it."



"Roger," the pilot responded, "descending to flight level 700."



Quite a plane, and quite the men who flew it.

Saw the Blackbird all the time on Okinawa back in the day. Words can’t do justice to the sight and sounds nor the majesty.

The other one I heard: following take off, after switching from tower to departure, controller asked sled, "Say heading."

Sled answers, "Up."

Kelly Johnson should have a national holiday!

The pilot's (who appears to be Al O'Connor) longer article where all of the comes from is here: http://www.ourexcellentadventures.com/wp-content/alta/sr71.html

Agreed jeff:

The P-38 was an awesome ship. As was the SR-71.

Imagine designing both of those aircraft, and the SR-71 came alive in the year I was born!

What an aeronautical genius Kelly Johnson was.

A friend saw a -71 land at Watsonville, Ca. (I guess there was a problem) and headed over there to take a look.

By the time he got there the -71 was taking off and he said there seemed to be fuel leaking from just everywhere (the seals were cold).

You had to be brave to just light off the engines.

Last year I read a book, Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved by Elgen M. Long and Marie K. Long. Kelly Johnson is mentioned in the book numerous times. He was a young engineer at Lockheed and consulted with Earhart about optimum speed and altitude settings in order to maximize her Lockheed Electra's range. The authors in no way blame Johnson for the plane's loss, and indeed praise Earhart for coming very close to the ideal maximum range of the plane. There are numerous factors that can conspire to shorten a plane's maximum range.