✈️ BLACKBIRD – Documentaire Aviation – HO
This plane broke all speed and altitude records, and its legend fascinates as much as it makes it the object of certain fantasies. But for more than 20 years, no other jet aircraft has taken over. Today, we are revisiting the iconic SR-71, but also its predecessors, the equally crazy U-2 and A-12.
Welcome to the land of the Blackbirds. Opening credits In the 1950s, as the Cold War took hold between the Soviet Union and
the United States, the need for one bloc to gather information on the military capabilities of the other led to the development of ever more innovative espionage technologies . Until then, the Americans had RB-29s, a version specialized in the reconnaissance of huge strategic bombers, or PB4Ys, derived from the B-24 Liberator.
The problem is that with their slowness and low ceiling, they are an easy target, especially since the areas of interest to photograph are in Soviet territory. Thus, on April 11, 1950, a PB4Y named Turbulent Turtle was shot down over the Baltic Sea by the Soviets during a reconnaissance mission.
All 10 crew members perished. The United States did not give up, however, and launched several aircraft over East Germany and other satellite countries of the USSR to both carry out espionage missions, but also to assess the reaction and defense capabilities of the Soviets in the face of incursions into their airspace.
Thus, several RB-29s were shot down over the Soviet Union, and their crews killed. In 1952, engineers met to find a more sustainable and effective way to spy on the Eastern Bloc from the sky. They conclude that it will be necessary to design an aircraft specifically intended for this type of mission, and not based on existing bombers or other aircraft.
Furthermore, to avoid any interception, it will need to be able to fly at 70,000 feet, over a range of 2,800 kilometers, carrying at least 320 kilos of observation equipment. The project is taking shape, and calls for projects are launched by the US Air Force to several American firms, namely Bell and Fairchild, later joined by Martin. It takes the temporary and classified name of MX-2147 “Bald Eagle”.
Meanwhile, at Lockheed, they are working on an aircraft of the same type, the CL-282, which on paper could fulfill the same objectives as the “Bald Eagle”. The creator, Kelly Johnson, runs a section isolated from the rest of the firm, which has already proven its capabilities by creating the XP-80 Shooting Star, the first American jet aircraft to achieve an aerial victory.
This team of discreet engineers meet under the unofficial name of Skunk Works. Submitted to the Pentagon as an independent candidate, Lockheed’s project was nevertheless rejected, as the US Department of Defense had already approved Bell’s project based on the “Bald Eagle”. After very long negotiations, President Eisenhower himself approved the CL-282 from Skunk Works in 1954, which had to be designed in the utmost secrecy, far from the Lockheed factories.
The engineers will therefore look for an isolated place on the West Coast to build their base, and will choose a desert area in Nevada, Groom Lake, also nicknamed Watertown, Paradise Ranch and Dreamland. It would later inherit the name Area 51. In order to cover their tracks, the United States put in place a cover which they revealed to the press in 1956.
Hugh Dryden, director of NACA, the predecessor of NASA, announced that an experimental aircraft was under construction, and that its high-altitude flight capabilities would be used to study the upper layers of the atmosphere. Kelly Johnson promises that the aircraft can be ready in just 8 months, and the efficiency is there.
After successful wind tunnel tests in March 1955, and its arrival at Groom Lake in July of that same year, the prototype, now named U-2, made its first test flight on August 4. The U designates the aircraft as belonging to the US Air Force, another cover to conceal the reality: the project is funded and directed by the CIA.
The aircraft derived from Bell’s “Bald Eagle”, now named X-16, is not progressing as quickly, and the government decides to end the project. So it’s official, the U-2 will be the only American high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. In just one month, 20 test flights revealed the incredible potential of Skunk Works’ aircraft.
Next, 25 pilots are recruited. All officially “on suspension from contract” by the US Air Force, they unofficially become CIA agents. After an extremely demanding selection phase and several months of training, they were ready, in June 1956, to conduct their first operations aboard their brand new U-2s .
In parallel, the United States proposed creating an agreement called Open Skies, which authorizes reconnaissance flights by the United States, the Soviet Union, and other allied countries over their respective territories. This initiative offers everyone the opportunity to verify that participating countries are honest and transparent about their military capabilities.
Initially welcomed by Soviet dignitaries, Open Skies was firmly rejected by Khrushchev. This refusal launched Operation Overflight, the first reconnaissance mission of the U-2s, involving 6 pilots and 10 aircraft. The CIA believes it knows a lot about the detection capabilities of Soviet radars, and therefore thinks that their U-2s will fly too high to be detectable and consequently shot down.
Based on this observation, which will prove to be false, there is no shortage of targets for observation. On June 20, 1956, the first operational mission of the U-2 saw pilot Carl Overstreet take off from Wiesbaden, West Germany, and fly over East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland.
From there, flights followed one another over the other satellite countries of the Eastern Bloc, and faced with the inaction of the Soviets, who seemed not to detect the U-2, the next stage of the operation was launched: The overflight of Russian territory. On July 4, 1956, American national holiday, Hervey Stockman flew over the outskirts of Leningrad and Minsk. However, his plane was detected.
He observes the MiGs attempting to reach his altitude and intercept him, fortunately without success. It continues its mission as if nothing had happened, flies over naval bases in the Baltic Sea and then returns safely to Wiesbaden after 8 hours and 45 minutes of flight. President Eisenhower, very worried about the diplomatic consequences in case of detection, had asked to be informed of any U-2 flight detected by the Soviets.
However, Stockman’s mission did not bring back any concrete evidence of the attempted interception, which allowed the senior officers to continue operations. The missions resumed the very next day, with a flyover of Moscow. Once again, MIGs were sent to intercept the U-2, once again in vain. The subsequent flights are all detected, triggering Soviet fighter jets or anti- aircraft guns, but neither manages to reach the U-2s, which are flying over the most strategic regions of the Soviet Union and its satellites.
The American embassy in Moscow receives a message from the Soviet authorities. This is an official complaint. It turns out that not only are the U-2s systematically detected by radar, but tracked with astonishing accuracy. President Eisenhower makes the decision to suspend the missions.
Engineers are working on solutions to absorb different radar waves and make the U-2 invisible on Russian screens. This is the Rainbow project. Thus, in July 1957, modified U-2s flew over the USSR again, but despite the new absorbent materials, the untreatable parts of the aircraft, such as the cockpit or the engines, remained detectable.
While no solution seems ideal, new CIA reports indicate that it is highly likely that the Soviets are developing fighter jets, but also missiles capable of intercepting U-2s. Perhaps it’s time to start working on a successor to the U-2, with better shapes, and why not… greater speed. In the autumn of 1957, Skunk Works began working on the Gusto project.
The goal is to design an aircraft capable of fulfilling the same missions as the U-2, but flying higher, faster, and with much greater stealth capabilities. For several years, and at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, Lockheed’s secret firm worked on the CL-400 Suntan.
With this prototype, which will never fly, Skunk Works nevertheless gains great experience in supersonic flight, stealth and high-altitude flight. Based on this , the engineers created the Archangel 1, or A1, capable on paper of reaching Mach 3 with a ceiling of 95,000 feet, and a range of 7,500 kilometers. The concept would later evolve, with the A-2, A-3, and finally settle on the A-12.
In response to Skunk Works, Convair is offering a competing aircraft, with the same theoretical capabilities, and based on the B-58 Hustler strategic bomber . The Pentagon will decide in favor of the A-12, and the project moves from Gusto… to Oxcart. In February 1960, the CIA allocated $96.6 million to Lockheed, the equivalent of one billion dollars today, for 12 A-12s including a two-seater trainer.
Again, its conception will take place in Groom Lake. Given the takeoff distance and the expected mass of the aircraft, the runway of the secret base is lengthened and reinforced, reaching 2600 meters, and the rest of the base is also developed. The arrival of the A-12 is expected in a few months, and in the meantime, U-2 flights continue over the Soviet Union, including the one on May 1, 1960, with Francis Gary Powers at the controls.
Departing from a secret CIA base in Pakistan, its objective was to fly over the missile bases of Sverdlovsk and Plesetsk, but upon arriving over its first target, fighter jets were sent to attempt an interception, and several SA-2 surface-to-air missiles were fired towards the aircraft.
One of them damages the U-2 and instead of perishing with his plane, Powers decides to eject. As his plane falls, he watches from his parachute as other missiles rain down on the U-2, which eventually explodes. But in the general confusion, one of the surface-to- air missiles hit Sergei Safronov’s MiG-19. The pilot will not survive.
Refusing to commit suicide with the poison he is carrying, Powers is taken prisoner. In Bodø, Norway, where the U-2 was due to land at the end of its mission, concern grew with each passing hour. Presumed dead, the Americans state that one of their NASA research pilots lost consciousness due to an oxygen problem.
The Soviets responded loudly: They showed the pilot alive, the remains of the plane, and even photographic equipment intended for spying on Russian installations. The American humiliation is total, and tensions are at their peak between the presidents of the two blocs. Francis Gary Powers spent nearly two years in prison before being handed over to the Americans in exchange for a Russian spy.
Following the crash, President Eisenhower promised Khrushchev that he would no longer send piloted spy planes into Soviet airspace, a promise that would be kept over the decades and still today. Moreover, the event raises questions within the American administration about whether or not to continue the Oxcart program.
The aircraft will be developed and deployed, but only in war zones and outside Soviet territory. Two years later, with a considerable delay, the A-12 Oxcart made its first test flights. 1962 marks both the first tests of the A-12, but also other incidents related to the U-2.
On October 14, a photographic flight by Steven Heyser’s U-2 revealed Soviet- designed ballistic missile launch facilities , triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two weeks later, another U-2 was shot down over Cuba, killing its pilot. The Oxcart program is becoming a priority, and must become operational as soon as possible. Its design was unique for its time. To withstand the extreme temperatures caused by air friction at 3 times the speed of sound, the Oxcart is made of 85% titanium.
This choice is explained by the fact that this metal is capable of withstanding very high temperatures, but also of deforming easily without breaking, as is the case at Mach 3. The great challenge is therefore to find this rare metal, and it turns out that the largest concentration is in the Soviet Union. The CIA therefore created a shell company there and exported all the titanium needed to build the A-12s. The Soviet Union will never discover the subterfuge, ironic to say the least.
The PF-1 fuel is also unique to the aircraft, due to the temperatures. From the very first days of testing, the aircraft proved extremely difficult to fly, and technically unreliable, which led to the first crash on May 24, 1963. Suddenly, the aircraft went into a flat inverted spin. The pilot has no choice but to eject, and survives.
But the thing is , the locals are quite curious. Pilot Ken Collins recounts: “I was in the middle of the desert, with little chance of rescue. My chase plane didn’t know where I was because, due to the program’s secrecy, we were maintaining radio silence. I gathered all my flight documents and other aircraft parts around me.
To my surprise, I saw a pickup truck bouncing over the rocky roads and heading toward me, with four men inside. When they stopped, I saw they were carrying the canopy of my plane in the back. They offered to take me to the crash site, but I told them it was an F-105 with a nuclear weapon on board. They took me to the nearest police station in Wendover, Utah.
” The crash site will be cleaned up in 2 days, and witnesses will sign a confidentiality agreement. Other A-12s will be lost during testing, but Skunk Works’ exceptional work will eventually pay off. The aircraft was considered for reconnaissance flights over Cuba in 1964, but the American administration eventually abandoned the idea in order to avoid possible diplomatic tensions.
Fortunately for the program, a war is taking place in Vietnam, and Hanoi’s defense system poses a threat to the U-2s. The A-12s will finally be able to carry out their first reconnaissance missions over enemy territory. Operation Black Shield began on May 31, 1967. No Oxcarts were shot down, but in the first month of deployment, the Americans were surprised to find that their Oxcarts were sometimes tracked by Vietnamese radars, despite the enormous work done on stealth. On October 30, an A-12 was targeted by
SA-2 missile fire. Slightly damaged, it returned undamaged to the Okinawa base, but from now on, the Oxcarts will be equipped with a camera observing the rear of the fuselage in order to observe missile launches. Operation Black Shield was not stopped, however, as the A-12s proved extremely effective in gathering intelligence on North Vietnamese installations.
At the end of 1967, the CIA also launched the A-12s on reconnaissance missions over North Korea, despite a significant risk of interception by Soviet-made missiles. North Korea, in fact, would allow the A-12 to distinguish itself during the USS Pueblo incident. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union converted many ships into spy boats. Sailing in international waters close to the coasts of the United States, they are tasked with intercepting military radio communications.
The United States did the same in 1965, and the USS Pueblo was part of a fleet of several American spy ships. On January 5, 1968, it began its inaugural voyage by going to the vicinity of the North Korean coast, in international waters. On January 23, it was boarded by the North Koreans. One sailor dies, the others are taken prisoner.
The A-12s were sent out the very next day, and thanks to cloudless weather, they not only managed to find the Pueblo in the North Korean bay of Wonsan, but also carried out a complete and accurate observation of the majority of North Korean military installations in the space of a few flights.
The crew will be released after almost a year of imprisonment and torture, and the ship is now on display in Pyongyang Bay. Other missions will be assigned to the A-12s in parallel with the Vietnamese and North Korean conflicts, to extend their capabilities. Following the Francis Gary Powers incident and the American promise not to fly over the Soviet Union in piloted spy planes again, the CIA worked on the Tagboard program, or D-21.
Mounted on the back of an Oxcart, it is dropped at high speed and altitude, performs the pilotless reconnaissance flight, then the film reels are ejected over international waters and the vehicle crashes into the sea. During the film reels’ descent under parachute , a C-130 recovers them in mid-air using a pole.
The concept is promising, as are most of the tests, but the high-speed separation maneuver of the two aircraft twice leads to the loss of Oxcart, and despite the systematic ejection of crew members, one of the pilots dies by drowning after his ejection. Project Tagboard was cancelled in 1966. For some years already, the CIA had been seeing the end of spy planes.
Space exploration has begun, satellites are becoming reliable, and they know that soon it will be possible to observe every corner of the globe effortlessly. Oxcarts are nevertheless an excellent source of information, flying lower than satellites, with unpredictable pass times and evolving photographic equipment .
With such capabilities, there are also plans to convert it into a fighter and interceptor aircraft. A prototype, the YF-12, is equipped with state-of-the- art sensors, but also with a weapons system. The modifications to the YF-12 reduce the aircraft’s maximum speed, particularly the completely redesigned front end which gives it its unique nose.
Even if it will only be used for flight tests, the YF-12 will contribute a lot to American missile technologies. The AIM-47, tested on the YF-12, will lead to the development of the AIM-54, the iconic missile of the F-14 Tomcat. A notable fact about YF-12A will be its flight on May 1, 1965, exactly 5 years to the day after the U-2 incident involving Francis Gary Powers.
Equipped with a huge white cross on its belly, to facilitate tracking its flight, it broke 4 altitude and speed records. On that day, US Air Force pilot Major Robert L. “Bob” Stephens piloted the YF-12A and reached a maximum speed of Mach 3.2 at an altitude of 80,257 feet. The YF-12 program would not go much further, and would be abandoned in 1968, along with the rest of the Oxcart program.
The last flight of an A-12 took place on June 21, 1968. And for good reason. Since 1964, its successor has already taken to the skies. On December 22, 1964, while the D-21 prototype of the Tagboard program was making its first test flight over Area 51, an aircraft resembling an Oxcart appeared on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
On board was pilot Bob Gilliland, for a solo flight, despite the aircraft’s two-seater capacity. The aircraft’s name, the SR-71, dates back to the early 1960s. At that time, the US Air Force wanted an aircraft similar to the YF-12A, with reconnaissance capabilities but also nuclear bombing capabilities.
The project is named Senior Crown, and the prototypes are named RS-12, for “Reconnaissance Strike”. The specifications stipulate that it must be able to launch its nuclear missile, derived from the Polaris A-3, from an altitude of 80,000 feet, towards a target at a distance of 80 kilometers, and strike with an accuracy of only 15 meters.
Initially named RS-71, it was publicly revealed by President Johnson on July 21, 1964 under the name… SR-71, an error that would officially rename the aircraft forever. Contrary to popular belief, this reversal in the name of the plane is not due to an error by the president himself. According to author Richard H.
Graham, who obtained the original document read by Lyndon Johnson, it clearly reads “SR-71”. It turns out that it was the stenographer who was dyslexic, and accidentally influenced history, since from then on, no one would ever call him RS-71 again. Very similar to the A-12 Oxcart, it nevertheless has some external differences, such as its smoother shapes and greater length.
This very flattened surface on the sides of the fuselage allows the aircraft to generate additional lift, which becomes more and more effective with speed, and better stability at low speed. Another difference with the A-12 is that it systematically carries two crew members, namely the pilot and the RSO, Reconnaissance Systems Officer. As with previous aircraft, they wear a full pressurized suit, capable of protecting them from the intense heat, the temperature of the inside of a window can reach 120°, and the low-pressure outside environment can kill in seconds. The view is not a priority
for the RSO, which has to make do with two tiny side windows. The materials are no different from the A-12, the SR-71 having to withstand an outside temperature of 220° around the cockpit. The Pratt & Whitney J58 engines, which also powered the A-12, also operate at extremely high temperatures.
Exhaust gases exiting engines can exceed 1090 degrees. Regarding titanium, the CIA front company in the Soviet Union is once again being used. However, the machining around this metal is very precise. For example, Skunk Works engineers quickly noticed that parts machined in winter were much stronger than those made in summer.
After investigation, it was discovered that the water in Burbank, near the factory, is chlorinated in the summer to prevent the formation of algae. From then on, the titanium parts will only be exposed to distilled water. Similarly, cadmium has a negative influence on the quality of parts, and it is removed from all machines.
Millions of dollars are spent for the sole purpose of processing and shaping the aircraft’s titanium parts, highlighting the incredible complexity of Blackbirds like the Oxcart or the SR-71. Like its predecessor, it inherits the specific black paint, which reduces its signature, but above all helps to reduce the temperature of the aircraft’s skin by an average of 30 degrees.
Speaking of paint, the 1907 Hague Convention stipulates that every military aircraft must bear an insignia of the army it represents. In a humorous touch, knowing that no one would see it from that high up anyway, huge letters and the Air Force logo are affixed to the back of the plane.
Navigation is provided by the ANS, the stellar navigation system , which allows you to locate yourself anywhere on the globe with extreme precision by observing the 52 most visible stars in the sky, day and night. Maintaining the aircraft is still a nightmare given the extreme conditions of its flights. For every hour of flight, technicians spend between 100 and 700 hours on maintenance.
The SR-71’s operational career began alongside the A-12 Oxcart, departing from Okinawa and over North Vietnam. During Operation Black Shield, the SR-71As carried out the same missions as their predecessors, bringing back valuable information on North Vietnamese forces and their military capabilities.
And like the Oxcarts, the Blackbirds were targeted by SA-2 fire, without ever being hit. In 1973, nine SR-71s were also deployed in the Gulf to monitor developments in the Yom Kippur War. In 1976, SR-71s took off for the first time from Great Britain. This is part of an agreement to share information gathered through US spy planes, in exchange for a base of operations for missions in Europe and the Middle East.
This also allows pilots to participate in joint exercises with NATO forces for the first time. Naturally, the strange aircraft also attracted crowds, and the Americans agreed to display it at the 1977 Royal Air Tattoo. Buz Carpenter recounts: “The SR-71 was on static display, so we surrounded it with barriers to prevent anyone from touching it.
We were told to be careful of representatives from the Soviet Union and its satellite states who might try to get too close. To prevent the Russians or anyone else from exploiting the aircraft exhibition, we removed the sensors, drained all the fuel from the tanks, and warmed the entire aircraft to room temperature to prevent infrared cameras from revealing the secrets of its internal structure .
While we were around the aircraft answering questions from the public, the Russians were, of course, present in large numbers. They took many photos in visible and infrared, and some of them were even wearing hidden microphones. It was quite a sight, as they were in disguise.” It looked as if the Salvation Army had dressed them.
Their dress code was reminiscent of old films showing American passersby from the 1930s. In 1978, flights also made it possible to observe the delivery of Soviet MIG-23s to Cuba. Other flights over North Korea saw SR-71s spying on the country in 1981, with Korean missiles failing to reach the aircraft.
Three years later, following the fall of dictator Samosa in Nicaragua, a Soviet cargo ship was sent to the country. American observation satellites show what appear to be crates containing MiG-21s in parts, which both the Soviets and the Nicaraguans deny. Six SR-71 reconnaissance missions were conducted over the country, confirming that the satellite data had indeed been misinterpreted, and no Soviet fighter jets had been sent to Nicaragua.
The following years saw the SR-71s deployed over Iran, Libya, the Barents Sea and other countries in Europe and the Middle East, with the aim of observing conflicts and compliance with international laws. Originally a military spy plane, the SR-71 also became, over time, a research aircraft for NASA. A characteristic it shares with its ancestor, the U-2.
During the design of the A-12, the US Air Force used the wind tunnels at NASA’s Ames Research Center. In 1967, the agency asked for a fair return favor, demanding access to the wind tunnel data, which they obtained. They also provide the US Air Force with a team of qualified engineers to work on the future SR-71.
NASA’s goal is to obtain an SR-71 dedicated to aeronautical research, to help in the design of potential supersonic airliners. In 1969, they obtained… two YF-12s, and were content with that. NASA’s YF-12 flight tests would continue until October 1979, with important results for control systems, very high-speed aerodynamics, heat management, and propulsion.
After more than 200 flights, the two NASA YF-12s were then retired, and one of them is now on display in the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. For more than 10 years, NASA’s experiments were limited to U2s only, and in 1990, the agency obtained 3 SR-71s from the Pentagon, but only on lease. The first flights under NASA registration began the following year.
On January 26, 1990, the SR-71 military program came to an end, for the first time. At that time, the military and political authorities judged that the program was too expensive for the little information it was able to gather on the Russian adversary, especially since the massive arrival of spy satellites, the ultimate observation weapon, which can fly over
Russian territory from space, i.e. outside their airspace, and therefore in complete legality. This day in 1990 therefore marks the retirement of the SR-71s from the US Air Force. NASA employees, not affected by this decision, continue their flights. Only 3 SR-71s of the Air Force remain operational, and all the others are dismantled, most of them stripped of their equipment and reassembled for display in various museums.
On January 5, 1995, the three remaining Blackbirds were reactivated and carried out more than 150 training flights over two years . Their last flight took place on October 10, 1997. Four days later, President Bill Clinton signed the immediate and definitive end of the military operation of the SR-71, leaving NASA alone to operate the aircraft.
It was also during these NASA experiments that Marta Bohn-Meyer became the first woman to take a seat in an SR-71 as a flight engineer. However, she is not the first woman to fly on board the Blackbird, as Senator Beverly Byron received this honor in 1985, as a guest. Marta Bohn-Meyer carried out considerable aeronautical research during her years at NASA, and left us in 2005 after having converted to aerobatic competitions.
In 1997, NASA conducted the most important experiment of its program around the SR-71: LASRE. The goal is to test Aerospike engines in order to then apply the technology to a potential reusable space vehicle . The very last flight of the Blackbird took place on October 9, 1999 at Edwards Air Force Base, during an open house weekend . During this demonstration, Rogers Smith and Robert Meyer reached Mach 3.
2 and an altitude of over 80,000 feet aboard a NASA-liveried SR-71A. From then on, no more Blackbirds would take to the skies, most joining the A-12s in American museums. The SR-71 holds numerous records. The most famous example is the New York to London flight, completed in just 1 hour 54 minutes and 56 seconds, but also the London to Los Angeles flight in 3 hours, 47 minutes and 39 seconds.
In 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial of the independence of the United States, the US Air Force considered a flight around the world along the equator in an SR-71, in order to break a speed record. It is estimated that the plane could complete this round-the-world trip in just over 16 hours and 7 in-flight refuelings.
Unfortunately, to carry out the mission safely, this would involve deploying around a hundred refueling ships around the world, a logistical nightmare that puts an end to the idea. On July 27 and 28, 1976, the SR-71A with serial number 61-7958 achieved three records during three different flights: The first for average speed over 1000 kilometers in a closed circuit, namely 3367.
23 kilometers per hour, the second in a straight line of 3529.61 kilometers per hour, and the last for altitude in horizontal flight, with 85,069 feet. Later, during the delivery of an SR-71 to the Smithsonian in Washington, and therefore the last flight of this example, it broke the world speed record by linking the West Coast to the East Coast of the United States in 1 hour, 7 minutes and 53 seconds, an average speed of 3419.07 kilometers per hour.
All these records obviously do not reflect the true capabilities of Sr-71 however, since during the certified records, the logistics present, the imposed trajectory and the weather were factors which limited the maneuvers of the aircraft. It should be noted that during operational flights, the A-12 Oxcart and the SR-71 Blackbird have repeatedly surpassed the altitudes and speeds of the approved records.
Brian Schul, a pilot, recalls a particular moment aboard his Blackbird. “I’ll always remember a certain radio exchange that took place while Walt and I were flying through Southern California at 68,000 feet. We were listening to other aircraft’s radio transmissions as we entered Los Angeles airspace.
Even though they were n’t assigned to control us, they were monitoring our flight. I then heard a Cessna request a ground speed reading. ‘November Charlie 175, I see you at 90 knots,’ the controller replied. A moment later, a Twin Beech made the same request. ‘120 knots,’ the controller replied. We weren’t the only ones proud of our ground speed, because at that very moment, a Navy F-18 entered the airspace.
‘Los Angeles Center, Dusty 52 requesting ground speed.’” Before the controller’s response, I was thinking… Damn, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in his million- dollar cockpit, so why ask ATC? And then I understood. Good old Dusty wants to show all the other planes in the sector what real speed is.
He’s the fastest in the valley, and he wants everyone to know how much fun he’s having in his brand-new Hornet. After a short pause, the controller replied, “525 knots, Dusty.” My hand instinctively went for the microphone button, before I remembered that Walt was in charge of communications.
But there were only seconds left before we left the sector and the opportunity would be lost, and that Hornet had to be grounded. Then I heard a very familiar click on the radio, coming from my copilot. It was at that precise moment that I realized Walt and I had become a real team. In a professional way, without With emotion, he asked : “Los Angeles Centre, Aspen 20, do you have a ground speed for us?” After an unusual silence, the controller replied : “Aspen, I see you at 1,742 knots.
” But the moment I knew that Walt and I would also be very good friends was when he turned the radio back on, with the air of a confident fighter pilot: “Los Angeles Centre, thank you very much, but my instruments seem to indicate 1900.” There, Walter was a god. We heard a final transmission from Los Angeles, replying to him : “Message received Aspen, your equipment is probably more accurate than ours. Enjoy yourselves, guys.
” No other aircraft were heard on the frequency afterwards.” Today, SR-71, A-12 and YF-12 aircraft, still in one piece, are on display all over the United States. The U-2, however, is still used by NASA and the US Air Force, and distinguished itself recently when a U-2 crew member took this selfie of a Chinese spy balloon over American territory.
Nowadays, espionage missions are carried out by satellites, which are less expensive and easier to operate, but all these products of Skunk Works, the division of Lockheed’s “sickly” aircraft, will have marked history with their extraordinary capabilities, surpassing the Soviet MIG-31, regularly competing with the Swedish Viggen, and resisting, with the exception of the U-2, salvos of Soviet-made air-to-surface missiles .
Credits I hope you enjoyed this episode, it’s a much longer and more complete remake
of the 2018 one that you loved so much, and which honestly was the one I hated the most because of its form. As usual, you can support my work on Kofi and Patreon, while waiting for the next episode, which is coming very soon! Ciao!