Reply With QuoteAbsolutely loved it. Thankyou
This is a pretty good read.
http://gizmodo.com/5511236/the-thril...r+71-blackbird
Absolutely loved it. Thankyou
A fascinating read.
However, his maths is a bit out - he says that he first saw an SR-71 in the flesh 29 years after he built a Revel kit of the SR-71 aged 10. He later says that it was in 1983 that he joined the program
So he was 10 in 1954 then...
Or have i done the maths wrong ?
I liked this bit...
... 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.z
Really enjoyed reading that, Gordon, thanks for posting the link.
TheWikipedia entry on Brian Shul has his birth year as 1948.Originally Posted by Michael_Mcr
Good read that, thanks for reading. The Blackbird was always my fave in Top Trumps!
I remember seeing one fly at the Mildenhall Airshow many years ago - I think it was the first time one was flown in an airshow in Europe. It was amazing to see it in flight.
Obviously a visit to Duxford to get up really close to one is a must.
I always think it is incredibly to realise the SR71 is late 1950's technology. What an incredible leap from the aircraft of just a few years earlier. Indeed, the progress in aircraft technology between 1945 and the 1950's is truly incredible in retrospect.
So clever my foot fell off.
Bloody brilliant. Thanks for posting. I can imagine him delivering these mind-boggling statistics in a dead-pan, carefree style as though there is nothing more normal than outrunning missiles at mach 3.5.
Yes - The Mildenhall Air Fete in 198 - 4 ?
I saw it fly then, dont know if that was the only occasion. Happy memories of the Burger stalls at the annual Mildenhall Air Fetes manned by staff and officers that used to compete for the "best relish contest" - they had names like "SAC-Donalds" :)
I always thought that concorde was a noisy beast until i saw the SR-71 fly.
EDIT: found it on YouTube
http://youtu.be/2-gMjITxphE
Last edited by Michael_Mcr; 1st February 2013 at 19:39.
A fascinating read, thanks for posting.
F.T.F.A.
Yes indeed. Last time I was there a few years ago it was the highlight of the visit. It was just standing on the hanger floor so you could walk under it and touch the thing! It really does look like something from the future, even now.In fact that whole hanger is a wonder. So many Airfix kits from my youth, in the metal.
Great read, thanks for posting.
Fascinating stuff!
I don't suppose anyones got the ebook 'sled driver' that article refers to that they can lend me have they?
Cheers..
Jase
amazing plane and totally amazing design would love to see on in real life
Without a doubt, the coolest plane ever. I grew up in the 70's, so the SR-71 was such an icon - super-fast, super-high, even the name is cool. ("Best in the pack" of Top Trumps).
I wanted to have a look at the one they have on display in DC, near Dulles Airport. Didn't have time unfortunately.
The B-1 Lancer was another super-cool plane from that era - and I did see one of these at an airshow a few years ago. Those planes (along with Concorde obviously) were the stars of the "faster is better"-era IMO.
As I remember, there used to be a SR71 based at Mildenhall permanently during the 80's. Had a hangar specifically for it but if you were lucky, you could see it from one of the tracks round the back.
Was quite a regular at the air shows then as well, sure it used to be the last item but remember watching it a few times then. Also remember being able to buy a "burger and a bud" for a quid😄
Malc
What fantastic read...so much so that I haven't even finished reading it yet! I'm a Gizmodo regular but this article completely passed me by.
This is as far as I've got and it's by far one of the most entertaining paragraphs I've read in recent memory:
...and back to itOne 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 twin 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 Walter's mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter 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 transmis sion on that frequency all the way to the coast.
I can remember getting a model of the Blackbird out of a box of cereal- long time ago
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