Another great aircraft remembered ...

Brothers of Briar

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A very cool flash movie!There was a film called "Firefox" starring Clint Eastwood
as a pilot who steals a similar plane from the Soviets,very cool movie.
I worked in Environmental Testing as a lab tech doing military electronic testing,
we had special machines to produce the thermal stress involved in a plane at high
altitude moving to a lower altitude and vice/versa.It is -55C at those upper altitudes
and the plane literally rains moisture when it gets down to the runway. :)

Winslow :sunny:
 
Knew/know several pilots who flew the Blackbird. The SR's stationed at Kadena AB, Japan were called "Habu's" after the local deadly poisonous snake! Plane leaked fuel like a sieve while on the ground; sealed up tight once airborne with a little speed and heat on it's titanium wings!
When asked (even in the club after much whiskey being consumed!!) about it's performance; the only reply was "Faster than Mach 3 and higher than 60,000 feet!!"

I can tell you that I saw a picture of two men playing chess, taken above Mach 3 and above 60,000 feet, in Moscow Square!! Detail was fantastic; one player was getting ready to lose badly!!! Great plane, and pretty darn good cameras!! FTRPLT
 
I saw an SR-71 at EAA Oshkosh a number of years back. When it taxied to the ramp there wre a number of airmen putting out some kind of towels to blot up all the dripping fuel. Somewher I read that it was built so loose to allow for expansion due to heat at speed. They only loaded enough fuel to get it airborne and rendezvous with a tanker. Then they would fill it and head out on the mission. The "Skunk Works" really turned out some fine aircraft.
 
I need to read a little more before I start typing and send - ftrplt covered this much better and with far less typos. :oops:
 
While flying KC-135's out of Kadena, we could observe SR-71's high above us. Even with binoculars, they were little more than specks in the sky.

Many of the experienced pilots speculated they were somewhere between 80,000 to 100,000 feet high. I remember that the sky is noticeably darker at those altitudes.

Mike B.
 
While I was at RAF Alconbury, I had opportunities to see the SR-71 shoot 'missed approaches' and 'touch 'n goes' fairly frequently. The SR-71 and the RAF Vulcan bomber, were the ONLY airplanes that would make anyone standing outside stop whatever they were doing and watch. When the SR-71 was clear of the runway, it would often 'max climb' out of the airspace, and you had to look quickly because when it lit afterburners, it was gone in seconds ... even on a rare clear day in England.

It STILL is without equal in terms of mission and performance ... a truly AWESOME bird!

This will give you a taste turn your sound up LOUD!!!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EBmm5YnoKsk" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Wasn't this the only plane in the US arsenal that never had a single fatality during development, testing or its long career? I thought I recall reading that somewhere. I use several of their unclassified pix (and U2 as well) in my classes. Amazing the clarity considering the technology of the day.

Natch
 
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