[POLACK]

 

[deuceguy]

Man! What a great video! Thanks!

 

[Jim Horton]

I worked with a man who did maintenance on them. He was a meticulous wizard. This guy stuffed a 351 Windsor in a Mustang II. Since Florida gets hot, he installed AC by spreading components around the too full engine compartment. When he broke the emergency brake handle off (used it for helping spin) he built a new ratcheting mechanism out of SS. He would only get 6 months out of a set of Michelins. I knew him in the '70s and he couldn't talk much about the SRs but he did say they needed special tools so as to keep from contaminating the titanium. Nice memories.

 

[POLACK]

had a guy,al something,did that at my shop in sfla

 

[Ted Brown]

I spent the better part of my military career in air reconnaissance and that included occasional involvement with the SR71 platform. To this day, I'm not allowed to discuss much of what I know about the SR71, especially it's flight limitations and performance. At one time I was able to watch the computer print outs coming from a live mission and I noted that the altitude and speed being flown exceeded the advertised maximums published by government records. To this day, no other aircraft has come close to even those published figures. An SR71 flying a recce mission along the North Korean border was fired on with surface to air missiles. The closest they came to the SA71 was a miss by five miles.

 

[Eyeguy]

Brian Shul tells some great stories about flying the SR71. His story about entering a pissing contest with civi and commercial pilots and air traffic control regarding flight speed over ground is hilarious.

 

[XXIV Corps]

LA SPEED STORY - SR-71 Pilot Brian Shul USAF (Ret.)

The Insane Engineering of the SR-71 Blackbird | M14 Forum

XXIV Corps

 

[M11293]

The SAC museum outside of Omaha, NE has one of 2 (I think) SR71s on display.

I remember my parents hosted my childhood birthdays there. I was always amazed by that bird. First thing you see when you walk into the entrance.

If any of you are passing through Omaha (between Lincoln and Omaha), check out that museum.

 

[Jim Horton]

The A-12 drivers like to remind the SR-71 guys that they flew their single seaters faster and higher.

 

[Oxmix]

First time I saw one was in 1968 on Okinawa. It was flying low and slow. At first I thought it was a UFO. lol Watched them take off from Kadena, As soon as they got airborne the pilot pointed the nose straight up and in no time it was out of sight.

 

[POLACK]

 

[Honest Tom]

The SAC museum outside of Omaha, NE has one of 2 (I think) SR71s on display.

I remember my parents hosted my childhood birthdays there. I was always amazed by that bird. First thing you see when you walk into the entrance.

If any of you are passing through Omaha (between Lincoln and Omaha), check out that museum.

View attachment 446192

I did not recall exactly but I thought I remembered seeing one with a child of mine in Florida, 20 years or so ago. Come to find out it was at Eglin AFB's armament museum. There are actually a bunch on display at various locations, here's the link I just found: SR-71 Online - Blackbird Locations

 

[MRusan]

LA SPEED STORY - SR-71 Pilot Brian Shul USAF (Ret.)

The Insane Engineering of the SR-71 Blackbird | M14 Forum

XXIV Corps View attachment 446193 View attachment 446194

Isn't that an A-12? Hard to say exactly from those angles.

 

[XXIV Corps]

Isn't that an A-12? Hard to say exactly from those angles

I don't remember now, but I could walk up and touch her!

 

[POLACK]

there'a 1 at eglin afb mueseum and battleship alabama museum .

 

[lysander]

Isn't that an A-12? Hard to say exactly from those angles.

No, that is an SR-71, The A-12 did not have the nose blisters. The blisters were a modification made later in the SR-71 life.

 

[pendennis]

Air Force Museum at Dayton has both a YF-12A and the SR-71.

 

[XM25Ren]

Air Force Museum at Dayton has both a YF-12A and the SR-71.

I was there years ago, would like to revisit that wonderful museum.

REN

 

[MRusan]

Air Force Museum at Dayton has both a YF-12A and the SR-71.

Great museum. They have several really unique items like the McDonnell XF-85 Goblin. Totally worth a trip out there and spend at LEAST a whole day there.
Another good one is the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT.
For a small privately run museum, they have a few really special items there as well like the only GeeBee Model A and the only VS-44A left. www.neam.org. Their GeeBee R1 replica is unique in that they had access to the original plans to build it and the engine they put in it is very close by serial number to the one in the original. They made a promise to never let it be flown so they could use the plans. They even had pointers from the designer while they were working on it.
The Intrepid is good too. They have an A-12 there.
The Hiller Museum in CA is pretty neat too. Hiller Aviation Museum Got a special behind the scenes tour with my Dad while out there for my brother's wedding and we went there on a lark. They weren't open yet, but one of the guys took us through it anyway since they were there working on stuff. Was cool.
Obviously, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum is at the top of the pyramid. Just the part on the Mall is impressive, but I need to go back there and visit both there and the Udvar-Hazy location.

 

[Random Guy]

It was in the news lately that P&W has resurrected the unique J58 engine technology for some new high speed aircraft program for the Pentagon. Apparently the SR-71s engine design was the only one that could transition to a ram-jet type of thrust.

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