Great story from an SR-71 driver.

[robear]

Stumbled across this while surfin' about.   The blackbird was always one of my favorite airplanes..

http://gizmodo.com/5511236/the-thrill-of-flying-the-sr+71-blackbird

[mellestad]

Neat!

[TechMan]

That is cool.  Thank you.
I particularly like

One 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 transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast. 

[RocketMan]

One of the better stories about the SR-71.  Thanks, robear.

[RevDisk]

Some folks put up their nose and scoff "Anthropomorphism!" when they hear tales of machines having a personality.  They are fools.

Any machine that is complex enough has its own ... quirks, tendencies, mannerisms, etc.  What the heck do folks think a personality is?  That which is unique to an entity.

[JonnyB]

The SR-71 story I like is one that may or may not be true.

Allegedly, there was a lot of radio chatter one day, with various airline pilots requesting altitude changes in an attempt to find smoother air. Requests came in a steady flow.

In a less-busy moment, a call was made to ATC from a military flight: "XXX Center, [Military flight so-and-so] requesting (flight level) six-zero-zero (60 thousand feet above sea level). Center's response was a hearty chuckle and "[Flight so-and-so], change approved. If you can make it there."

A cheerful response came back: "XXX Center, thanks. [Flight so-and-so] out of eight-zero-zero (80 thousand feet!) for six-zero-zero."

jb

[robear]

This site actually has (what is claimed to be) an SR-71 flight manual.   Interesting reading.

http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/

[HankB]

According to the NASA Mach calculator (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/sound.html), the Mach 3.5 at 80,000 feet mentioned in the story corresponds to 2311 MPH . . .

Didn't a former SecDef kill the Blackbird program by ordering the tooling destroyed just to make sure money wouldn't be diverted from one of his pet programs? Who was it? Laird? McNamara?

[kgbsquirrel]

According to the NASA Mach calculator (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/sound.html), the Mach 3.5 at 80,000 feet mentioned in the story corresponds to 2311 MPH . . .

Didn't a former SecDef kill the Blackbird program by ordering the tooling destroyed just to make sure money wouldn't be diverted from one of his pet programs? Who was it? Laird? McNamara?

Yes. It was McNamara. Also, his pet project failed horribly. It was supposed to be a heavy fighter jet for carrier use. In the worlds of the Admiral who testified about it in front of congress, "...there isn't enough thrust in all of Christendom to make that jet a decent fighter..." You should also read up about him and the USS Liberty. 

[Torchman]

Can you imagine what we could develope if "men of genius" were given that kind of support today? No commitees, six sigma, etc.. Literally the sky would be the limit.

[taurusowner]

Can you imagine what we could develope if "men of genius" were given that kind of support today? No commitees, six sigma, etc.. Literally the sky would be the limit.

Now I know people who think the entire space program shouldn't have happened because it was all white people.

[HankB]

Now I know people who think the entire space program shouldn't have happened because it was all white people.

Just think - if they'd had a proper diversity program from the very beginning, we might be approaching the first static test of the Redstone rocket today!