These intriguing images, which were captured on Nov. 1, 1981, by US Air Force (USAF) Scene Camera Operator Ken Hackman, show an SR-71 Blackbird flying with just one engine running at full afterburner
The most sophisticated spy plane in the Blackbird family and the fastest jet-powered aircraft in the world, the SR-71 was created by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s clandestine “Skunk Works” division. The SR-71’s incredible speed and high altitude were intended to allow it to fly deep into enemy territory without being intercepted. Operating at a maximum speed of Mach 3+, it could safely operate at a height exceeding sixteen miles above the Earth.
The intriguing pictures in this post, which were taken on November 1, 1981, by US Air Force (USAF) Scene Camera Operator Ken Hackman, show an SR-71 Blackbird flying with just one engine running at full afterburner.
Why is that?
‘That is what we called a “single-engine go around,”’ says Stormy Boudreaux, SR-71 Blackbird pilot. ‘It was a practiced emergency procedure. It simulated what you had to do if you were making a single-engine approach to land and for a variety of reasons something made the runway or the landing impossible so you “went around” on only one engine. The tremendous thrust with one engine in full afterburner and the other in idle was eye-opening! To counter the yaw from that engine required full rudder as well as banking the aircraft into the good engine in order to maintain your flight direction down the runway.
‘Most twin-engine aircraft have to do something similar, but it’s darn right frightening the first time you try it in the SR-71. That one engine in AB is really pushing the nose around trying to turn the jet away from that engine, and the amount of bank angle when at low speed makes you glad you are strapped tightly in the seat. It’s almost a knife-edge pass!’
Boudreaux is echoed by David Peters, another SR-71 pilot.
‘As Stormy said the picture[s] indicate a single engine go around. Thrust was never an issue. What became imperative was the ability to point the airplane. Under most conditions full opposite rudder and a slight bank into the operating engine was enough. By under certain conditions, other factors came into play. Minimum control speed being most important.
‘We had a couple of missions out of Mildenhall that went hot to the tankers. That required a heavy takeoff using a 65,000-pound yo-yo fuel load. In the wintertime, with freezing temperatures in England min control speed was a huge factor. Once the burners lit if you lost an engine on takeoff, once the burners were lit your only option was to eject. Why you ask.
‘Well, the runway there is only 8,000 feet. There was so much thrust developed in the cold, heavy air climate that your speed combined with gross weight would not allow you to abort since you couldn’t stop the airplane. There was plenty of thrust available to fly on one engine but there was so much thrust you could not control it below min control speed which in those cases was generally around 260 knots. So, the only thing you could do was pull both engines to idle pop the chute and eject.
‘I always felt that was perhaps our most dangerous operation.’
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Photo by Scene Camera Operator Ken Hackman / U.S. Air Force