During the harshest period of the Cold War, the SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3 + spy plane crew used some unusual equipment while flying through Soviet-controlled airspace
The SR-71 Blackbird collected intelligence during its service in some of the most difficult environments on Earth. The SR-71 was built using titanium because of the friction created by air molecules traveling over its surface at Mach 2.6, which would melt an aluminum frame since it isn’t designed to operate at extraordinary speeds, altitudes, and temperatures.
Because of its cutting-edge engineering, even the tools used to construct the SR-71 had to be created from scratch. Also, during the coldest period of the Cold War, the crew of the SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3+ spy plane carried a variety of interesting equipment while flying through Soviet-controlled airspace. Notwithstanding the fact that no SR-71s were ever shot down, Blackbird pilots and RSOs had a survival kit that contained a number of unusual items.
One long-standing urban myth or joke, according to Last Stand On Zombie Island, was that the SR-71’s survival kit contained:
“One low power 38 revolver; two boxes of ammunition; four days’ concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings.”
A highly uncommon aluminum gun that was manufactured in order to make it lightweight was part of the SR-71 survival kit.
Yet as Richard Graham, a former Blackbird pilot, writes in his book SR-71 Revealed the Inside History, “the survival kit contained standard Air Force survival items: a one-man life raft, day/night flares, desalinization kit, emergency UHF radio with spare batteries, first aid kit, thermal blanket, fishing gear, survival manual, and maps. Tethered between you and the survival kit was the inflated one-man life raft, ready for a water landing.”
A sealed envelope that the SR-71 crews were instructed to hand to anyone bothering them was another item carried in the pressure suite (but not in the survival kit that was in the ejection seat). When they were concerned about having an SR-71 land on their tiny base in South Korea, Butch Sheffield, presented the sealed envelope to the base commander. The contents of that envelope and what it stated are unknown, but the base commander smiled, acted amiably, and was ready to go above and beyond to ensure the crew’s comfort.
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Photo by: U.S. Air Force and Linda Sheffield Miller