‘Airspeed indicators were on one side, attitude indicators were on the other, altimeter gauges were in the middle, and we couldn’t even tell what time it was. It was a…
“With no forward visibility from the back seat, my RSO was looking through his view sight and had picked up the sequence of flashing lights beneath the aircraft. It was…
Robert Powell, the first SR-71 pilot to clock 1,000 hours of flight time in the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, passed away on August 27, 2021, at the…
The SR-71 remained the fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft for approximately 24 years of its life It was a different era in 1976. Americans were waiting to buy as the…
In the 1960s, fearing that the Soviets would shoot down U-2 spy planes, the CIA and the Air Force worked together to build a new aircraft that flew higher and…
On December 22, 1964, Bob Gilliland performed the illustrious SR-71 maiden flight Robert J. “Bob” Gilliland passed away on Thursday, July 4, 2019, at the Rancho Mirage, California retirement facility…
In addition to receiving two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Air Medal, Lieutenant Colonel Ben Bowles gained one of them for rescuing SR-71 #960 Lieutenant Colonel BennBowles, a former SR-71…
While the SR-71 was operational, several pilots flew the Blackbird faster than the official record but not during sanctioned record attempts The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft…
“I came away with one observation—the more recommendations an applicant had from general officers, the less likely were his chances of getting into the SR-71 program. Flying skills rather than…
“Everything seemed to unfold in slow motion. I learned later the time from event onset to catastrophic departure from controlled flight was only 2-3 sec. Still trying to communicate with…