Under specific circumstances, F-14 and F-15 fighters were capable of simulating SR-71 kills The SR-71 Blackbird collected intelligence during the course of its 24 years of service in some of…
The NASA YF-12 Blackbird research program was ambitious; the plane, unless it was grounded for extensive maintenance or modification, flew on average once every week The images in this post…
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 Ben Bowles, a former…
“I assumed the Soviet MiG-31 fighter pilot would like nothing better than an opportunity to fire his missiles at an SR-71 Blackbird. Certainly, the SR-71 Blackbird would be a prized…
“Suddenly the wife began sliding her wedding ring off and handed it to me. She said, ‘I would love to have my ring flown at Mach 3,’” Richard H. Graham,…
“We had no viable emergency airfields, and I did not want to be a no-notice, no–flight plan, single-engine emergency arrival at David Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, especially since the…
“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…