Gil Bertelson, the SR-71 pilot who saw three sunrises during a single mission
“You know the part in the ‘High Flight’ poem where it talks about putting out your hand to touch the face of God? Well, when we were ‘at speed and…
“You know the part in the ‘High Flight’ poem where it talks about putting out your hand to touch the face of God? Well, when we were ‘at speed and…
The crew chief signaled BC to halt as the SR-71 slowly taxied into the hangar and drew near the parking spot. As usual, BC hit the brakes, but the SR-71…
A flaw was found in the batch of suits NASA was producing for the pilots before the launch of Columbia on the first shuttle mission (STS-1). Since 1941, the David…
“We had to refuel right after takeoff for only one reason, and it wasn’t because we leaked JP-7 fuel on the ground…” Col. Richard H. Graham, former SR-71 Blackbird pilot…
“Talking to Lockheed engineers later, they determined there was a good possibility if we had gone supersonic, the entire nose section might have imploded from the supersonic shock wave,” Col. Richard…
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…