“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…
“You haven’t been lost till you’ve been lost at Mach 3 because for every minute that you don’t know where you are, you’re 35 miles further away from where you…
“My call sign was ‘Belmont 86’ and my transmissions to approach control were something like this: ‘Bodø Approach, Belmont 86, six-zero miles west, declaring an in-flight emergency, request straight-in approach…
“The termination of the SR-71 Blackbird was a grave mistake and could place our nation at a serious disadvantage in the event of a future crisis,” Senator John Glenn The Lockheed…
Maj. Maury Rosenberg, the SR-71 pilot, and Maj. E. D. McKim, the RSO, were heading southwest on their final pass over the DMZ when North Korea launched two Soviet SA-2…
“On take off, shortly after rotation and beyond the take-off abort point, the SR-71 left engine surged, followed by progressive failure of the second stage turbine wheel…” Colonel Thomas S.…
All was calm halfway over the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), but Graham suddenly observed a big object over North Korea that was astonishingly higher than his SR-71 Blackbird actually was Performances…
“Center, Aspen 20, you got a ground speed readout for us?’ There was a longer than normal pause … “Aspen, I show 1,942 knots.” No further inquiries were heard on that…
“… The cadets now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their faces as the SR-71 leveled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer…
The plane was given the nickname “Blackbird” after being painted all black. Before Gary Powers’ U-2 was shot down, work on a ground-breaking espionage plane had already started at Lockheed’s…