North Vietnamese Air Defenses hit 2 Blackbird Mach 3 spy planes
How close did a Blackbird Mach 3 spy plane ever come to being shot down? The famed spy plane SR-71 Blackbird is renowned for holding the official record for the…
How close did a Blackbird Mach 3 spy plane ever come to being shot down? The famed spy plane SR-71 Blackbird is renowned for holding the official record for the…
“If they hadn’t had the unstart when they were going through the gate, the record speed would’ve been higher. Their goal was to make 2200 mph,” David Peters former SR-71…
Ben Rich of Lockheed Skunk Works presented a paper in 1976 that provided a brief overview of the “Bx,” a straightforward modification of the SR-71 Blackbird into a supercruising strike…
If KC-135Qs were unavailable, ordinary Stratotankers could be used to refuel the SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3+ spy plane. If it weren’t for air refueling, the SR-71’s range would be relatively…
The first aircraft to use its own fuel for hydraulic fluid was the SR-71 Blackbird and it was called the fuel hydraulic system The legendary SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3+ spy…
‘Tony LeVier [the test pilot who flew the first flight of the U-2] was sitting at Bob Gilliland’s bar when we arrived. The story of how the U-2 was named…
By 1962, Kelly Johnson had done at least a few studies on using the A-12 as a carrier for a QF-104 Starfighter The A-12 was the result of the military’s…
‘My RSO had given him “the bird” with his middle finger: I lit the afterburners and left that Mirage standing still. Two minutes later, we were crossing the Channel,’ Lt.…
The SR-71’s engineering was so advanced that new tools had to be created in order to build the Blackbird The SR-71 Blackbird collected intelligence in some of the world’s most…
‘I watched in amazement as the Vc circle [on the radar display], which told us the relative closing velocity of the target, started rapidly winding up far higher than I…