The Blackbird
The Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft served as the basis for developing the SR-71, also referred to as the “Blackbird” a long-range, advanced strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The 4200th (later 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California, received the first SR-71 to begin service in January 1966. The first SR-71 flight occurred on December 22, 1964. On January 26, 1990, the U.S. Air Force retired its SR-71 fleet.
During its operational lifetime, the SR-71 provided intelligence about the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the US raid on Libya in 1986, and the revelation of Iranian Silkworm missile batteries in 1987. The USAF ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990.
For almost 24 years, the SR-71 held the record for being the fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft in the world. It could survey 100,000 square miles of the Earth’s surface per hour from 80,000 feet.
SR-71 crews’ anti-SAM tactics
In 1968, the SR-71 crewmembers spent most of their time in the crew lounge, discussing anti-SAM tactics. As told by Paul Crickmore in his book SR-71 Blackbird (Combat Legends), the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing approached the time when they would be flying out of the country at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
The plan was to penetrate enemy airspace at Mach 3. If fired upon, the pilot would accelerate to Mach 3.2 and climb, thereby forcing the missile’s guiding system to re-calculate the intercept solution. One idea was to dump fuel to become lighter, increasing the climb rate.
A 5-mile-long contrail in the stratosphere
During a sortie over Montana, a crew decided to end the debate by dumping fuel for ten seconds and seeing if the afterburner would ignite the fuel trail. Instead, this turned instantly into an ice cloud in the fridge’s -55°C stratosphere and left a 5-mile-long contrail finger pointing directly at the aircraft.
Once he turned back toward the west, the pilot stated that he could see the trail for hundreds of miles. That plan was scratched. That was the opposite effect, but they wanted it regardless; the SR-71 was the first attempt at stealth in an airplane.
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