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history

When 18 MiG-15s prevented TARZON-loaded B-29s to destroy two bridges over the Yalu River

by Till Daisd March 27, 2024

After WWII B-29 saw military service again in Korea between 1950 and 1953, battling new adversaries: the Soviet-built MiG-15 jet fighters

When the huge VB-13 TARZON was first designed in 1946, it had far more devastating power than the VB-3 RAZON.

The British 12,000-pound Tall Boy bomb, known as the VB-13, was largely equipped with control surfaces on its forward and rear shrouds, allowing for bomb control in both azimuth and range. The bombardier controlled it by radio while it was visually tracked with a tail flare. The name “TARZON” came from a combination of Tall Boy and RAZON (RAnge and AZimuy ONly).

The bomb was still in the development stage when World War II ended, and the program was halted. However, in 1950, it was reorganized for testing using B-29 and B-36 aircraft.

Although the bomb bay of the B-29 had to be modified in order to accommodate one VB-13, there are reports that eighteen Convair B-36 Peacemaker heavy bombers were modified to carry two TARZONs apiece.

The first TARZON strike in Korea occurred in December 1950, according to the National Museum of the United States Air Force. By the end of January, B-29s from the 19th Bomb Group had cut spans out of four bridges.

However, bridges were never easy to destroy, not only because they were difficult to hit but also because on their way to the target, Superfortresses had to battle new adversaries, in the form of the Soviet-built MiG-15 jet fighters, as the beautiful artwork by Mads Bangsø of a head-on view of a B-29 (serial number 45-21745) of the 19th Bombardment Group at 15,000ft on a clear day over North Korea featured in this post shows.

As explained by Michael Napier in his book Korea 1950–53 B-29s, Thunderjets and Skyraiders fight the strategic bombing campaign. The bomber has just released a 12,000lb TARZON radio-guided bomb, aimed at the bridge across the Yalu River at Sinuiju, and is itself under attack from a Soviet MiG-15 fighter. B-29 Superfortresses from the 19th and 307th BGs were assigned to attack the Yalu River bridges at Manpojin and Sinanju on March 29, 1951. Three 19th BG B-29s with TARZON loads were en route to the strategically significant Sinuiju bridges, while the main force was moving toward Manpojin. Because of bad weather in their intended area, the main force struck the Pyongyang airfield, which was their alternate objective.

The TARZON formation continued, however, but one aircraft had to return to base early due to a broken engine oil pipe, forcing it to cancel the mission. Then, eighteen MiG-15s attacked the two remaining aircraft in the target area.

These Soviet fighters were from the 28th and 72nd GvIAP led by Lt. Col. N.L. Trofimov. The B-29 (45-21749) piloted by Lt. Col. Payne Jennings was hit by the MiG-15s so hard during the engagement that two of its engines had to be shut down, forcing the aircraft to abort the mission. The aircraft crashed into the sea as it tried to return to base, killing every member of the crew. The last surviving B-29, shown above, fired its TARZON, but it missed the target and the aircraft was damaged so badly by the MiG-15s that it had to divert to a different base.

TARZONs remained in short supply, however, and after a B-29 was believed to have been lost attempting to jettison one, the Air Force canceled the TARZON in August 1951. Eleven of the thirty TARZON bombs unleashed on Korea struck their targets, demolishing six bridges and seriously injuring another.

Korea 1950–53 B-29s, Thunderjets, and Skyraiders fight the strategic bombing campaign is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.

Artwork: Mads Bangsø and Osprey Publishing

March 27, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

The first U-2 pilot remembers how, after almost biting his lethal cyanide pill in half, the only U-2 pilot to fly above Moscow almost died and crashed into Red Square

by Till Daisd March 26, 2024

written by Till Daisd

Who could blame Vito, when approaching Moscow for the first time, felt his throat dry. Consequently, he reached into his pocket for a cough drop, but instead, he took out the cyanide pill and popped it into his mouth

From the beginning, the CIA and the US Air Force (USAF) collaborated to manage U-2 development, testing, and operations. However, the CIA hired citizens to fly overflights over the USSR. USAF Reserve fighter pilots left the service voluntarily to become CIA pilots because President Dwight D. Eisenhower thought that flying military pilots over the USSR would be interpreted as an act of war. They were test pilots for Lockheed, officially.

On July 4, 1956, the first U-2 mission over the USSR was conducted, and the aircraft returned with photos of the shipyards in Leningrad. Following that, there were a few more flights, and the images they provided helped the US determine that, contrary to popular belief, there was no “missile gap” or “bomber gap” favoring the Soviets. In the end, the CIA conducted 24 U-2 flights over the USSR in addition to multiple flights over other communist nations.

According to Ben Rich’s book, “Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed”, Marty Knutson, the first pilot chosen to fly the U-2, recalls:

‘I was the first pilot selected to fly in the U-2 program and made the third flight over the Soviet Union on the morning of July 8, 1956. I was a twenty-six-year-old with a thousand hours of fighter time. Now here I was flying over Russia in a fragile little airplane with a wingspan as long as the Brooklyn Bridge—and below I could see three hundred miles in every direction. This was enemy territory, big time. In those days especially, I had a very basic attitude about the Soviet Union —man, it was an evil empire, a forbidding, alien place and I sure as hell didn’t want to crash-land in the middle of it. I had to pinch myself that I was actually flying over the Soviet Union.

‘I began the day by eating a high-protein breakfast, steak and eggs, then put on the bulky pressure suit and the heavy helmet and had to lie down in a contour chair for two hours before taking off and breathe pure oxygen. The object was to purge the nitrogen out of my system to avoid getting the bends if I had to come down quick from altitude.

‘I knew from being briefed by the two other guys who flew these missions ahead of me to expect a lot of Soviet air activity. They tracked me from the minute I took off, which was an unpleasant surprise. We thought we would be invisible to their radar at such heights. No dice. Through my drift sight, I saw fifteen Russian MiGs following me from about fifteen thousand feet below.

‘The day before, Carmine Vito had followed the railroad tracks right into Moscow and actually saw two MiGs collide and crash while attempting to climb to his altitude.

‘Vito had a close call. The ground crew had put his poison cyanide pill in the wrong pocket. We were issued the pill in case of capture and torture and all that good stuff, but given the option whether to use it or not.

‘But Carmine didn’t know the cyanide was in the right breast pocket of his coveralls when he dropped in a fistful of lemon-flavored cough drops. The cyanide pill was supposed to be in an inside pocket. Vito felt his throat go dry as he approached Moscow for the first time—who could blame him? So, he fished in his pocket for a cough drop, and grabbed the cyanide pill instead, and popped it into his mouth.

‘He started to suck on it. Luckily, he realized his mistake in a split second and spit it out in horror before it could take effect. Had he bit down, he would have died instantly and crashed right into Red Square. Just imagine the international uproar!

‘I kept my cyanide pill in an inside pocket and prayed that I would not have an engine flameout.’

Check out the Habubrats SR-71 Twitter profile and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Facebook page for further Blackbird photos and stories.

Photo by U.S. Air Force

March 26, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

A rare aluminum gun was included in the survival kit for the SR-71 Blackbird crew members

by Till Daisd March 25, 2024

written by Till Daisd

The survival kit carried by Blackbird’s pilots and RSOs included a few unconventional items, even though no SR-71 was ever shot down

The Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft were the basis for the development of the long-range, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft known as the SR-71, or “Blackbird,” as it was informally called. 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.

Nothing that had come before the Blackbird could compare to it.“Everything had to be invented. Everything,” in an interesting article that surfaced on the Lockheed Martin website, renowned aircraft designer Kelly Johnson of Skunk Works recalled.

During its service, the SR-71 Blackbird gathered intelligence in some of the most dangerous environments on Earth. Blackbird’s pilots and RSOs carried a survival kit that included a few unconventional items, even though no SR-71 was ever shot down.

SR-71-Survival-Kit-1 — SR-71 Blackbird Pilots Survival Kit

The inclusion of an extremely uncommon aluminum gun in the Blackbird’s survival kit is quite interesting! Aluminum was used to make the gun lightweight. Rodney Miller was informed about the gun for protection by his former SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO), Col. Richard (Butch) Sheffield.

According to Last Stand On Zombie Island, one long-standing joke/urban legend was that the SR-71’s survival kit contained: “One low-power 38 revolver; two boxes of ammunition; four days’ concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings.”

However, as former Blackbird’s pilot Richard Graham explains in his book SR-71 Revealed the Inside History, “the survival kit contained standard Air Force survival items: a one-man life raft, day/night flares, desalinization kit, emergency UHF radio with spare batteries, first aid kit, thermal blanket, fishing gear, survival manual, and maps. Tethered between you and the survival kit was the inflated one-man life raft, ready for a water landing.”

An additional item carried in the pressure suite (not in the survival kit located in the ejection seat) was a sealed envelope containing instructions for the SR-71 crew members to present to anyone causing them trouble. Butch Sheffield gave the sealed envelope to the base commander in South Korea when they were upset about having an SR-71 land on their tiny base. We are not sure what was in that envelope or what it said but the base commander smiled and then was compatible and willing to do anything to make the crew comfortable.

Check out the Habubrats SR-71 and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Facebook pages for further Blackbird photos and stories.

Photo by U.S. Air Force and Linda Sheffield Miller

March 25, 2024 0 comment

History

Zero-sen ace Saburo Sakai describes the combat in which he was injured by US Navy SBD Dauntless dive bombers

by Till Daisd March 24, 2024

written by Till Daisd

The SBD rear gunners fired as Saburo Sakai and his wingman closed the range. It was the high-scoring ace’s most harrowing and memorable combat of the war

The US Navy was able to adopt a more offensive stance as a result of their victory at Midway. The Americans swiftly turned their attention to the Japanese airfield being built on Guadalcanal to take the lead. The 1st Marine Division touched down nearby on August 7, encountering little resistance. The carriers Enterprise, Saratoga, and USS Wasp provided support.

According to Donald Nijboer’s description in his book SBD Dauntless Vs. A6M Zero-sen, Pacific Theater 1941–44, the invasion fleet was assaulted by IJNAF fighters and bombers based in Rabaul, who reacted swiftly. Although there was little damage, it did lead to the most well-known air-to-air combat of the war between SBDs and Zero sens. As F4Fs tore into the Japanese formations, a single SBD from Wasp, flown by Lt. Dudley Adams of VS 71, managed to surprise four Zero sens from above and behind. Adams broke off and headed for cloud cover as soon as he scored hits on the lead fighter.

Sadly for Adams, Tainan Kokutai ace FPO1c Saburo Sakai, who wrote about the experience in his memoir Samurai!, flew the Zero sen he struck;

‘We flew through broken clouds, unable to find any hostile planes. No sooner had we emerged from one cloud than, for the first time in all my years of combat, an enemy plane caught me unawares. I felt a heavy thud, the scream of a bullet, and a hole two inches across appeared through the cockpit glass to my left, only inches away from my face.

‘I still had not seen any other planes in the air. It might have been ground fire which hit me. Then I caught a glimpse of an enemy bomber – not a fighter! – which had caught me napping. The Dauntless hung on its wing, racing for cloud cover. The audacity of the enemy pilot was amazing; he had deliberately jumped four Zero fighters in a slow and lightly armed dive bomber.

‘In a moment I was on his tail. The Dauntless jerked up and down several times, then dove suddenly into a cloud. I wasn’t giving up that easily; I went right after him. For a few seconds I saw only white as we raced through the billowing mass. Then we were through, in the clear. I closed in rapidly and fired. The rear gunner flung up his hands and collapsed over his gun. I pulled back easily on the stick and the shells walked up to the engine. The SBD rolled repeatedly to the left, then dropped into a wild dive. [FPO2c Masayoshi] Yonekawa saw the pilot bail out. It was my 60th victory.’

Saburo-Sakai — Japanese fighter ace Saburo Sakai

A few minutes later, Sakai spotted a formation of what he thought to be eight F4Fs when he was flying at 13,000 feet over the Guadalcanal coast. They were SBDs from VB 6 and VS 5 led by Lt Carl Horenburger, the aircraft circling over Tulagi awaiting orders to attack a target. As Sakai and his wingman closed the range, the SBD rear gunners opened fire. For the high-scoring ace, it was his most memorable and harrowing combat of the war:

‘I was in a trap! The enemy planes were not fighters, but bombers, the Avenger [they were SBDs] torpedo planes, types I had never seen before. From the rear, they looked exactly like Wildcats, but now their extra size was visible.

‘There was no turning back now. If I turned or looped, the enemy gunners would have a clear shot at the exposed belly of the Zero. There was only one thing to do – keep going, and open up with everything I had. I jammed down on the firing button. Almost at the same moment every gun in the Avenger formation opened up. The planes were only 20 yards in front of me when flames spurted from two bombers. That was all I saw. A violent explosion smashed at my body. I felt as though knives had been thrust savagely into my ears; the world burst into flaming red and I went blind.’

After receiving many 0.30 cal. hits to his cockpit, Sakai was severely injured. He descended from 8,000 feet to nearly sea level before pulling out. He nursed his wounded fighter back more than 550 miles to Rabaul in one of the war’s epic flights. Sakai would spend 18 months in hospital recovering from his clash with the SBDs.

SBD Dauntless Vs A6M Zero-sen, Pacific Theater 1941-44 is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.

Photo by Jim Laurier, Gareth Hector via Osprey and PD-JAPAN

March 24, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

When Air Traffic Controllers asked an F-14 pilot to buzz the tower so see for themselves a Navy Tomcat

by Till Daisd March 23, 2024

written by Till Daisd

‘Iowa the Air Traffic Controllers could not believe that they had an F-14 Tomcat under their control and so very low…500ft/152m,’ John Chesire, former US Navy F-14 Tomcat pilot

The development of Soviet long-range patrol and bomber aircraft during the Cold War required a fleet defense fighter capable of engaging high-altitude bombers that were well beyond visual range. Grumman’s response was the iconic F-14 Tomcat. With the long-range AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missiles equipped on them, F-14s were able to engage enemy targets more than 90 miles distant. Grumman created the F-14’s highly effective variable-sweep wing, which allowed it to fly at a variety of airspeeds, in response to the need for an interceptor to be able to go at a high speed while carrying heavy ordnance.

The new “Tomcat,” named for Grumman’s tradition of naming its aircraft after cats, flew for the first time in December 1970. The first F-14As were delivered to the Navy in June 1972 after a series of modifications during flight testing, with Fighter Squadron (VF) 124 assigned to crew training. The new aircraft were first flown by operational squadrons VF-1 and VF-2 on the West Coast and by Atlantic fleet Tomcat squadrons VF-14 and VF-32 on the East Coast.

Through its encounters with Libyan aircraft in the 1980s and its appearance on screen in the very successful movie Top Gun—which included a memorable scene in which an F-14 piloted by Maverick and Goose buzzed the tower—the Tomcat came to represent a period of history.

During former F-14 Tomcat pilot John Chesire’s career, something similar occurred.

As he recalls on Quora, the event took place in the skies over Iowa.

‘I once flew across the plains of Iowa, low and slow, on my way to an airshow in Cedar Rapids. Growing up as a kid on a farm in Iowa, I figured that some farm kid and their parents might enjoy seeing an F-14 for the first time, flying low over their farm. When near Waterloo, Iowa, the Air Traffic Controllers could not believe that they had an F-14 under their control and so very low… 500ft/152m. They asked me to turn around and circle them so that they could come outside their control room and see for themselves a Navy F-14 Tomcat.

‘While I did stay relatively slow, I was at 500ft AGL. I swept the wings back to 68 degrees from their full forward position and briefly lit the afterburners. I may have cycled both the wings and ABs a couple of times for them. The ATC guys apparently really liked it and thanked me profusely as I continued on to my destination.’

Photo by Paramount

March 23, 2024 0 comment

History

The first air-to-ground missions ever flown by US Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter jets

by Till Daisd March 22, 2024

written by Till Daisd

‘The F-14s dropped while the F/A-18s lased. We egressed the target area having achieved absolutely superb results from direct hits, and there were impressive secondary explosions,’ Bob Brauer, F-14A Tomcat pilot and VF-41 CO

The United Nations established a no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina in response to the ensuing 1992 air conflict between the Croat Air Force, the Bosnian Muslim Air Force, and the self-proclaimed Serbian Krajina in Croatia. NATO started Operation Deliberate Force against the Serbian forces on August 30, 1995, marking the culmination of the subsequent military operations known as Operation Deny Flight.

According to Bojan Dimitrijević’s book Operation Deliberate Force: Air War Over Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1992-1995, the US Navy unit VF-41 Black Aces, which was outfitted with 20-year-old Grumman F-14A Tomcat interceptors that had been modified to use precision-guided munitions, was among the advanced assets deployed by NATO during Operation Deliberate Force. When this unit was instructed to reroute to the Adriatic Sea, it was actually en route back to the United States on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), which was nearing the end of its six-month deployment in the Persian Gulf.

Black-Aces-F-14A — An F-14 “Tomcat” assigned to the “Black Aces” of Fighter Squadron Four One (VF-41) makes its final approach, during an arrested landing aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71).

As part of the Deliberate Force, the carrier planned and carried out operations after it was on station, although inclement weather forced the cancellation of the majority of its airstrikes.

On September 5, 1995, however, two F-14As each carrying one AIM-7M Sparrow, two AIM-9M Sidewinders, one AIM-54C Phoenix air-to-air missile, and two GBU-16 454kg (1,000lbs) laser-guided bombs entered Bosnian airspace with the assistance of two F/A-18Cs, which were to designate their target. Commander Bob Brauer, the commanding officer of VF-41, remembered the first air-to-ground sortie that US Navy Tomcats had ever conducted:

‘On the day of the first strike, the weather was a big factor, and it continued to be a factor into the winter months. As we launched off the ship and headed in over the coast, it didn’t look like the strike was going to go ahead because of an undercast. But, about ten miles out from the target the weather cleared, and we could see the target well out. We rolled in at a very steep angle, from a high altitude, against some ammunition facilities. The F-14s dropped while the F/A-18s lased. We egressed the target area having achieved absolutely superb results from direct hits, and there were impressive secondary explosions.’

During an additional mission, a few of the squadron’s junior pilots dropped Mk.82 “dumb” bombs, reportedly also with excellent results. F-14As of VF-41 dropped 10,886 kg (24,000 lbs) of ordnance on targets in Bosnia and Herzegovina between September 5 and September 12, 1995.

About a week later, USS America (CV-66) took the place of USS Theodore Roosevelt. Over the next few days, the air wing of the latter carrier, CVW-1, saw a lot of action. However, while its F/A-18Cs were using more LGBs and even SLAM-ER guided missiles, the F-14Bs of the squadron VF-102 were not involved in any airstrikes; instead, they flew CAN, forward air control missions and reconnaissance with TARPS pods.

Operation Deliberate Force, Air War Over Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1992-1995 is published by Helion & Company and is available to order here.

Photo by Commander Brian G. Gawne / U.S. Navy

March 22, 2024 0 comment

History

Lockheed Martin celebrated 25 years of the F-22 Raptor and air dominance

by Till Daisd March 21, 2024

written by Till Daisd

After six years of development, the F-22 Raptor made its first flight on September 7, 1997, in Marietta, Georgia

After six years of development, the F-22 Raptor made its first flight on September 7, 1997, in Marietta, Georgia, as the video in this post shows. The Raptor is a pathfinder for the next generation of air dominance and continues to provide the US and its allies air superiority.

The Raptor, which is propelled by two Pratt & Whitney F119 engines, combines stealth, speed, maneuverability, and strong warfighting capabilities. Air dominance is ensured by a set of sensors and very lethal weaponry, supporting the mission at hand.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin collaborated in the mid-1990s to design and build the F-22, a highly advanced tactical fighter that combines maneuverability, integrated avionics, and stealth. The F-22 was intended as a replacement for the F-15 as America’s front-line dominance fighter.

On April 9, 1997, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney conducted a rollout ceremony to unveil the first production F-22. It was the first of nine flyable F-22s built for flight testing.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems, a division of Lockheed Martin Corp., based in Marietta, Ga., was responsible for program management, the integrated forebody (nose section) and forward fuselage, including the cockpit and inlets; the wing leading edge, the fins and stabilators, flaps, ailerons, and landing gear, and the final assembly of the aircraft.

Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems, based in Fort Worth, Texas, was responsible for the center fuselage; store management; integrated navigation and electronic warfare systems; the communications, navigation, and identification system; and the weapon support system. Boeing in Seattle, Wash., built the wings and aft fuselage, including the structures necessary for engine and nozzle installation, and was responsible for avionics integration, 70 percent of mission software, the training system, the life support and fire protection systems, and the pilot and maintenance training systems.

Although the F-22 entered service in 2005 and won the prestigious Collier Trophy in 2006, it faced controversy in the following years regarding its expense and suitability in the post-Cold War world. The next generation of Soviet fighters that the aircraft was supposed to dominate in air combat never materialized after the fall of the Soviet Union. In April 2009, the US Department of Defense declared that it would stop producing F-22s after 187 aircraft. The last F-22 was delivered to the Air Force in 2012.

The F-22 Raptor made its combat debut in September 2014 when it coordinated attacks against Islamic State (ISIS) strongholds in Syria with other fighter jets and bombers.

Photo by Lockheed Martin

March 21, 2024 0 comment

History

CIA financed A-12 Oxcart secretly through back-door payments to Lockheed with personal checks to Kelly Johnson for over $1 million

by Till Daisd March 20, 2024

written by Till Daisd

‘Everything about the A-12 Oxcart program was dark alley, cloak, and dagger. Even the way they financed the operation was highly unconventional,’ Ben Rich, second Director of Lockheed’s Skunk Works

As a replacement for the U-2 spy plane, the CIA created the highly classified A-12 Oxcart with the goal of providing the country with a very fast, extremely high-flying reconnaissance aircraft capable of avoiding Soviet air defenses. Lockheed, the company that built the U-2, was given the Oxcart contract by the CIA in 1959.

Under the direction of renowned engineer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, Lockheed overcame many technical obstacles to meet the A-12’s extreme speed and altitude requirements. These included innovations in titanium fabrication, lubricants, jet engines, fuel, navigation, flight control, electronic countermeasures, radar stealthiness, and pilot life-support systems.

The A-12 was declared fully operational in 1965 following hundreds of hours of flight at high risk by an elite team of CIA and Lockheed test pilots. The aircraft had achieved the design goal of maintaining a sustained speed of Mach 3.2 at an altitude of 90,000 feet.

Ben-Rich-Kelly-Johnson — Ben Rich (left) and Kelly Johnson (right)

In his book “Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed,” Ben Rich—the second Director of Lockheed’s Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991, following its founder, Kelly Johnson—recalls an intriguing detail about how the CIA funded the A-12 Oxcart program.

‘Everything about this project was a dark alley, cloak, and dagger. Even the way they financed the operation was highly unconventional: using secret contingency funds, they back-doored payment to Lockheed by writing personal checks to Kelly [Johnson*] for more than a million bucks as start-up costs. The checks arrived by regular mail at his Encino home, which had to be the wildest government payout in history. Johnson could have absconded with the dough and taken off on a one-way ticket to Tahiti. He banked the funds through a phony company called “C & J Engineering,” the “C & J” standing for Clarence Johnson. Even our drawings bore the logo “C & J”—the word “Lockheed” never appeared. We used a mail drop out at Sunland, a remote locale in the San Fernando Valley, for suppliers to send us parts. The local postmaster got curious about all the crates and boxes piling up in his bins and looked up “C & J” in the phone book and, of course, found nothing. So, he decided to have one of his inspectors follow our unmarked van as it traveled back to Burbank. Our security people nabbed him just outside the plant and had him signing national security secrecy forms until he pleaded writer’s cramp.”

*According to Kelly Johnson’s book Kelly: More Than My Share of It All, he became known as ‘Kelly’ Johnson (his full name being Clarence Leonard Johnson) because, while attending grade school in Michigan, he was ridiculed for his name, Clarence. Some boys started calling him “Clara”. One morning, while waiting in line to get into a classroom, one boy started with the normal routine of calling him “Clara”. Johnson tripped him so hard that the boy broke a leg. The boys then decided that he was not a “Clara” after all, and started calling him “Kelly”. The nickname came from the popular song at the time, “Has Anyone Here Seen Kelly? (Kelly from the Emerald Isle)”. Henceforth, he was always known as “Kelly” Johnson.

Check out Habubrats SR-71 and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Facebook pages for further Blackbird photos and stories.

Photo by U.S. Air Force

March 20, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

A smart valve on the SR-71 Blackbird allowed to use JP-7 fuel as internal coolant

by Till Daisd March 19, 2024

written by Till Daisd

Only the hottest fuel was transferred to the engines by the SR-71 Blackbird smart valve, while cooler fuel was sent to the avionics and to retract landing gear

The Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft were the basis for the long-range, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft known as the SR-71, or “Blackbird,” as it was informally called. The 4200th (later 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California, received the first SR-71 to begin service in January 1966, while the first SR-71 flight occurred on December 22, 1964.

The SR-71 Blackbird spy plane has been the fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft in the world for about 24 years. At a speed of Mach 3+, it could cover 100,000 square miles of Earth’s surface per hour while hovering above 80,000 feet. And if an enemy tried to shoot it down with a missile, all the Blackbird had to do was speed up and outrun it.

Everything that had come before the Blackbird was not comparable. “Everything had to be invented. Everything,” in an interesting article that appeared on the Lockheed Martin website, Kelly Johnson, the founder and famed aircraft designer of Skunk Works, recalled.

In the book Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed, Ben Rich, the second Director of Lockheed’s Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991 (who succeeded Johnson), explains that the design team led by him and Johnson looked to Shell Gas to develop a fuel with high thermal stability so that it would not break down and deposit coke and varnish in the fuel system passages.

Rich says, “We needed the fuel to remain stable at enormous temperature ranges. The JP-7 (as it was later known), was at -60° when a KC-135 tanker pumped fuel into the SR-71. The fuel acted as an internal coolant. All the heat built up inside the aircraft was transferred to the fuel by heat exchanges. They designed a smart valve that could sense temperature changes. It supplied only the hottest fuel to the engines. The smart valve sent cooler fuel to the retracted landing gear and avionics.”

The cockpit was cooled by the fuel, as already explained. The air conditioning bled off the engine compressor, dumped it through a fuel cooler, and then through an expansion turbo into the cabin at a temperature of -40°.

Refueling made Butch Sheffield, the SR-71’s eight-year RSO, happy since it allowed the cockpit to chill down. As fuel ran low, it would get more and more uncomfortable in the cockpit.

Check out Habubrats SR-71 and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Facebook pages for further Blackbird photos and stories.

Photo by U.S. Air Force

March 19, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

North Vietnamese Air Defenses hit 2 Blackbird Mach 3 spy planes

by Till Daisd March 18, 2024

written by Till Daisd

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 fastest jet-powered, piloted aircraft in history. The SR-71 was based on the A-12 Oxcart, another Mach 3 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.

Developed from the A-12, the YF-12 high-altitude, Mach 3 interceptor was another Blackbird designed to fight off supersonic bombers. The YF-12 was never used as an operational aircraft by the military. However, the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane was also inspired by the YF-12.

The SR-71 Blackbird is the only reconnaissance aircraft in history to have operated in more hostile airspace and with such complete impunity, and it is the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird represented the highest point in aviation technology development during the Cold War due to its performance and operational achievements.

One of the most common questions regarding the Blackbird family is whether or not it has ever been struck by an enemy plane while on a spy mission.

‘There are all sorts of people out there that claim to know everything about the Blackbirds,’ says Jim Goodall, former Master Sergeant at U.S. Air Force and author of the book Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: The Illustrated History of America’s Legendary Mach 3 Spy Plane. ‘The information I have collected from the pilots and crews that flew and maintained these incredible Blackbirds [are quite interesting].

Vietnamese-SA-2 — SA-2 in Vietnamese service

‘To my knowledge, only one Blackbird, a CIA A-12 Blackbird was hit with shrapnel on Oct. 30, 1967, while on the CIA’s third pass over Hanoi in three days. The crews protested flying the same route three days in a row, but they were out-ranked.

‘Denny Sullivan [Dennis B. Sullivan retired as an Air Force Brigadier General and passed away in 2020. Sullivan was one of only 6 A-12 mission pilots, known as “Drivers”, his call sign was Dutch 23] who ran into some debris from part of the fusing components of a Soviet-built SA-2 as he was leaving the area [over Vietnam, during Operation Black Shield (as the A-12 deployment at Kadena Air Base was codenamed), where he survived multiple SAM missile attacks on his Oxcar while he was cruising at altitudes over 82,000 feet]. The damage was found on a post-flight inspection and the composite inboard leading edge had something wedged in it, and the CIA identified it as part of the fusing mechanism of the SA-2.’

The story of Sullivan A-12 being damaged by SAM’s debris is confirmed by the article Black Shield appeared in Air & Space Forces Magazine, which says: “On another October flight, pilot Dennis Sullivan detected radar tracking on his first pass over North Vietnam. Two sites prepared to launch missiles, but neither did. During the second pass, however, at least six missiles were fired at Sullivan’s aircraft, each confirmed on mission photos by missile vapor trails. Sullivan saw these vapor trails and witnessed three missile detonations. Postflight inspection of the aircraft revealed that a piece of metal had penetrated the lower right wing fillet area and lodged against the support structure of the wing tank. The fragment was not a warhead pellet but may have been a part of the debris from one of the missile detonations observed by the pilot.”

Goodall concludes;

‘The Israeli military tried to shoot one down during the ’73 War’ but couldn’t. If they couldn’t, then no one could.’

Photo by Dru Blair via www.drublair.com, U.S. Air Force, CIA and Hoangprs5 Own work via Wikipedia

March 18, 2024 0 comment

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