SR71

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].

‘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

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 plane was powered by two 34,000 lbf (151,240 N) thrust-class J58 afterburning turbojet engines. Each engine contained a nine-stage compressor driven by a two-stage turbine. The main burner used an eight-can combustor and the afterburner is fully modulating. The primary nozzle area was variable. Above Mach 2.2, some of the airflow was bled from the fourth stage of the compressor and dumped into the augmentor inlet through six bleed-bypass tubes, circumventing the core of the engine and transitioning the propulsive cycle from a pure turbojet to a turbo-ramjet.

The SR-71 was the first aircraft to use its own fuel for hydraulic fluid, called the fuel hydraulic system.

An engine-driven pump provided 1800 psi of recirculating fuel to accurate various engine components and then returned it back to the aircraft fuel system to be burned. Fuel was used in the actuators to control the afterburner nozzles, maintain the proper exhaust gas temperature, and control the thrust output. The fuel was also used in the engine actuators to shift the two-position inlet guide veins from their axial position to the cambered position and back again. This was just another of the many first-ever inventions of the SR-71.

The J58 engine was hydromechanically controlled and burned a special low-volatility jet fuel mixture known as JP-7.

Emergency fuels could be used in the SR-71 if the crew was low on fuel and had to use ANY tanker (as already explained, the Blackbird relied on KC-135Q tankers [that could simultaneously carry a maximum of 74,490lb of JP-7 and 110,000lb of JP-4 for their own engines], but the SR-71 could also be refueled by standard Stratotankers in the event KC-135Qs were not available or if the Blackbird crew had to deal with an emergency situation) they could find to avoid the loss of the aircraft. The emergency fuels were JP-4 or JP-5, but they limited the Blackbird’s top speed to Mach 1.5. There were six main fuselage tanks. All 80,285 pounds of JP-7 fuel were carried in six main fuselage tanks. The tanks numbered one through six moved forward to aft (back) tank 6B It could hold 7,020 pounds of gravity-fed fuel and two tank sumps. This was also called the “doghouse” and was located in the extreme back portion of the fuselage.

These are just a few interesting facts found by reading Rich Graham’s “SR 71 Revealed the Inside Story.” This book was published in 1996 before some of the facts about the SR-71 became unclassified.

Fuel was the lifeblood of the world’s fastest manned aircraft.

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

Photo by NASA and U.S. Air Force

‘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. Colonel William Burk Jr., former SR-71 Blackbird pilot

The Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft served as the basis for the development of the SR-71, also referred to as the “Blackbird,” or 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 US Air Force (USAF) retired its fleet of SR-71 aircraft.

For almost two decades, the SR-71 held the record for being the fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft in the world. It could cover 100,000 square miles of the Earth’s surface per hour from 80,000 feet.

Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr. has some of the most interesting stories about flying the SR-71. He talks of a mission he flew over Lebanon in 1982; according to SR-71 pilot Stormy Boudreaux, Tom Henichek was Burk’s RSO for that mission

The story appears in both this post’s video and Ben Rich’s book Skunk Works.

‘In the fall of ’82, I flew from Mildenhall on a mission over Lebanon in response to the Marine barracks bombing. President Reagan ordered photo coverage of all the terrorist bases in the region. The French refused to allow us to overfly, so our mission profile was to refuel off the south coast of England, a Mach 3 cruise leg down the coast of Portugal and Spain, a left turn through the Straits of Gibraltar, refuel in the Western Mediterranean, a right turn into Lebanon and fly right down Main Street Beirut, exit along the southern Mediterranean with another refueling over Malta, supersonic back out of the straits, and return to England. Because Syria had a Soviet SA-5 missile system just west of Damascus that we would be penetrating (we were unsure of Syria’s intentions in this conflict), we programmed to fly above 80,000 feet and at Mach 3+ to be on the safe side, knowing that this advanced missile had the range and speed to nail us.

‘As we entered Lebanon’s airspace, my Recon Systems Officer in the rear cockpit informed me that our defensive systems display showed we were being tracked by that SA-5. About 15 seconds later, we got a warning of active guidance signals from the SA-5 site. We couldn’t tell whether there was an actual launch or the missile was still on the rails, but they were actively tracking us. We didn’t waste any time wondering, but climbed and pushed that throttle, and said a couple of “Hail Kellys.”

‘We completed our pass over Beirut and turned toward Malta, when I got a warning low-oil-pressure light on my right engine. Even though the engine was running fine, I slowed down, lowered our altitude, and made a direct line for England. We decided to cross France without clearance instead of going the roundabout way.

‘We made it almost across, when I looked out the left window and saw a French Mirage III sitting ten feet off my left wing. He came up on our frequency and asked us for our Diplomatic Clearance Number. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I told him to stand by. I asked my backseater, who said, “Don’t worry about it. I just gave it to him.” What he had given him was “the bird” with his middle finger. I lit the afterburners and left that Mirage standing still. Two minutes later, we were crossing the Channel.’

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 and French Air Force Via FAST Museum Twitter Account