The Blackbird
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”, 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, the US Air Force retired its SR-71 fleet.
For almost 24 years, 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.
Jim Shelton, the SR-71 pilot, and SR-71 RSO after flying the longest Blackbird operational sortie in history—11 hours and 19 minutes during the Yom Kippur War—Gary Coleman was awarded the 1973 Trophy for recon and crew. They had to get the Blackbird from Beale to Griffiss Air Force Base (AFB) before they took off on that long flight.
Penn State expert mistakes SR-71’s shockwave for a meteorite entering the Earth’s atmosphere
Shelton recalls in Rich Graham’s book SR-71 Blackbird: Stories, Tales, and Legends:
‘On short notice, we took off in SR-71 #979 and headed for Griffiss Air Force Base with one in-flight refueling over Nevada as we headed east at Mach 3 at 80,000 feet. Our route took us south of Chicago and north of Indianapolis. Passing south of Chicago, I said to Gary, “I can see the lights of Chicago out the left window.” The lights of Indianapolis on the right were so clear that we must have been creating quite a sonic boom that was touching the ground and disturbing many people.
‘However, it turned out to be worse than I thought, as indicated by the articles that appeared in the newspaper on October 12, 1973, when the shockwave stretched from Indiana to New York State; Jim says he laughed at the media quotes when Dr. Alexander, a Penn State Expert, said it was conceivable it could’ve been a meteorite entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
‘Do you think that we were going to tell the world that they were wrong that it was an SR-71 going to Griffith Air Force Base?’
Sonic boom complaints
Shelton concludes;
‘At Beale, there was an office that handled sonic boom complaints on a full-time basis. The office received boom complaints from everyone and anyone farmers claimed that their cows would not give milk anymore, chickens wouldn’t lay eggs.’
Check out Habubrats SR-71‘s Twitter profile and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Habubrats‘s Facebook page for further Blackbird photos and stories.
Photo by Lockheed Martin and U.S. Air Force
