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Essence of a Blackbird

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What a sexy plane, I love the SR-71. Those are some fantastic photos.
 
waltesefalcon said:
What a sexy plane, I love the SR-71. Those are some fantastic photos.
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When I worked at NORAD back in the day, we could always tell when the SR-71 was flying across the country. Lets just say it's velocity vector "stood out." :encouragement:
 
I bet. My dad guided a hunt back in the early eighties for some ex air force guys and a couple of them had some stories about that plane. I've been fascinated ever since.
 
I honestly believe this plane is the pinnacle of aviation progress. Hard to believe it was designed using slide rules and drafting boards and first flew over 50 years ago.
 
I honestly believe this plane is the pinnacle of aviation progress.
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Concorde for my money...
 
USAF photog Rich Jackson's shot of a Sled over the Nevada desert must exist someplace. The bird had a white Playboy bunny logo on the tail.
 
DrEntropy said:
USAF photog Rich Jackson's shot of a Sled over the Nevada desert must exist someplace. The bird had a white Playboy bunny logo on the tail.
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hmmm - would that be "Rapid Rabbit"?

tail042.jpg
 
DrEntropy said:
USAF photog Rich Jackson's shot of a Sled over the Nevada desert must exist someplace. The bird had a white Playboy bunny logo on the tail.
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Airframe #978, a.k.a. Rapid Rabbit.

978-cc-1203-k.jpg


978closeup-cc-1203-k.jpg



Sadly, 978 suffered irreparable damage in a hard landing (crew was OK!). She was stripped for parts and somehow, nobody knows exactly how, one of her verticals ended up on 975, which is now over the river and down the street from us, at the March Field Air Museum.

If you're ever in the neighborhood and want to go visit 975, look me up.

marchfield-Bunnytail.JPG
 
One of the coolest planes EVER!
I saw something about just how fast they
could fly accross the US - AMAZING!
There's a guy who has his Dad's eType
Jag with an SR71 decal on the rear hatch.
I found out that his Dad was an SR71 pilot.

- Doug
 
SR-71 max speed: Mach 3.3 Ceiling: 85,000 ft.
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Pretty impressive I'll admit. But where do you squeeze the 120 passengers? :friendly_wink:

PS Mach 2.04 (2180 km/hr), Altitude: 56,000 ft is cruise (with 128 passengers, flight crew, baggage, food, no space suits etc). Tops is Mach 2.2 and 60,000 if we're being pedantic!
 
Don't forget the wine cart Steve.
 
Top speed for the Blackbird has never been admitted "officially" as far as I know. But a former crewmember had a coffee cup with the ship and the digits "3.5" on it in red numbers. When we asked, he said: "Yep." and gave us a date I've forgotten now.

Jackson's shot was used for an Air Force lithograph series poster. Shot from an F-111 Aardvark right seat, BTW.
 
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