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Bad Day At Work!!!

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Phew!! That is quite an article!

One of the fun things about where I live was the proximity to the Pratt Whitney plant down here. Every year they had an open-house day when a neat variety of aircraft were put on display and we were allowed to pore over them!!! Loved it! Watching some of those engines on the test stands was to say the least "earth-shaking"!!!
 
Thanks for the article. That has been my favorite plane for a looong time. They have one on display over at USC, but I haven’t been over there to see it in person yet. I ALWAYS have an excuse to avoid driving near downtown.
 
Thanks for that, my kids and I love to go the the USS Intrepid museum, it has an SR-71 on deck.
 
He had quite a wild ride, didn't he?

"Unstart"? How's that for Techno-speak?

I'm going to use that word in Triumph conversation.

"My TR3 suffered an unstart."
 
Yikes! That sure was an interesting read. Harrowing, to be sure. The SR-71 is my absolute favorite military aircraft but this really puts thing is perspective! I could never imagine actually flying one, let alone a prototype!
 
I got to see one up close at the Dobbins airbase
in 1982. That plane looked like it's making
Mach 5 parked on the ground.

Might be a slip of memory, bit I think I recall
they had covers on the wings leading edge because
it was so sharp.

d
 
There was one at the toronto airshow a few years back and on take off at the end of the runway he must have pulled that stick right back and just poured the coals to it, black smoke coming out of it and just went vertical for about 4 secs and disappeared out of sight. It felt as if the air was vibrating, just incredible.
 
GregW said:
...They have one on display over at USC, but I haven’t been over there to see it in person yet. I ALWAYS have an excuse to avoid driving near downtown.
Click to expand...
A12front.jpg


As Nike says, “Just Do It!”

Get yourself over there and get a close up look at that bird. It’s an amazing piece of engineering art.

That particular Blackbird is the two-place A12 trainer, tail# 60-6927.

Here's a shot of it in flight:
landis-927-bw.jpg



Here's a shot of the Man, Kelly Johnson (one of my personal heroes), in the cockpit of 927.
pr-1575.jpg
 
When they decommissioned it the first time, they sent one to the Smithsonian. Took off from Edwards, flew out over the ocean, turned East and buried the throttle. Los Angeles to Washington D.C. 1 hour, 4 minutes. Average speed: 2,145 MPH. Yeah, that’s a comma after the “2”.
 
I saw another one in Welches, Oregon. You know how big the SR-71 is, right? Look at the size of the wing over it.

IMG_8095.jpg
 
Awesome story! When I uised to work at NORAD back in the early 70's, we could always tell when teh Blackbird was flying through our sector just due to the speed and altitude andthe fact that it would take 3 states to turn around!
 
My brother was stationed at Mildenhall (UK) when they were flying out of there. The first time he saw one he called me up as if he had just seen Marilyn Monroe stepping out of the shower, hehehe!!!!
 
That a/c is a testament to human inginuity and spirit... it's amazing what one can do with a slide rule and a drafting table.

I don't believe that I will see a more amazing machine built in my lifetime, even with the aid of super computers.
 
I clicked on the Aviation Video link and found this little clip:

https://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/C-130%20Crash%20Landing.mpg

The guy who was until recently by boss (he retired), and still a good friend, was on board that very same C-130 when this video was shot. This clip had been highly classified. What they were trying to do was come up with a way to land and take off on a soccer field. Why? To rescue the Iranian hostages.

Basil
 
Unbelievable! I bet your friend has an amazing story about that. I certainly would not have volunteered for that flight.
 
GregW said:
Unbelievable! I bet your friend has an amazing story about that. I certainly would not have volunteered for that flight.
Click to expand...

He didn't have a lot of choice, he was a flight test engineer, so such risks were just "part of the job."
 
Tinster said:
Might be a slip of memory, bit I think I recall
they had covers on the wings leading edge because
it was so sharp.

d
Click to expand...

Dale, the leading edges on the SR aren't particularly sharp. But, the F-104 had covers on it. You could cut yourself on those suckers!
Jeff
 
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