grantx5

Great video.

http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/SR-71/index.htm

Shovelhead

Nice find, thanks.

CowboyDave

Nice!!! Thank you, my old man sure loved that plane. As do I

jthorpe

You ever see one of them in person? It's amazing. Talking to them on the radio was a blast. Watching them on the scope, well that didn't last long.

snoyes

I love the deck angle of the aircraft as it trys to stay at the same speed as the tanker in the photo. And it is amazing that this plane was designed prior to all the computer models, and grew out of the mind of Clarence Kelly Johnson.

usmc2311

I like the one screen with the different aircraft asking ATC for ground speeds. SR-71 sure shut them up.

jthorpe

I watched an "Aspen" go across my radar scope in 4 minutes once. My scope was set for 60mi. (120 mi diameter)

torquet

truely remarkable. Thanks. good find

Totallyrad

I got to see one at the Boeing museum in Seattle. Wow was all I could say.

'strokeThis_'07

Ive always liked the Blackbird. Truely one of the baddest planes ever.

...and we think our 600, 700hp Dodges are fast...

GIT-R-DONE

The SR-71 is the one that they had to put buckets to catch the fuel from running on the ground when it came into the hanger. I had bunked with a fellow vet (whom had been around the aircraft) that told me many interesting facts about its operation. Its a cool aircraft .

Lary Ellis (Top)

I had the opportunity to witness a covert take off by one of these beautiful airframes when the Huey I was riding in was forced to set down due to a mechanical malfunction.

It was early on in it's career and the Blackbird was still very much a Top Secret aircraft, they were limiting as many of the roll outs as possible to night ops only to avoid it being seen.

Even though I was only a temporary visitor sitting on the tarmac along with my fellow team mates, we were very much aware that something special was about to happen. The already tight security suddenly got a great deal tighter and much of the normal hustle and bustle had dropped off to almost nothing.

There was a very large hanger close to the end of the runway and we could see that the activity seemed to center around it. Most of the lighting in the area extinguished and then we heard some pretty loud engines spooling up.

Suddenly this huge black aircraft bolted out of the hanger at a pretty good clip and immediately turned onto the runway. I can't recall if it ever stopped rolling, if it did it wasn't for long and the pilot opened it up and shot off into the night with these two huge tongues of flame shooting out the rear of the aircraft.

It wasn't until years later that I saw the first image taken of one in the daytime and realized that was the shape I had seen leave the runway that night. Naturally I wish I had known more then but it was probably safer that I didn't

Awesome Airframe and apparently it took some pretty Awesome men to fly the missions as well.

diesel_burner

That was good. I liked the part with the KC-135's. Thats was I used to do. Refuel planes at 25000 feet.

Sea:\>Drive

Thanks for sharing. Always my favorite plane. I got to see one up close and personal at the JSOH @ Andrews a few years ago when it was being brought in for the museum. I was working with CAP at the airshow in the VIP booth and got to chat with the pilot for quite a while. He had taken off from California and 64 minutes later touched down at Andrews (East Coast for those that don't know). Ended up with an autographed photo of the plane. It was an awesome experience and awe inspiring machine.

Baja

Without question my favorite plane ever. And to think it was made with a slide rule, no computers in those days, or they pretty anemic if they were around. I woke up early to hear the sonic boom of the last run from LA to Washington. That plane rocked! Thanks for the video.