In this article:
From the shadows of the Cold War emerged an espionage platform that expanded the limits of human possibility and made the theoretical thrillingly real.
The fastest manned aircraft in the history of flight, the Blackbird family and its best-known member, the SR-71, streaked across the stratosphere faster than a bullet and delivered stunning intelligence data to the West.
According to the bookazine Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the futuristic image of the Blackbird conjures up notions of science fiction, literally pushing the envelope in speed, stealth, and high-altitude performance.
Major Brian Shul was a Vietnam combat veteran who flew 212 missions and was badly burned, but he defied the odds and returned to duty to fly the world’s fastest plane. After a 20-year career in the USAF, Shul wrote four books including Sled Driver: Flying the World’s Fastest Jet.
In 1986, after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had increased his country’s support of worldwide terrorism and his proxies were found guilty of bombing the La Belle discotheque in Berlin, resulting in the death of an American serviceman, the US was determined to retaliate. Gaddafi declared “a line of death” at the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean, daring the Americans to respond.
Operation El Dorado Canyon was initiated and bombing raids were directed at targets in the Libyan capital of Tripoli and some of the 22 terrorist training camps in the country.
Along with other assets, the SR-71s of Detachment 4, 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, participated in pre- and post-attack surveillance over Libya. Majors Shul and Watson took part.
The pilot remembered pressing the Blackbird to his fastest personal speed when Libyan crews fired a pair of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) in his direction while on a damage assessment mission:
“On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line [of death] at 2,125mph. We crossed into Libya and were approaching our final turn over the bleak desert landscape when Walter informed me that he was receiving missile launch signals. I quickly increased our speed, calculating the time it would take for the weapons – most likely SA-2 or SA-4 SAMs capable of Mach 5- to reach our altitude.
“I estimated that we could beat the rocket-powered missile to the turn and stayed our course, betting our lives on the plane’s performance. After several agonizingly long seconds, we made the turn and blasted toward the Mediterranean.
“’You might want to pull it back,’ Walter suggested. It was then I noticed I still had the throttles full forward. The Plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit. It was the fastest we would ever fly.”
Shul concludes;
“I pulled the throttles to idle just south of Sicily, but we still overran the refueling tanker awaiting us over Gibraltar.”
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is published by Key Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo credit: Lockheed Martin and U.S. Air Force
