In this article:
Not a routine Blackbird inlet unstart
The SR-71, unofficially known as the “Blackbird,” is a long-range, advanced, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft. The first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to Beale AFB, Calif., in January 1966.
The following story was told to me by SR-71 pilot Ben Bowles.
“On the morning of 29 July 1968, my navigator, Jimmy Fagg, was not feeling well when we had our preflight steak and eggs breakfast at the Personal Support Detachment.
“Butch Sheffield, returning from leave, walked in and mentioned he needed flight time and that he would gladly substitute for Jimmy. “The flight was going well. We had just finished refueling and were accelerating through approx 2.6 Mach and 65,000′, leaving Louisiana and heading West (ed.: usually a 40-minute flight to Sacramento).
“The first indication of a problem was when the right engine “unstarted.” However, this was more serious than a routine inlet unstart.
“I heard a Big Bang and immediately had a big red light (ed: there are no small red lights). I looked through the rear-facing periscope and saw a huge smoke trail: not a contrail.
Ready to bail out
“Understand, when the inlet is unstarted, the aircraft experiences severe aerodynamic buffeting, making it difficult to read instruments until we slow to about Mach 2. The right engine is shut down. I ask Butch for the Engine Fire and the Descent checklist. I declare “Emergency” with the Air Traffic Control Center, “descending and diverting to Carswell AFB.” Then I tell Butch to “be ready to bail out,” who responds with, “Oh S***”! (Butch had punched out of an SR once before 1967 and was not anxious to repeat the experience.) Butch says, “I wish I had my checklist” (What Butch meant was that he had Jimmy Fagg’s checklist, not his own. Every crew member marks their checklist with helpful margin notes, which is obviously of great personal value.
“As a stand-in, Butch was wishing he had his own annotated checklist rather than Jimmy’s, captured on the aircraft’s audio recorder). The roughness is gone, and the machine is flying smoothly with standard control. I tell Butch that I would just as soon stay with her as long as we have reasonable control. Butch concurs (although the checklist says that if Fire Light does not extinguish…Bail Out). The problem remains: the Fire Light is still On, flying on one engine, and the smoke has diminished, but is it smoke, fuel spray (we are dumping as much as possible before landing), or contrail? I don’t want to land with a fire, and Butch concurs. It is still difficult to tell if we are trailing smoke due to overcast and poor light conditions, and looking through the periscope is like looking through the barrel of a 22 rifle.
SR-71 right engine nacelle blown out
“We elect to request a fly-by with the tower to tell us if they can detect any smoke or fire. The Firelight is still ON. Tower says we look OK. The landing was uneventful. We taxi to and into a designated hangar, stopping inside, shutting down the left engine, and closing the hangar doors; we complete the “shutdown checklist” and unbuckle our harnesses and stuff, but no one comes to help us out of the airplane. We at least need a ladder! Butch says the crowd is over by the right wing.
“Finally, a couple of considerate colonels came to our rescue and advised us, “You may want to see this.” We shuffled around to the right side. The outboard forward section of the nacelle had been blown out, taking a portion of the wing leading edge with it—obvious severe fire damage. Not much of the engine was left in the nacelle…you could see daylight. Lockheed used this accident as a testimonial for titanium airframes. Conventional construction could not have survived the intense heat from the fire…the right outboard wing would have failed rather quickly.”
Both Butch Sheffield (My Father) and Ben Bowles received the distinguished flying cross for saving this multimillion-dollar SR-71.
Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Twitter X Page Habubrats SR-71, Instagram Page SR71Habubrats and Facebook Page Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Habubrats for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.
Photo credit: Lockheed Martin, U.S. Air Force / Jim Goodall Collection, NASA and Linda Sheffield Miller
