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The Blackbird
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 flight of an SR-71 took place on Dec. 22, 1964, and the first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to the 4200th (later 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., in January 1966. The U.S. Air Force retired its fleet of SR-71s on Jan. 26, 1990.
During its operational lifetime, the SR-71 provided intelligence about the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the US raid on Libya in 1986 and the revelation of Iranian Silkworm missile batteries in 1987. The USAF ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990.
Throughout its nearly 24-year career, the SR-71 remained the world’s fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft. From 80,000 feet, it could survey 100,000 square miles of Earth’s surface per hour.
SR-71 crews anti-SAM tactics
In 1968 the SR-71 crewmembers spent most of their time in the crew lounge, discussing anti-SAM tactics.
As told by Paul Crickmore in his book SR-71 Blackbird (Combat Legends), as the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing approached the time when they would be flying out of the country at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
The plan was to penetrate enemy airspace at Mach 3. If fired upon, the pilot would accelerate to Mach 3.2 and climb, thereby forcing the missile’s guiding system to re-calculate the intercept solution. One idea was also to dump fuel to become lighter, thereby increasing the climb rate.
A 5-mile-long contrail in the stratosphere
A crew ended that debate during a Sortie over Montana by dumping fuel for 10 seconds to see if the afterburner would ignite the fuel trail. Instead, this turned instantly into an ice cloud in the fridge -55° C stratosphere and left a 5-mile-long contrail finger pointing directly at the aircraft.
The pilot reported that he could see the trail for hundreds of miles after turning back towards the west. That plan was scratched. That was the opposite effect, but they wanted regardless, the SR-71 was the first attempt at stealth in an airplane.
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: David Bushell / Microsoft Flight Simulator X
