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dukalmighty wrote:I was in the US Air Force Security Police in the mid 70's and the SR71 was a plane that wasn't even acknowledged that we had it for a long time.

Im sure that when it flew it was called in as one of those UFO sightings.

It only took off and landed during hours of darkness like the f117 stealth fighter,during it's early years before they made it public,hard to see a black plane at night and they didn't hang around long when they left the hanger

I've been to several air shows at Edwards AFB over the years. When I first went, the SR71s were parked in hangars, facing out, with a rope across the hangar door and armed guards between them and the crowd. The birds had rows of drip pans under the wings and fuselage, and they were actively dripping - the smell of jet fuel quite detectable in the air.

At the last show I went to there, 2 or 3 years ago, the lone Blackbird was parked outside, in the sun, looking kind of dusty and forlorn, with people walking all around and under it, and dads holding their little kids up to try and get a look in the jet exhausts. They were beautiful ships.

I wonder what replaced them.

Here are some pictures I took there in 2002.

The write-up indicates it was the F22 Raptor.

What I think is so cool about that plane is that it supposedly leaks fuel like crazy when it is in the hangar. Only when the metal heats up and it expands does the fuel stop leaking.

The Annoyed Man wrote: .

I wonder what replaced them.

Perhaps Blackswift, or more accurately (according to this article), son of Blackswift.

http://www.janes.com/news/defence/air/j ... _1_n.shtml

Something else I read about Blackswift lately led me to believe there is actually some demonstrator machinery around now, not just RFPs, but I can't find the link again. And of course the Aurora name has been in the rumor mill for years as a black research project into a mo'bettah SR-71-like vehicle.

nedmoore wrote:What I think is so cool about that plane is that it supposedly leaks fuel like crazy when it is in the hangar. Only when the metal heats up and it expands does the fuel stop leaking.

It did leak alot, until airborne and up to (high) speed. That made for some interesting fuel management issues, like hitting a tanker as soon as possible after take off to replace the leaked and burned fuel. The fuel was not regular ol' JP-8, and it was only carried by special KC-135 tankers, which made the problem even more interesting. At least one SR-71 was lost just because it ran out of fuel.

Nice to see a discussion on the old "Sleds". I had the chance to support the A/B models out at NASA in California for a while and helped support the final double afterburner ground run before the aircraft was taken out of serivce in Oct of 1999. What a sight that was!!!! Felt like my chest would explode! ELB is correct, the SR-71s run on JP-7 which was carried in modified KC-135Q tankers for refueling. They were a wonder to behold in flight..............but alas, they're just ink in the pages of history compared to what we've got now........and MAN, do we ever have goodies now!!!

Here's a picture of my son and I back on that night in October when they did the double AB run. My son was the last civilian to sit in an active duty SR71 before the program was officially shut down.........braggin rights, indeed!!




Someone indicated that the write up was on the F22 (the link was an SR71 article)........but that's an even more impressive aircraft. Did allot of work with them as well.....