SR 71

[mowens]

https://simpleflying.com/why-sr-71-blackbird-titanium-airframe-impossible-replace/

[gcode]

I was on guard duty at the Camp Schwab rifle range on Okinawa around dawn one morning in 1977.
The sun was just coming up and I saw an SR-71 coming in low for a landing at Kadena Airforce base about 30 miles away in southern Okinawa.
I don't know if it was dead sticking or just throttled way back but I didn't hear a sound.
They were a common sight at Camp Schwab, but that was the only time I ever saw one.
The Marines called them The Habu after poisonous snake that lives in the jungles of Okinawa.
It's the kind of thing that sticks with you for life.
 
 

[CNCAppsJames]

Baddest plane EVER made.

I saw it fly for the 1st time when I was ~10 years old. Edwards Air Force Base Air Show with my grandpa in ~1980.

It's criminal that they retired it. Word on the street is there were five main reasons for it's retirement;
 
1) SecDef Robert Strange McNamara was himself a moron. (for more on that Google "Project 100,000").
2) Dick Cheney was also a moron.
3) The other branches of service that requested intelligence did not contribute to it's significant operational expense... estimated to be around $200k per flight hour.
4) "Satellites will solve all of our reconnaissance requirements."... which is why the U2 still flies today. Go figger.
5) The Generals (Majors through bird Colonels) that were denied admission into the program were jealous and wanted the project dead.

Habu... Col. "Butch" Sheffield(ret.) SR-71 Pilot's daughter has an Instagram page ( @sr71habubrats )dedicated to Blackbird Lore, growing up on Beale AFB, etc...

It's too bad they can't bring it back. SO many reasons they can't and cost is only one. Shoudl have never retired it. NASA had two (IIRC) operational SR-71's after they were retired from the Air Force. They used it as a Scram Jet (IIRC) and Linear Aero Spike test platform since it was the only operational platform in the military designed for sustained MACH 3 flight.

The best SR-71 displays are The Smithsonian (Udvar Hazy... can't remember the rest), Strategic Air Command Museum in Lincoln Nebraska, Hill Air Force Base Museum,March Airfield Museum, Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base (access sometimes is limited), NASA Dryden Research Facility (Edwards Air Force Base), Boeing Museum of Flight, Blackbird Air Park outside of Plant 42 - it's the only display where you can see an A-12, SR-71, and the M21 (?) Drone in the same place. Those are the ones I've seen.

[CNCAppsJames]

Also worth noting, not one single SR-71 was ever shot down. EVER. Despite routinely flying over some of the most heavily defended and aggressively denied airspace on the planet. 

Those pilots knew the the earth was not flat, but I digress. 

It's estimated that thousands of intercepts were attempted. None successful. 

[mowens]

There is one on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space center as well.

[Rstewart]

I was on guard duty at the Camp Schwab rifle range on Okinawa around dawn one morning in 1977.
The sun was just coming up and I saw an SR-71 coming in low for a landing at Kadena Airforce base about 30 miles away in southern Okinawa.
I don't know if it was dead sticking or just throttled way back but I didn't hear a sound.
They were a common sight at Camp Schwab, but that was the only time I ever saw one.
The Marines called them The Habu after poisonous snake that lives in the jungles of Okinawa.
It's the kind of thing that sticks with you for life.
 
 

I was in Okinawa last year on Kadena AF Base.  Pretty beautiful place.
Speaking of the Habu - they have that snake in an alcoholic drink.... Yes I did try it, no I don't recommend 

[Rstewart]

There is one on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space center as well.

There's one on display in my town.  Huntsville space and rocket center.

[mowens]

My son in law is being transferred to Okinawa this summer. It will be quite a change from 8 years in Alaska and 4 years in North Dakota.

[TSmcam]

I saw the SR71 at the Steven Udvar Hazy center. I've been there twice. it is a fantastic museum, with some very historic aircraft.

It houses the Enola Gay, plus the only existing Dornier 335, and Arado Ar234, two Nazi technology aircraft, along with the Horten IX and Heinkel He 219. They also have a host of other rare aircraft waiting to be restored.

The SR71 on display there broke the record for flight time from LA to Washington DC, on its delivery to the museum. It did the flight in 64 minutes and 20 seconds at an average speed of 2144mph. A commercial flight time for that route is 4 hours and 50 minutes.....

[Rstewart]

My son in law is being transferred to Okinawa this summer. It will be quite a change from 8 years in Alaska and 4 years in North Dakota.

It's hot as balls there with 80% humidity.  I'm currently working outdoors in the Philippines.  The real feel today was 106°

[mowens]

That's what I keep telling my wife. She keeps saying how cool it will be to visit Japan. And I keep trying to explain to her that okinawa is not like mainland Japan.

[CNCAppsJames]

...okinawa is not like mainland Japan.

That's an understatement.   

[kccadcam]

Evergreen Museum is fantastic.
SR71, F117 NightHawk, Spruce Goose, and a whole second building dedicated to Space.
And, I live about 5 miles away from it....
Been there a time or two.


https://www.evergreenmuseum.org/exhibits/

[gcode]

It's hot as balls there with 80% humidity.

true.. our barracks were not air conditioned. It could get very unpleasant in the summer.

We ran 3 to 5 miles in the mornings 6 days a week, in boots, along the beach in the sand.
I remember get in a cold shower after those runs and watching sweat beading up on my arms through
the cold shower water.

It gave me a profound respect for Vietnam vets and the men who fought in the South Pacific in WW2.
The climate they dealt with was much worse than Okinawa.