Not really germain to SR71s...

...just wanted to let everyone know how much I love Air-Ground comm!  I usually get a good laugh from it.

-934

We need pictures!

You can't talk about our greatest technologies without pictures!

Good anecdotes, Wolfpack. "Sled Driver" is on my "to read" shelf, along with about 2,764 other tomes.

Damn, check out the prices on used copies of "Sled Driver" - from $250 to $300.  Guess I should have bought it when it was still in print.

Good news; Brian Suhl wrote: "Dear Sir,
I am the author of Sled Driver, plus several other books that you list. PLEASE make the following corrections. Remove Sheila Kathleen O'Grady's name from the author's line, she was the typist, not an author. Also, there is no such book as The Challenge, also listed under my name. My publisher erroneously gave that to you in hopes it would be done, and it was not. They are now out of business. Finally, Sled Driver went out of print last year-HOWEVER-the big news is that in 2003 I have plans to re-issue the book in a newer, prettier, limited edition version. I hope to work with you in marketing it through your page. There will only be 3200 limited edition copies. I would love to talk to someone there about this upcoming project. This book is so popular and I get email weekly concerning it. Is there a number, or email that I could use to contact someone there who is interested in this information. I know this is not exactly a book review, but I have tried in the past to email you and the above changes I requested were never instituted. Sled Driver is returning and I will have more information about it for you by this summer. Please email me with any numbers I may contact to straighten out these errors and talk about the return of a very popular book. Thank you. Yes, I really am the author, Brian Shul 530-742-1000"


So marvl, looks like you get a second chance.

Edit:
Anyway I found it on Amazon.com

[url]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0929823087/qid=1041674110/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-1798378-4803155?v=glance&s=books[/url]

Just scroll down to "Customer reviews"
I don't know anything about the accuracy of the claim beyond what was written.

Yeah, they're coming out with a special edition of Sled Driver.  The problem is, it's supposed to be around $200 too!  I'm really kicking myself, because many moons ago I was at the Air Force Museum just after it came out. Brian Shul was there signing copies of it!  ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG....coulda had a signed copy for about $40.

Hick [:E]

excuse me for my ignorance, cause i know the blackbird was and is an awesome peice of technology. why is the book so expensive? do you get a test flight in a sr-71?
-jay

I had the pleasure of hunting turkeys with a retired SR-71 pilot.  He had some great stories about flying over the USSR and watching as they fired missiles in a futile attempt to shoot him down.  He said the missiles never were fast enough to get up to altitude before he was long gone.

He had more rank than the Ret. Col. that was my neighbor.  He came with us all the time, and was the reason the SR-71 pilot got invited to go with us. He had better stories than the SR driver, he flew with the Flying Tigers during WWII, and flew during Korea, and Vietnam; yes, Bob was an ace.  I wish I could sit down with them now and record their stories. I didn't appreciate them quite as much when I was in my teens.

I WANT ONE!

[img]http://www.wvi.com/~lelandh/farn527.jpg[/img]
Front Cockpit

[img]http://www.wvi.com/~lelandh/b44.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.wvi.com/~lelandh/b18.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.wvi.com/~lelandh/b7.jpg[/img]

Yep, those SR71's are BADASS !!!

There should be a thread buried a few pages back from a few weeks ago...

After catching the last half of a Blackbird special on TLC, I started the "SR-71 Blackbird questions" thread...

Tons of awesome replies and info in there...

It always amazes me how much knowledge is lurking around this board...

I'll soon be signing up for the AR15.com gold membership...
I've certainly gotten more than 60 bux worth of info from this place...[:D]
(Not to mention, I'll finally be able to post some cool pics)

FASCINATING topic and interesting that it came up, since I was just out at the Hill Air Force Base Museum drooling at their SR71.

What an AWESOME plane. Expensive as hell to operate, but awesome. Amazing too, as it is 50's technology!

Couldn't resist adding one more cool picture.  

[img]http://www.aviationpics.de/pretty/sr71_fuel.jpg[/img]

My son was visiting last fall and we went to the Boeing Air Museum in Seattle.  What did we see when we walked in but an SR-71!  They also had a mockup of the cockpit that you could sit in.  

My son says, "Didn't Lockheed build the SR-71?"  I said "I think they did."  

Anyway, it is an amazing thing to see close up.

A couple of great websites for those that drool over Habu's...

[url]http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/index.htm[/url]

[url]http://www.habu.org/[/url]

Years ago I was driving home from work up I-15 in San Diego just before the Miramar Airshow weekend when I look out and there's a SR-71 DOING TOUCH AND GO'S.  Needless to say I pulled over (with about half the rush-hour traffic) and grabbed my video camera.  Just an awesome sight to behold.

Yeah, the SR71 is one badass plane. The most interesting thing is that it was built in the 50s (right?) and we are just now getting information on it. You have to wonder what kind of surveillance jets do they have now that they aren't telling us about.

Beautiful, thanks

wolfpack...
that first pic with the vapor spike coming out of the center of the plane..

that is the current nasa test bed sr71, that was a photo of the Aerospike engine...they mounted it on the back of the plane and it was being tested there.

saw it on discovery channel or something like that, but im also not to far from where they test that stuff.

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Projects/SR71/lasre.html

I concur.

When I was on Okinawa as a Marine in 1978-79 we would see them swoop low for landing at Kadena AFB all the time. I actually had a shooting instructor stop in the middle of his lecture on the rifle range. Needless to say it took a helluva thing to get a Marine to stop talking about shooting for a few moments!

While I was there N. Korea was all the time trying to shoot one down. They got about as close I get to Anna Kournakorva.

Word I had heard was the Habu would leave a Kali AB after breakfast, fly over Nam on a photo run, land on Okinawa to do various ground things (process photos, eat lunch, etc.), take off and be back (in Kali) in time for dinner.

Just to clarify, there were 3 models of the 'Blackbird' built:

the A12, the YF-12, and the SR-71

Within these there were specific variants, such as some double seaters, etc.

(Yes, I read a book and now I'm an Xpert!)

The YF-12 was the first design, and was actually designed to be an interceptor, equipped with guns and missiles.

Needless to say, after the first few gun tests they scrapped the guns due to the holes in the aircraft from the bullets they ran into, which were their own!!



I lived on Okinawa back in '74-'76 when my dad was an enlisted guy in the Air Force.

The house would shake every time a Habu took off.

Just an awesome piece of equipment, and worth MORE than any satellites in orbit now.

No, Hydguy,

The A12 was first, contracted for by the CIA as a surveillence plane to replace the subsonic U2.

The FY-12 was second when someone had the bright idea that this plane had outstanding performance and might make a great fighter. Three A12's were pulled from the production line at Lockheed and were built with the capacity to carry 2 IR missles and up to 8 AIM47 missles which were later successfully test fired. Plans called for a production run of 200 planes when the F12 program was killed by then defense secretary Robert McNamara. Major concerns were that the plane required hours instead of minutes to scramble and that it's high speed made the quick turns required for a dog fight very difficult.


(edited for pore speling)

I live 20 miles south of Oshkosh WI, home of the EAA.

Every year, I see thousands of planes flying overhead for the Airventure. From 1920's to the latest and greatest.

A few years ago, we were walking our dog when all of a sudden we heard (and felt) a BIG KABOOOOOOOM. Came to find out that a SR71 was doing mach 1+ on it's approach to Whittman field.

I knew what it was, but everybody at the park we were in was looking around for whatever it was that made it.

The year preceeding, I was in my backyard when I heard a jet sound I haven't heard before...up in the sky directly above our house....less than 5000 ft was a B2 bomber! SWEET!!! a pitch black beast in a bright blue clear sky.

One of the neatest things I have seen was last year. When they are having the Warbirds display, the planes will fly over the city of Fond du Lac in pattern waiting for thier turn to fly over Oshkosh....There was a squadron of WWII T-6's that were buzzed by a pair of MIG's...sweet, the old and the new.

I've had a B-17 use our sub-division as a landmark for turning around, watched a Corsair and a Jap Zero have a mock dog fight over the field down the road, a P-38 went screaming over our house and a T-38 did a barrel roll over our sub division. When the War Birds are flying together, I can only imagine what it would have sounded like 60 years ago with 10 times as many planes flying overhead.

Isn't 60,000 feet FL600?