[Sangerboy]

A friend sent me this link, although it's not v-drive, I enjoyed it and thought many of you might enjoy it also
Eye candy for people who like airplanes!

Relax for a few minutes of awesome beauty. The SR-71 was the creation of Kelly Johnson, Lockheed, Eisenhower and the Air Force. It was envisioned in the '50s, first flew in the early '60s, retired in the '80s, briefly brought back in the '90s.

In all, 13 units of the single seat A-12 were built, and 32 of the Pilot + Recon two seat SR-71 units were built.. Five A-12 were lost, one is stored. Twelve two seaters were lost. The remaining 27 are on display around the USA.

Start with the 2000+ mph, the 80,000 feet + altitude.

The U-2 Recon aircraft was created in 1955, flew operationally in 1956. Kelly thought the USSR would shoot it down in 18 months. Lucky us, it flew until Gary Powers was downed on 1 May 1960. (It still flys from Beale AFB near Chico & does low passes over our runway periodically with a Camaro racing along beside to call altitude.)

But Kelly Johnson already had the go-ahead from Ike for the A-12. It first flew in 1962, JFK kept the manufacture of it active. No one told LBJ, 'cause everyone knew he would spill the secret. He wasn't told til the week after JFK left us. And sure enough, LBJ gave out the secret in a matter of months.

Click here to view the slideshow:

http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/SR-71/index.htm

 

[Guest]

Awesome )THumbsUp

Thanks for posting.

 

[76ELIMINATOR]

I think the guy that did this wrote a book called " Sled Driver". I was at a talk he gave aboard the USS HORNET in Alameda, Ca. Very interesting to listen to his stories and see the pictures that where taken from the cockpit while in flight. He told the same story about flying out of Beale and the ground speed deal. Very cool plane. Kind of hard to believe that even with all of the techno advances that have been made in the last 40 plus years, all of the records set by the SR-71 still stand and no plane can come close to touching them.

Thanks for posting the link.

 

[058]

Funny you should bring this up, I just watched a very well done 1 hour program on the Military Channel on the SR 71 with some great footage of the airplane being built. The technology that had to be developed just to build the aircraft was truly awesome, the 1st project with widespread use of titanium and the problems associated with the exotic metal. From new machining and forging tecniques and cutting fluids to prevent corrosion to the new Ram-Jet engines that used less fuel the faster the plane flew. The jet fuel [JP-7] that doubled as hydraulic and cooling fluid for the aircraft's controls. It had to be stable at altitude and at extreme temptures. It had to be almost non combustable in storage and hydraulic use but still be able to ignite in the engine. I can go on and on about this remarkable aircraft but I won't bore ya with the details....

 

[SANGER SS396]

Wow

i spent 9 1/2 yrs in the air force and 19 1/2 months in NAM as flight engineer
was shot down twice and came home with 3 purple harts and all i want to say is welcome home to all the vets and a special welcome to those who were in NAM with me. may we all remember the those of us and those of us who will yet serve in the military to keep us all free americans. THANK YOU TO ALL THE MEN AND WOMEN IN THE MILTARY.

 

[Dkahnjob]

Thanks for posting the SR-71 film. That is my all time favorite aircraft. I have seen this film before, but enjoy it every time. I was at Burbank airport when the SR-71 did it's final fly bys when the program was ending. I was very sad to see the end of it's operational days, truly an amazing aircraft.
I salute the men and women of America who have stepped up to protect our freedom's.
Thank you


Baron N12DK

 

[LandSpeedRacer]

It still flys from Beale AFB near Chico & does low passes over our runway periodically with a Camaro racing along beside to call altitude

we live a couple miles from Beale, actually if it wasn't for the base I could get to CFW in 10 minutes instead of 20 . . . . coffee We can see the hills around CFW from home . . .

Still see TR1's (U-2's) all the time, along with the occasional strange bird, especially at night . . . never seen a Global Hawk even though they are there . . .