Yes, the A-12 is often forgotten in Blackbird discussions. What many people don't realize is that the SR-71 is the last of the line of Blackbird aircraft that included the A-12, YF-12, and M-21. It always irks me when watching a documentary about the SR-71 and they interchange facts of the A-12 and SR. They are certainly NOT the same aircraft, and they had slightly different missions. (A-12 performed a direct overflight while SR-71 had side-looking cameras and radar and a second crew-member) They often reference the SR-71 as having been tested at Groom Lake and as far as I can tell in the many books on the topic the SR was the only one of the Blackbird family that was never tested out there having been tested at Plant 42 and Edwards.

Some cool footage of A-12 first flight at Groom,narrated by the pilot Lou Schalk

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the first A12 (#6924) is parked outside my building. flew the first flight on april 26th, 1962

Timeline is off. The A12 preceded the SR71. The SR71 took over around 1968.

The A12 was single seat and the SR71 is two seat.

What a great story.

The thing I love most about aviation is the dichotomy of aircraft purpose and performance.

At 160kts in my aircraft I was already at BTTW!

Great stuff. Thanks for posting.

Yep, and there is one in front of the San Diego Air museum. Great aircraft!

A repost, but it bears repeating. If you are into this kind of stuff, read Skunk Works by Kelly Johnson's assistant Ben Rich - who also ran Skunk Works for two decades. The book describes a time before CAD and computers were used to do the design work, and men with cigarettes and white long sleeved shirts worked together in a windowless office, using slide rules etc, and designed some awesome hardware.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1387229956.jpg

I never got to see one fly, but the SR-71 was my favorite as a kid.

Fast forward about 30 years, and my daughter had a 7:00am Sunday water polo tournament in Riverside, CA. With about three hours between games, I headed over to March Field. I did not know what to expect; hadn't showered etc, but a nice young man greeted me as I looked at the SR. He then asked if I wanted to sit in what was, for me, the most highly classified thing I had ever dreamed of as a kid:

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Not near as cool a selfie as the earlier post but:
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I went to the public library today, and read an article on the SR-72.

Meet the SR-72
http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...1611.Large.jpg
Note: some old SR-71 articles in the link above.

Like this one:
http://www.aviationweek.com/Portals/aweek/media/PDF/SR-71.pdf

I think it must have been 1977 or 1978, a SR-71 landed at Randolph AFB. IIRC this was when the AF was first letting the SR-71's land at just regular bases and be seen by the public. He would be departing that afternoon.
Needless to say everyone who could went over to the flight line to watch. The SR-71 was parked at the far end of the runway and under armed SP guard. When he finally took off it was a sight to behold and the noise was like no plane I had ever heard.

He flew a few miles out very slowly gaining altitude then turned back towards the runway. As he approached the base he kicked in the afterburners and came straight down the runway at very low altitude, pulled back into a steep climb and just went up until out of sight and sound..

Everyone just kind of stood there... speechless. Will definitely never forget that.

Another interesting interview, especially the latter half:

FLYING THE SR 71. - YouTube

JR

Updating an old thread with this PDF.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/88796main_YF-12.pdf

While strolling on a beach near Camp Lejeune, NC I once heard a racket.
About 10+ miles away a CH-47 helicopter was taking off.
A little spot in the sky, but it sounded like it was right above us.
That is a huge current detriment IMO.

The USAF Thunderbirds were doing an airshow near where I was playing golf with friends on Saturday.

You could see the planes long before you could hear them.

If you could hear them, they were already gone visually for a good five seconds.

Old thread but what a neat read from the OP to the last. I believe it was 1988 or 89 where I was lucky to see an SR71 takeoff at the EAA convention. Chilling awe.

Not exactly in the same league but another memorable craft at the EAA was seeing one of the last flying Concord's takeoff.

Reminds me and I'll have to hunt for the pics.

Funny, just the other day I was having a conversation and someone mentioned they wished we could bring back the days of sonic booms... LOL

A local air show here in OKC had a SR71 participate. It was cool watching him make a low level fly by and then come in and land. It was on display for the show and then when it left it was just awesome.

Back in 1969 when I lived in Hawaii on base at Hickam we got to see a U2 take off. They were still pretty rare to see back then.

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I grew up at March AFB - my dad was stationed there from 1984 to 1994.

The museum was on the flight line at the time. My Eagle project was to setup a schedule for the local scout troop to come help with the Museum and clean the planes on a regular basis. I washed that SR-71. :)

Very cool story, thanks for posting. I used to work with a number of ex-fighter pilots, I loved sitting around and having a few beers, listening to them tell stories from their time in service.

My in-laws live out in rural central KS on the outskirts of a small town. Their house is large and on a hill, it stands out relative to the town (I've flown over it before). When the B1 was based in Wichita they used to frequently practice out in central KS, and I noticed that they would come in low and hot in formation over the town and directly over my in-laws' house, then immediately after passing do a full afterburner climb and split. Every, single, time. It was incredibly loud and awesome to watch. At one of our airshows I found a B1 pilot and asked him what they were doing, and he knew exactly the house I was talking about. Apparently my in-laws have been blown up hundreds of times by the B1.:cool:

B1

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1407847395.jpg

Whatever happened with the Blackswift project? Last I heard it went SAP and everything sort of went black after that.