How slow can an SR-71 BLACKBIRD fly?
 

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HOW SLOW CAN AN SR-71 BLACKBIRD FLY?

Brian Shul, Retired SR-71 Blackbird Pilot .....from "Plane and Pilot Magazine."

As a former SR-71 pilot and keynote speaker, the question I'm most often asked is :
"How fast would that SR-71 fly ?" I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I attend.

It's an interesting question, given the aircraft's proclivity for speed. But there really isn't a single number to give . . As the turbo ramjet would always give you a little more speed.
(If you wanted it to...)

It was common to see 35 miles a minute. But we typically flew a programmed Mach number.
But because we never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run-out to any limits of temperature or speed.

Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own personal high speed that he saw at some point during our missions.
I saw my highest speed over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way: max power was in order.
Let's just say that the Blackbird truly loved speed . . And effortlessly took us to high Mach numbers . . We had not previously seen.

So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, "What was the SLOWEST . . You ever flew the Blackbird ?"
This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story that I had never shared before, and relayed the following: I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England, with my backseater, Walt Watson. We were returning from a mission over Europe and the Iron Curtain when we received a radio transmission from home base.

As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 fly-by.
The Commander of air cadets there was a former Blackbird pilot who thought it would be a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low approach.

No problem, we were happy to do it.
After a quick aerial refueling over the North Sea, we proceeded to find the small airfield. In the back seat, Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment and he began to vector me toward the field.

Descending to subsonic, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in the slight haze.
Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were close and that I should be able to see the field.

But as far as I could see in the haze, I saw nothing but trees. We got a little lower, and I pulled the throttles back from our 325 knot cruise.
With the gear up . . Anything under 275 knots (316 mph) was plain uncomfortable. Walt said we're practically over the field. Looking hard, I saw nothing that looked like an airfield.

I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver. . Hoping to pick up anything that looked like a field. Meanwhile on the ground, the Commander had taken the Cadets up on the control tower's cat walk to get a prime view.

It was a quiet, still day with no wind and partial gray overcast. Walter continued to give me indications that the field should be below us, but in the overcast and haze, I couldn't see it.
But the longer we continued to circle and peer out . . The slower we got. With our throttles way back, the awaiting cadets heard silence.

I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me I better "cross-check the gauges."
As I noticed the airspeed indicator s-l-i-d-e below 160 knots (180 mph), my heart stopped, as my adrenalin-filled left hand slammed both throttles FULL FORWARD, aka "Balls to the Wall !"

At this point we weren't really flying, but were falling in a slight bank. At the moment both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame, the aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the catwalk on the tower.

Shattering the absolute silence of the morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their faces as the plane leveled and accelerated in full-burner, on their side of the infield much closer than expected. It could only be described as some sort of ultimate "knife-edge" aerobatic pass.

We proceeded back to Mildenhall without incident . . Not saying a word to each other for those next 14 minutes. After landing, our commander greeted us . . And we were both certain he was reaching for our wings.

Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the Commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 fly-by he had ever seen. Especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could only be described as . . breathtaking.

Apparently, some of the cadet's hats were blown off. The sight of the "plan view" of the plane in full afterburner dropping right in front of them was stunning and unbelievable.
Walt and I both understood the concept of "breathtaking" very well that morning, and we sheepishly replied that the Cadets seemed just excited to see our low approach.

As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight suits, we just sat there.... and hadn't spoken a word since "the pass."
Finally, Walter looked at me and said : "I saw One hundred fifty-six knots."

"What did you see" asked Walt ? Trying to find my voice I stammered "One hundred fifty-two..."(175 mph)
We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt calmly said "Don't ever do that to me again...."

I never did, and not sure I could.
A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officer's club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 fly-past that he'd seen.

Of course, by now the story included kids blown off the tower, and screaming as the heat of the jet singed their eyebrows.

As we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, the officer noticed our HABU shoulder patch icon of a deadly snake and asked us to verify to the Cadets that such an event occurred.

Walt just shook his head and said, "It was probably just a routine low approach......they're pretty impressive in that airplane."
Impressive . . indeed.

Little did I realize that LOW SPEED experience . . would become one of the most requested stories. It's ironic, that people now became very interested in how slow the World's fastest jet aircraft can fly.

Nice read.

Thanks! I've loved all things Blackbird related since I was a little kid living near Plant 42 for a short time and then my dad worked for a contractor for the Air Force and then NASA at Edwards AFB and Dryden respectively. Always been fascinated by them. We lived not far from the Plant 42 runway and I remember when they would fly over our house it was something else, my mom probably put it best when she said it sounded like the sky was splitting open.
Here's a cool cockpit run-through in a SR-71 simulator done by Richard Graham:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tj9UwKQKE3A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Love that story. I saw the SR-71 that was being trucked up to the Boeing Museum about 20 years ago. The wings were removed. It was on a couple of trucks. I saw it at a truck stop. It was cool to get right up close and personal with a disassembled SR-71.

Larry

I work on the grounds of plant 42. you still see amazing things everyday here. U2's taking off, B1's and B2's doing pattern work. You'd be surprised what takes off out of here, once the cover of night sets in.

In 1982 I was a maintenance officer in the USAF, stationed at RAF Alconbury, UK. I was TAC, taking care of F5's and F4C's, but on the base was a small SAC group working on TR1's (refirb'd U2). They stayed pretty much to themselves in well guarded hanger requiring top secret clearance. One night during an "alert" exercise, while driving to the Phase Dock, I watched the doors to the giant SAC hanger open, out came the SR71. I stuck around long enough to watch it take off. Unbelievable! To this day, I've never heard anything so loud.

Amazing story. Thanks!

That would have been a trip.

United States Air Force Plant 42 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My dad was an Air Force pilot. In 1957. We were living in Lake Charles LA. At that time his main job was he was the officer in charge of every single classified document on the base. He had to know where the document was and who had it in possession at all times. His office was a concrete vault with a front door much like a bank vault. Obviously he had the highest clearance there was at the time.

One evening on the drive across base to go to his airplane there were numerous guards blocking the area to the hangars. He knew the guard but was told he could not enter the area. It was a temporary "need to know" restricted area. Much later he found out it was a U2. It was brand new back then.

We all hope there are new aircraft that are as advanced and secret and the U2 & SR-71.

In the middle of the country side in a woods I once had a A-10 go over me at just over tree level 70-100 ft. At what looked like 40-50 mph. If the pilot had waved I could have counted their fingers. The weird part was I heard it about 20 seconds before I saw it. It was making a horrible racket. Was it so load because it was going so slow? It was like it was running rich and back firing. I know what a gas turbine should sound like and this was just such a different sound. Like ten empty dump trucks going down the road together.

Great read... Thanks, I would love to see one in real life one day. Maybe on my next trip to the US.

If you only heard him 20 seconds before you saw him, you have already been dead for 60 seconds. When I was stationed in Germany A-10s were still a regular site in the skies around some of the practice areas and training areas. Typically they like the Apache gun ships like to come up from directly behind your position, by the time you hear them they have had laser and or thermal lock on you and your sorry soon to be returned to dust rear end.

You can count on that. The SR-71 was around for over a decade before the public even knew it existed...And was no doubt the source of many a nighttime UFO reporting.

Fun story!
Interesting to hear it's slow speed characteristics.
As a Navy radar atc, worked an SR 71 over the W-291 warning area off the So Cal coast back in 81.
It made a 1 minute U turn that was about half as long as the state of Calif.
The high speed target skipped an inch or more on every radar sweep. :cool:

If that sim is at ED AFB, I "flew" it. We were at the TPS giving the test pilots instruction in complex piston and tail wheel heavies. Decided to go the weekend prior for the 50th anniversary of Yeager breaking the speed of sound. Due to our VIP status, we got lots of behind the scenes looks.

Got to stand right next to an SR-71 as it prepared for the show and stood near the end of the runway as it departed. Holy crap! Plus you should see all the fuel that leaks while it is parked - buckets. And the GPU? Powered by TWO Chevy 427s iirc.

Fan-freakin-tastic story by the Blackbird pilot.

No doubt.

Ovnis, propulsion électromagnétique...
http://www.ovni.ch/~kouros/images/aurora.cmp.jpg
http://www.ovni.ch/~kouros/images/aurorph1.jpg
http://www.ovni.ch/~kouros/images/aurorph2.jpg

Found link above via this thread:
Aurora

More fun stuff here:
http://www.dreamlandresort.com/black_projects/aircraft.htm

An F4 Phantom did a really low flyover (at considerable speed) of our McDonnell-Douglas facility back in the late 80s. I thought the world was coming to an end. Hearing something that loud (when you're not expecting it and are not sure what it is) pretty much had me convinced that something really bad was happening. :)

One of my friends was a B-52 pilot. He is long retired. He said back in the 60s when he was on active duty they would fly out to west Kansas or east Colorado at night to rack up time. They could see the headlights of a lone vehicle just cruising down the road. They would drop down to very low altitude and fly right over the poor sucker in the vehicle.

Imaging just driving a LONG very straight quiet road and not seeing anyone for a while and all of a sudden hearing a B-52 with 8 engines roaring just 100 feet above your head. He said they always drove off the road in fright and all the crew laughed. He said he felt bad now that he was older and wiser but he was just a kid with a huge expensive toy.

It was probably longer but I just started looking around like what the heck is making all that noise because before I started to hear it all you heard was nature. I am used to the sound of the fighters and other Military planes including a-10s going by up high heading to EAA or to the 440th at Mitchell field. I just never saw one go so slow and make such a racket.

That's a great story.

I saw an SR-71 full-afterburner take off in Guam back in the day when I was a Naval Flight Officer. Awesome sight and sound....I experienced some very cool things flying off of carriers, but that takeoff is permanently burned into my memory banks.

My uncle was USN on Guam for years. He talked about taking a couple pictures of the SR-71 taking off from the fence and the MP's coming over to take the film out of the camera.

I saw it do an afterburner climb out when I was a kid at the Pt. Mugu air show. Loud.

What did you fly?

S-3 Viking
VS-33 Screwbirds off the USS Nimitz

Recon or refueling? Cool stuff. Cat launches must be intense.

My pop was at Andersen AFB in Guam for a few years and has the same recollections from when the SR-71 would visit (among other things, a BUFF crashing into the reef upon take-off in the middle of the night and lighting up the whole sky).

I know this story is somewhere else in here, but it is a delight to tell it from firsthand experience.

I was westbound from Shannon to Seattle in a Gulfstream IV. Over the flat expanse of the northern Hudson Bay at Mach .82.... talking to Artic Control. We were not as high as usual because it actually warms up at altitude way up north. Probably FL390. We were the only aircraft in the sector, so it was quiet.

We get called about traffic. Controller says our traffic is 6 o'clock, 65 miles back with a 1200 knot overtake, and no altitude readout, primary return only.

The hairs go up on my back and arms. He then says he's not talking to him, and by the way, the radar targets just merged.

We are speechless, but what could we do? Nada.

The controller says he has an idea, will call right back.

I look up and see the twin orange-yellow shock cones as the controller comes on and says traffic is identified, but classified. His flight plan was from Mildenhall to Mather nonstop, and the reason he was not talking to him was because he was not in controlled airspace (above 60,000 feet).

It took the dot with the twin glowers a full two minutes to disappear from our view over the horizon in front of us.

just an FYI...the controller would have still had radar on him, not just a primary. we don't get primaries in high altitude, it would be what's called a "dogbone" or mode c intruder. even with classified stuff, they're on radio and on discrete code..but it's a tac frequency that we have. (separate from military UHF). ...in case of emergency, and they need ATC right now, we monitor them. I talk to guys above FL600 pretty much everyday. it's cool talking with them...because the positive pressure from their space suits is very noticeable on the radio.

cool story, nonetheless.

you guys would never believe the stuff that flies over the western united states....everyday.

Great story. My dad was an aerospace engineer during SR-71 development and it was one of his favorite pieces of 60s technology. Yes having a look at the gauges when flying low and slow is always a good thing. They were very close to going into the dirt.

Is it foolish to assume that there are things much more advanced that the SR-71?

the SR was 50's technology.

But is the stuff manned or unmanned? I'd like to think that we currently have a manned replacement for the SR71 and not everything coming down the pike is a UAV.

I grew up as an Air Force brat and my father was in maintenance. As such I was able to get in, over and around pretty much everything in the inventory between the mid-60s till the early 80's. The absolutely most awesome experience I had was driving along the flightline at Mildenhall and seeing an SR-71 on final appear out of the low clouds, land and taxi past us. It was a chilling sight.

That is one plane we were never able to get up close to and that was the only time I ever saw one outside of a museum.

I suppose that all depends on your definition: Imagined, designed and engineered, constructed, or first flight:

"SR-71 timeline[edit]
Important dates pulled from many sources.[75][unreliable source?]
24 December 1957: First J58 engine run.
1 May 1960: Francis Gary Powers is shot down in a Lockheed U-2 over the Soviet Union.
13 June 1962: SR-71 mock-up reviewed by Air Force.
30 July 1962: J58 completes pre-flight testing.
28 December 1962: Lockheed signs contract to build six SR-71 aircraft.
25 July 1964: President Johnson makes public announcement of SR-71.
29 October 1964: SR-71 prototype (AF Ser. No. 61-7950) delivered to Air Force Plant 42 at Palmdale, CA.
7 December 1964: Beale AFB, CA, announced as base for SR-71.
22 December 1964: First flight of the SR-71 with Lockheed test pilot Bob Gilliland at Air Force Plant #42."




Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://iliketowastemytime.com/sites/...-old-photo.jpg

So if we ask...you can tell right? Pretty please!SmileWavy

Here is another video that is oven an hour from the same guy.

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And the A12. Don't forget about the A12

I have no idea why, but a B1 did a flyby at the opening of the LA County fair about 10 years ago. He circled at least twice beforehand waiting for the green light.

I have NEVER heard anything quite so loud in my life. And I have been on the runway for a flyby of a B1 at Edwards. I don't know if he lit the afterburners or what, but even my wife, who was miles away, called me and asked what happened. I called the local general aviation airport to ask if they landed a jet (rare at Cable) but they said no. I called Bracket (another local bigger field) and they too said no but told me there had been a B1 in their airspace.

We are a Navy family and have had many occasions to hear F18's etc, but I have never heard anything else so loud as that B1.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1387227469.jpg

Brian Shul Selfie


Fascinating in every aspect.

Our neighbors son circa 1972-1975 who we thought flew tankers was a Blackbird Pilot, did not know it until the mid 90"s.

Not much automation you had to fly it.

I hear the Beale AFB drone pilots on VHF all the time. Oakland ARTCC. (Also the U-2/TR-1s and the T-38s.) I point out to my captains that the voice/pilot is sitting in a trailer at Beale while descending the drone out of high altitude.

Growing up in the bay area I went to a couple of airshows at Beale. c1985 they had an SR-71 depart mid-morning. By noon we were there and strolling the ramp when we see a contrail coming from the west. I keep looking at the contrail and it was acting 'funny.' The trail was straight, of course, but then it began twisting into a snake-shape as it slowly dissipated. We looked up as it passed over the base but could not see the aircraft making the contrail which we thought was unusual. We weren't near the P.A. system so we didn't get the explanation as it happened. Anyway, the contrail had suddenly started west of Beale and then just after passing over the base eastbound the contrail suddenly stopped. Weird. Then a buddy walks up and says, "That's the SR that took-off this morning!" Huh? After a little time passed the faint "pop-pop" of the sonic boom(s) was heard and the explanation was that the SR had made a pass at "Mach 2" at altitude and had been dumping fuel so as to leave a trail in the sky way up above the normal contrail level. That's why it twisted strangely as it dissipated. Maybe two more hours passed and the SR was back. It made a few nice passes and then landed. Pretty exciting for that day and age.

Then, in 1997 as a USAF instructor pilot, I took a jet to the 50th USAF anniversary airshow at Nellis AFB, NV. Great show with numerous 'Warbirds' and several military demo teams in attendance. After our sunrise+30" arrival on Wednesday we were cleaning up our jet when the arrivals were picking up. A civilian-owned F-104 two-seater made a scorching pass and came around and landed and then a NASA SR-71 showed up. He made a couple of close-in banking fly-bys and then pulled into the overhead pattern for landing. SR pilots described its flight characteristics as very close to the T-38s they used for proficiency training. He basically flew a close-in T-38-style pattern and an aggressive left descending 180-degree turn to land. Well, he overshot the runway (too wide a turn to final) but dramatically 'yanked and banked' and got it lined up expertly just crossing the runway threshold. Just as the main wheels touched the drag 'chute was ejected from the top of the aft fuselage and went 'whap' as it blossomed. He kept the nose up and used aero-braking to slow (as well as the 'chute) and it was pure showmanship. That guy knew we were all watching and just expertly put that SR down with style.

B1 flyover at the 06 Rose Bowl, TX 41, USC 38 - YouTube