dog_party wrote:
I wish I could have witnessed and in-flight refuel! How cool is that?!
I saw them in person on the tarmac a number of times before they were retired and I just happened to be living in Northern VA when the retirement flight came into Dulles, so I got to watch her come in and land (while setting another few records along her way from Cali). Such a magnificent plane. She's sitting in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum (Dulles Campus) now, silent, but still majestic.
I have to wonder where you saw a SR-71 sitting on a tarmac prior to it's retirement? My sister's (late) husband turned wrenches on that aircraft during the Vietnam era. He retired from the AF in early 80's. The only base they flew out of (in the US) was Beale Air Force Base in Northern California. I went there on a vacation with my parents in 1969 to visit my sister & brother-in-law who lived in Marysville, CA. From their home (off base) I recall (as a young boy) being out in the yard and hearing a jet noise off in the distance, growing louder. Before I knew it, the Blackbird was screeching across the sky when suddenly
BOOM the ground shook from the sonic boom. It scared me the first time I heard it. Spending a week there, I heard and saw the aircraft in-flight several times. One day my brother-in-law took me for a ride on his BSA Hornet motorcycle. During the ride he pointed out (from the highway) a SR-71 sitting outside a hangar in the distance. That was the closest I ever got to one at that time.
Some things I remember him telling us were that the plane was built with a slide-rule (computers had nothing to do with the design) by some very smart people at Skunk Works. He also told me that the images it took were so advanced that flying high over the Vietnam Jungle, you could count the zits on a enemy soldiers face. The aircraft carried no weapons. Just hi-tech cameras. I also recall him saying (years later) they lost one over the Arizona desert - that most of the aircraft including the two pilots vaporized before reaching the ground. But what amazed me most, was I remember him saying that the aircraft had literally flew out of the Earth's atmosphere, and that the published specs (released after it's retirement) still don't reveal the factual truths behind the aircraft.
As for the RC model - that is cool.
EDIT: After writing this and thinking about both my late brother-in-law and some of the stories he shared over the years, I wanted to add that I don't recall how many times he said the SR-71 flew into the outer edges of the Earth's atmosphere? It may have only been once, or it may have done this several times? That and back in '69 when we were there visiting them, I distinctly remember him telling my parents he was sworn to secrecy and wasn't able to discuss details about the SR-71. Which reminds me, later in life he told me during the 60's, the aircraft only sat outside for (give or take?) a hour due to the fact that when the aircraft landed, parts of the fuselage would glow red from heat after flight. It wasn't until the panels cooled down that they would generally tow it into the hangars - Which is why I was only fortunate enough to see it once sitting on the tarmac from a distance at the time. Mind you, for years he was turning wrenches on a aircraft the U.S Gov't refused to admit existed.
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