After the end of the cold war, this amazing aircraft has been removed from the official american Air Force flight planning. This video shows the last official flight of this awesome airplane for the US Air Forces. The first song is Era (from the album “Era”… the band is Era). The second song is “Mighty wings” from Cheap Trick(Top Gun soundtrack).
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@andyboy155 It leaked fuel on the ground. The skin had to be heated up to expand enough to seal everything. After takeoff it had to be refueled right away. Then it was good to go
Aircraft which made first flight less then 20 years since ending of WW2, when piston engine fighters era was just ending, after almost 50 years still holding world record for the fastest air breathing manned aircraft. Even after it’s retirement.
Kelly Johnson and his team were geniuses.
Get a book “Flying the SR-71 Blackbird” by Col. Richard Graham, you will enjoy it.
Made back in the 50′s. Way ahead of it’s time.
$400 million a year to keep them running….thats why they got rid of them.
@andyboy155 You seriously think this beautiful aircraft is shxt? A Mach 3 stealth high alt re-con superior amazing aircraft like this? don’t think so.
if they would have used the blackbird as a bomber man the us would be indestrctable lol but i dont know if the bombs would be able to even leave the plane at mach 3.2
@andyboy155 Not that you don’t really care. But there are no sealants that hold together at the SR-71 Operating Temperature. So all the seals on the aircraft were heat seals. The SR-71 used to leak at an alarming rate on the ground….. Once airbourne the Blackbird had to refuel. SR-71 was designed to fly at 80k + feet @ mach 3.2+… not operate with commerical aircraft. The SR-71 might be out of service but is still a current engineering wonder of the world.
Music generates more drama than is needed.
köszi.csodálatos video az egyik legszebb vasmadárról.
ah yes the sr-71 blackbird, one of the greatest aircraft ever created!!!
@andyboy155 and you think your gas bill is hi
@keithskye Gotcha! Thanks for the clarification. I’m sure you’re right on!
@andyboy155 The blackbird leaked fuel when on the tarmac because the fuel panel doors werent covered there for it took off with almost no fuel.
@fortress1133
Actually, I have met a couple of Blackbird pilots over the years, but in my post, I was talking about an F-117 (Stealth) pilot who would tell me and anyone else that he was flying A-7 and A-10 ground attack aircraft, when he was actually flying the Stealth. My point to everyone here is that long before the public ever knows for sure about a new special missions aircraft, it will probably have been operational for many years!
@keithskye That’s a pretty elite group that flew the Blackbird! Must be an honor to know someone that did!
right now I’m (attempting) working on a possible new plane in the Blackbird family. The reason it got discontinued was because of the technology advancing at the time. By the time they had all of these done, they were working on new and better technology.
And, why not just take the engines off of these, and strap them to a new plane? Should go the same speed.
Then again, i’m definatly no engineer! I still have trouble with basic algebra, and I’m out of high school!
@fortress1133
You are definitely on track with this comment! My Dad worked for Lockheed back in the day, and every time something came out publicly, he’d then tell me how long they had been working on it and how long it had been flying. I lived next door to a F-117 pilot that had always told me that he was flying A-7s and A-10s the whole time, and then when the plane went public, he was able to tell me that he’d actually been flying them for years!
@andyboy155 You are missing some key points here… (1.)The Blackbird takes off with little fuel. (You wouldn’t want full tanks of fuel on the ground while the plane is leaking it like a sieve) So it must immediately refuel with a waiting tanker nearby before proceeding on it’s mission. (2.) With the SR flying at near stall speeds and the big lumbering tanker flying fairly fast, a refueling is a very difficult and dangerous undertaking. You should appreciate the skills of all involved.
@andyboy155 You are missing some key points here… (1.)The Blackbird takes off with little fuel. (You wouldn’t want full tanks of fuel on the ground while the plane is leaking it like a sieve) So it must immediately refuel with a waiting tanker nearby before proceeding on it’s mission. (2.) With the SR flying at near stall speeds and the big lumbering tanker flying fairly fast, a refueling is a very difficult and dangerous undertaking. You should appreciate the skills of all involved.
without contest the most beautiful aircraft ever made
really? I thought it was because they could only take off with a minimum of fuel and always had to refuel before a reconaissance mission. I wish I knew why they got rid of it, nothing has equalled this airplane.
the plane has some kind of interesting grace… I like it.
bad luck it’s out of service…
@andyboy155
The SR-71 doesn’t leave with full fuel tanks. The eminence weight of the required fuel would drasticly increse the take of distance. It’s ‘fueled’ later as it reaches appropriate altitude.
There’s many shots of the ‘Bird’ leaking fuel over it’s air surfaces, as it flies. The tolerances are designed so as the plane will tighten up, and stop leaking once it heats up, due to extreme air speed.
@fortress1133 ..IMO we currently do’nt have anything better…technology wise, I believe we’re pretty well tapped out on new A/C..with the F-35 having engine design problems and the F-22 having control issues.. budget wise, we do’nt appear to be doing very much as far as developing new “super A/C”..most budget money is going into development of UAV’s ” . which is the new frontier of aviation….Thanks
This jet was so top secret for a long time. Makes you wonder what we have now that we don’t know about that is better than the stealth planes we DO know about…