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I found this on my daily net travels this morning. It's cool and worth the time to watch IMO...

A flash movie about the SR71, it's history and a pilot that flew it...

To see it, Click HERE!

Wow! That was some great info. I just happen to live about 7 miles from the USAF Armament Museum here in Shalimar, FL outside of Eglin Air Force Base and they proudly have a SR71 displayed outside the place. Every time I go by I am still amazed by it's appearance of just being bad to the bone....lol. Now I know for certain that it was!

1 word........ Awesome!

I went to an airshow when I was younger where the Blackbird was supposed to fly-past.
It was very brief.
We did see it, high in the sky, but he was over Amsterdam by the time he was slow enough to make a significant change in direction to come back.
It looked frictionless.

There is one on display at the Strategic Air and Space Museum just outside of Omaha Nebraska where I live. It is the first plane you see when you walk in the front door. The museum was the SAC museum when it was located on Offuitt AFB, but was moved to a new site around 15 years ago. The planes are inside two large hanger style buildings to protect them from the damaging effects of the elements. They have numerous other aircraft used by the Strategic Air Command and other Air Force units. Here is a link to their web site. I've held a membership with the Museum for a couple of years. I go out there when ever I can.

"Yea tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for I am at 80,000 feet and climbing...."

That's supposedly painted on the wall of the pilot's ready room at Beale AFB which the blackbird flew out of

Dad's an Air Force Veteran

Absolutely fabulous find!! What a great presentation of a truly great aircraft.

Just watched a show on these guys, everything was timed on tankers and refueling... one pilot said one flight he had an engine malfunction 20 minutes into the flight... and it took him hours to get back to the base

The SR-71 looks like a fantasy aircraft drawn by an imaginative and bored twelve-year-old in English class. Except more outrageous.

I was lucky enough to see these plans operational when living in Okinawa,

They used to call them "Habu", after the local poisonous snake. Always knew when one was coming in because both ends of the flight line would have all the fire and rescue vehicles out and standing by. Once She touched down a beautiful orange chute would deploy. Then she'd sit at the end of the apron to cool down and drip fuel. They had no markings, that's because they'd burn off during missions from what I was told. IIRC they used two Oldsmobile 455 engines to spool them up. You could hear them running all the way to the beach since they had open headers. Just an amazing aircraft. Kelly Johnson and the "Skunk Works" were just way ahead of their time. 8th SRW, Detachment 1, from what I recall. Below is one of the patches the pilots would wear.

Patch

Joe D