SR-71 Eyes in the Night

[@darkofc]

Thank you ! Retired technician, now just a modeler - your "first hand" stories are priceless..

[@robinwells8879]

I used to work in Mildenhall in a plant near the runway and I vividly recall watching (and feeling) the SR71 take off on Thursdays in the nineties. I recall plant productivity would fall close to zero every time! It is a visceral experience few seemed to tire of! The example on display at Duxford also makes the hairs on my whole body stand on end every time I see it!

[@DaylightDigital]

I was able to attend this talk in person, thank you Cindy and everyone at the WMoF for showing me around and making me feel welcome!

[@lamontcranston8181]

Please, never stop making these videos. They are absolutely amazing. Thank you for putting them out for us to learn from and enjoy.

[@MK-go7vg]

These are two levels ahead and some. Amazing

[@r123154]

Very enjoyable.Thank you to all who made this possible .

[@SmokeFlame1]

This presentation was very informative. I particularly appreciated the fact that he repeated the question before answering. In too many interviews the questioner cannot be heard and the answer can be confusing. Very well done.

[@andrew6978]

Love me some SR-71, thank you for the upload.

[@rdubb77]

I'm always highly impressed, but not surprised, by the sheer focus and intelligence of the SR Pilots. Especially considering they're in their 70s at this point.

[@tacitblue1973]

Another great video, there's not a lot of these people to begin with, it won't be too much longer before such stories become increasingly difficult to find.

[@Kolcobrzuch]

AFAIK there was about 100 pilots in total who flew those planes. Quite exclusive squad...

[@hoghogwild]

@@Kolcobrzuch Yup 120 humans were rated to Pilot the SR-71A/B/C. This is not including the CIA employees who were checked out for the earlier A-12 aircraft, of which there was about 8 Pilots. 4 times the amount of people (572 by USAF definition) have been in space than have piloted the SR-71(120).

[@ericholzman7801]

Thank you for all you and your buddies have done including this info. Wish I was blessed to fly it but thanks for allowing us to hear how fun it was

[@MikeJamesMedia]

Thank you Jack, and thank you to everyone involved for making these presentations possible. It's fascinating historically, and of course, fascinating for those of us who are aviation fans. Wonderful stories, told by the people who lived them!

[@philbyd]

Always makes my day,when another group pass on their memories and history,thanks heaps for posting them,heaps of interesting facts and stories here

[@BrianJamesEdD]

Can't get enough of these videos...great work here...an extended / long form video with Jack Veth, other SR or U2 pilots are sorely needed and very much appreciated. Thank you!

[@timh1907]

Superb, clear, knowledgeable presentation

[@Aeronaut1975]

A wonderful interview, thank you!

[@mermaidsarereal6296]

Thank you for uploading this amazing VIDIEO on the sr-71 (blackbird) I love Aircraft and always like to study about them

[@nhra7110]

Wonderful! Thank you so much!

[@richardgoold3306]

Another fantastic video, keep it up.

[@IrishManJT]

Fantastic!

[@MongooseTacticool]

Great Video. I've seen the one at March Field, its beautiful.

[@lanceessex7403.]

There is a SR-71 and a YF-12 at the Air Force museum at Dayton Ohio.

[@DaylightDigital]

The second YF-23 prototype is at the WMoF, highly recommend seeing it if you are out in LA

[@stevenlarratt3638]

Got to come out to the states to see all of this first hand...

[@DaylightDigital]

They have a lecture just about every month, you should go!!!

In regards to the D-21 drone. I’m pretty sure it was used operationally. The Chinese found one crashed in Western China. I think it was launched from a B-52 and a booster rocket motor got it fast enough to get the ramjet going.

[@hoghogwild]

I'm also pretty sure the D-21 was used operationally. It was launched from a B-52, the booster rocket propelled the drone until ramjet speeds were attained. Pictures were taken, film was ejected and floated down via parachute. An awaiting fleet of C-130 Hercules aorcraft would pluck the parachutes and film canisters from teh air. The same methods were used to pluck film canisters from older film return style photo recon satellites.(early KH-9 Hexagon)

hoghogwild not surprisingly, the Air Force has been very tight lipped about Cold War Reconnaissance involving China and NK.

[@vandor1976]

I love this videos. Just to be fair is t possible to have not only pilots but other crew number speech like the navigators or spy instrument controller so on because hey was imortant as the pilots

[@martybowen1]

It's wild to think 2 yrs before I was born the first flight took place in 62. I would love to know HOW FAR WE HAVE COME TODAY!!!

[@TairnKA]

A long time ago my sister worked on the SR-71 at Beale AFB and she was able to arrange a "brief" for me on base and a close up look (away from hanger). Under tight supervision I had been allowed to take photos, unfortunately the plane I was going to be allowed the close up was in a hanger so no looking and especially no pictures. I was allowed (conciliation prize?) to visit some mechanics working on an engine and a couple other stops (I've forgotten what?). It was funny, any reference to how fast the aircraft could go was stated as "Mach 3+", except for one who slipped and said "Mach 3.2+" (now 3.3+). ;-D At the end (about an hour or two?) the officer tracking my sister and I remarked that I had received the most through brief he'd seen anyone get. Btw - I did get a photo of a SR-71 landing but it was rushed, making sure a hanger interior wasn't seen, I also saw (no photo) coffee cans, buckets, etc... under a plane, catching the dripping fuel. I'm fairly sure (not 100%) during the brief I was told there's a fuel loss Mil-Spec for the aircraft and it's a very dark blue, not black. I believe the latter was B.S.? ;-) Thank-you for the video.

[@TairnKA]

I believe the U.S. government would never retire such a valuable asset unless there's something (additional to satellites) to fulfill these (real time) missions.

[@Jakob_DK]

T'airn'KA Find the talk on “Global Hawk”

[@Bluelightning23]

ANS, the original R2D2.

[@DigitalConten1]

I had the privilege to set in the SR-71 at Edwards Air Force Base 1997.

[@poop80016]

He said the SR-71B was used for subsonic training, does any one know if this aircraft was also used for supersonic training?

[@AvengerII]

The SR-71B would have had more drag because of the raised cockpit for the instructor pilot but I have no doubt it would have been supersonic capable. They flew the M-21 Blackbird variant with a drone on its back at supersonic speed (at or close to Mach 3) and that drone undoubtedly created more drag than the raised cockpit on the SR-71B! So yeah, it was probably mostly a subsonic flight trainer to get the student pilot used to handling the plane. The SR-71B was supersonic but not as fast as the SR-71A. The slowest Blackbird was the A-12T trainer which was equipped with J75 engines which were not optimized for Mach 3. They used the J75 in the F-105 and F-106 fighters which were Mach 2 planes. Mach 2 was around the limit for the A-12T with the J75 engine. The SR-71 in general spent far more time at subsonic speed than supersonic cruise. www.sr71.us/srfact~1.htm The SR's were flown NOWHERE NEAR as many hours as they could have been. They were too expensive to operate all the time so the crew spent more time flying in planes like the T-38 to keep current flight hours. Nobody but the deepest corner of the Pentagon knows EXACTLY what it cost to operate an SR-71 per hour (and this includes the aerial refueling tanker fleet) but one guess by a pilot was about $100,000 an hour (in 1980s dollars; it might be closer to $500,000/hr today). That's why the SR-71 program was ultimately killed.

[@neilbishop1686]

@@AvengerII .The majority of the five "B" training flights were devoted to basic Mach 3 flying air refueling and plenty of traffic pattern work..about 30 to 40 minutes at the end of each sortie were devoted to practice landings..after the fifth flight was the check flight and the sixth flight was your first solo in the "A" with an experiencned RSO in the back seat...thanks for your posting...

[@ericholzman7801]

How long would it take to reactivate it NOW?

[@rdubb77]

Forever. All planes are in museums, and they had their wings cut off and reattached at the museum.

[@MothaLuva]

20:25 The Concorde.

Multiple A-12’s were lost at cruise. Jack Weeks didn’t survive his aircraft breaking up.

[@rdubb77]

Yeah, I believe the SR at cruise lost the RSO for Bill Weaver's test flight, where Weaver survived the ejection from 78,000 feet but the RSO didn't. The A-12 was Jack Weeks on the test hop before retiring the plane. In both cases the plane broke up catastrophically.

[@richardrussell1664]

I still recall flying missions to support Habu

[@mpharr2]

Color film missions?