SR-71 Mystiques

SR-71 Pilot Maury Rosenberg and RSO Ed McKim unveil the mysteries and conjectures of flying the world's highest and fastest turbine powered jet aircraft. Produced by Jarel & Betty Wheaton for Peninsula Seniors www.pvseniors.org

[@Thunderdog73]

Bravo! Col. Don Schreiber , SR-71 pilot was my college business production management professor at Baylor University Hankamar School of Business. On the first day of class, he Attempted to explain to the class with the SR 71 was and how fast it went by explaining that a trip from Waco to Dallas would’ve taken approximately three minutes. As a student pilot fanatic, I assure you I was the only one who understood the magnitude of who he is Dorichlee was in what he achieved. I was blown away and ultimately got a C in the class.

[@BrentonCorns]

I loved hearing the story about Maury saving 960 (58:30)! My wedding ring is from one of the "turkey feathers" (ejector nozzle) of 960, and was made by Dan Freeman, retired USAF Machine Shop Chief at Beale.

[@bend1483]

Dan really is amazing at what he does. I love my ring that he made for me. Stunning.

[@c182SkylaneRG]

I think my two favorite SR71 stories are of the low visibility flyby in England on the way back to Beale, where they nearly stalled looking for the bottom of the cloud layer, and the "Aspen Speed Check" story. :)

[@hoghogwild]

After a few speed check calls to LA Center by slower/lower prop traffic getting speeds across the ground from 80 knots up to 240 knots, a Navy aviator in his F/A-18 calls LA Center for a speed check(even though the F/A-18 has equipment to give the F/A-18 crew that very info. The F/A-18 crew was simply swatting the slower civilian planes with their 600 knots speeds over the radio. Typical Navy ego stroking. "LA Center, Aspen20, do you have our speed over the ground?" "roger Aspen20, we have you at 1680 knots over the ground" "Rog tower, though I have us closer to 1700knots." "Roger Aspen20, that's probably right, your equipment is more advanced than ours." AirForce-1 Navy-0 One squid stomped. I like this story as well. I think is was also a Shul story. As we all know, all altitude above 60,000 feet is uncontrolled airspace meaning that you dont have to inform Air Traffic Control about every single course altitude change. Think of flying above 60,000 feet like off roading."Where we're going, you don't need roads.". An SR-71 backseater(the RSO or Recon Systems Officer-one who runs the radios) SR-71 RSO "Tower we'd like clearance for an altitude change to 60,000 feet." Tower- "Roger you are cleared to flight level SIX-ZERO-ZERO"(thinking to himself, what the hell is this guy doing? Is he trying to fall from the sky?) SR-71 RSO-" Ah Roger tower, we'll be DESCENDING through 60,000 feet. Good day!" xxxxxxxx The only manned air breathing aircraft that could out altitude and out speed the 2 person SR-71(and its 80,000 pound fuel load) was the shorter/lighter/68,000 pound fuel load CIA A-12 Cygnus single seater. The A-12 had a single camera behind the pilot. He just had to turn the camera ON, select the level of cloud over the target, either "Clear" or "Cloudy" and that's it. The SR-71 while it didnt have the best of the best cameras as the A-12 did, it still had EXCELLENT cameras including one that shot straight down recording exactly WHERE the a/c was flying in relation to the ground. This is the kind of proof that is required in case someone accuses the US of flying somewhere it was NOT flying. The SR-71 because it was larger and had a larger fuel load, could carry much more payload including cameras that probed hundreds of miles to the left and right of teh a/c. It could fly over international waters or another country and spy on a slant from safety. There were multiple other forms of intelligence that the SR-71 could collect while the A-12 could only capture photo recon.

[@fermd83]

747s also had a kind of astro tracker with a sextant that worked with the INS system, it's very interesting how they solved navigation back in the days when GPS wasn't there.

[@BobbyGeneric145]

Its funny that a senior citizen channel has by far the best military aviation content available on KZbin! So glad I stumbled across this channel.

[@taofledermaus]

Priceless personal stories.

[@n7565j]

Have you ever been down to the San Diego Air and Space Museum and seen the SR-71 up close and personal??? The pics don't do that a/c justice ;-) Love your channel by the way :-)

[@anchorbait6662]

You are everywhere I swear. Haha good stuff

[@eriktruchinskas3747]

TAOFLEDERMAUS man ive seen you on a bunch of plane videos. Apparently guns arent your only interest

[@eriktruchinskas3747]

Brian W its not that impressive. It looks more like a model. I forgot which museum has one but you can actually go inside it

[@billford5553]

Brian W we have an SR 71 Blackbird over in the UK down at Duxford museum. I dont know wether its still got its engines inside or if its just a shell

[@DrMackSplackem]

I love you guys nearly as much as I love this amazing, peacemaking airplane itself. I thank you deeply!

[@jhmup]

I worked at Link in Binghamton. QC, Gage Crib 2 yrs just before enlisting in USAF 1969. In 1970, I was at Edwards AFB working on WCS on F4 with TISEO. I’ll never forget the scream of the YF12A engines on the test pad miles away across the base from the flight line, hangar and barracks. It flew by at an airshow there before I shipped to Udorn Thailand and as it passed the stands, they punched in the afterburners and with a sonic ba-boom, it was gone! Won’t forget that either.

[@paulpatton5093]

Thank you for your service and for sharing your experience!

[@peacequiet]

wow ! that was so interesting. It was the first time I have ever heard pilots talk about that plane and I took in every word of it. thank you so much !

[@TheDormonid]

it is absolutelly UN BE LI VE A BLE how priceless these stories are and Im not even North American! We need to spread the word and bring more people to here

[@MrMenefrego1]

*These great men are so much more intelligent than the average bear! It's humbling to hear their amazing stories, can you imagine the stories they CAN'T TELL?! I loved the story about buzzing the airport at the air show... What gonads! Wonderful men and an amazing aircraft, when I was a little kid in the 60's I had a plastic toy SR-71, that is the closest I will ever come to flying one. Not everyone is as gifted as these men are. Great series, looking forward to many more!*

[@abtechgroup]

What a great series! Love to visit the museum some time. Keep the interviews rolling!

[@Bryster51]

Enjoying these presentations! Keep it going!

[@babakzekibi315]

Another aviation legends time. Thanks a lot.

[@dks13827]

Best shows on youtube. Thank you.

[@teweller]

Great video! Thanks for sharing! Your channel has some real treasures.

[@bendeleted9155]

I just love these. Thank you!

[@timrogers2045]

Absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much.

[@mpetry912]

very informative discussion, thank you !

[@williamkillingsworth2619]

Awesome! This is history, thank u for sharing.

[@Jablicek]

Hi PeninsulaSeniors, do you have someone in your network who's a former crewmember? You seem to have a lot of these videos but, in this instance, quantity does NOT degrade quality. Excellent subject matter and production.

[@advorsky1]

Since you can’t forge titanium each one was machined a little differently......that’s why every SR-71 had different personalities

[@soupfork2105]

Andrew Dvorsky That’s a myth. Titanium can absolutely be forged, it’s just that at the time they built these, they couldn’t forge it in any way that would actually be of use for making the SR-71. At that time the USSR was already forging submarine hull parts out of titanium in vacuum chambers.

[@morninguvnuh4769]

I18:14 wonder what stations late-phase SR71 wash-out pilots went on to hold?

[@rokzupan8269]

Really great guys. I envy your career 😉

[@MustangsTrainsMowers]

Have the Russians ever had an aircraft equivalent to the SR-71 that has flown over the United States?

[@rdubb77]

The best they did was the Mig-25 Foxbat, which was in part created to intercept the SR-71. It had a dash capability of Mach 2.8, while the SR-71 _cruised_ at Mach 3.2. Also, the Mig would top out at about 60,000 feet while the SR cruised at 80,000 feet. So...no. We never overflew Russia with a manned aircraft after 1960 and they probably did not either, this is border reconnaissance. Our radars would have detected manned aircraft overflights and that would have been very bad, after the 1960 U2 shoot down. We use satellites for that.

[@avoidingtrees6692]

Humble respect from France , America 👋

[@stephes999]

The quote they couldn't remember was the three things that are useless to a flight crew are 1, the airspace above you, 2 ,the runway behind you and 3, the fuel you left in the truck....... What an amazing presentation! I could listen to these guys all day. Standing order, I will buy these guys a beer any time.

[@alexnutcasio936]

Altitude, airspeed and brains, you need two of three to survive....

[@karlchilders5420]

I remember Gen O'Malley's crash. Truly a tragedy. I wasn't USAF, but I had many AF friends, and people knew Gen O'Malley by reputation: one of excellence and servant based leadership. Truly a loss for the USAF. He perished with his wife in that T-39 crash in PA in 1985. I'm sure, as Maury said, he would have been next USAF Chief of Staff.

[@matthayward7889]

Another superb presentation: absolutely fascinating, could listen to the professionals talk about their experiences all day!

[@MustangsTrainsMowers]

Did any of the pilots wives know their husbands flew them? Any women fly the SR-71?

[@hoghogwild]

1:00:35 The same ejection seats were used on the first FOUR shuttle missions. STS 1 through STS-4, all flown by Columbia. Once Shuttle was deemed operational and more than 2 people were used as crew, that ejection seat/pressure suit environment became a shirts sleeves environment. The ejection seats were also installed in Enterprise for use during the Approach and Landing Testing from atop the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

[@garypart393]

The ejection seats on the first 4 shuttle flights were a pr gimmick, if they ejected they would have gone into the explosion.

[@dongon3837]

still teaming over a mic this time - thanks gents for your stories

[@steinelgaaen]

Love these. Thank you

[@ryansimpson4781]

You know what I like? There sharing a bottle of water...still a crew till this day.

[@rdubb77]

Their connection is obvious, and a wonderful thing to see.

[@buffy4728]

Ed mckim is my uncle and I’m going to tell you he always does this so it’s not too personal

[@blueduck9409]

Likely will be till the day they die.

[@billford5553]

great video explaining how these guys worked

[@BobbyGeneric145]

@PeninsuliaSr...could you please try to get somebody from Long Beach McDonnell Douglas to talk about the assembly lines there?

[@dorhayoon5746]

Best show.

[@shaunroberts9361]

You guys were frigging Awesome!!!

[@yotoboshi2545]

Thank you so much!

[@blindsqurill]

Top notch channel! Thank you , great job

[@nealthedeal1]

How much does a pilot and ROI and plane cost if a sam shot one down. 1980 was a long time ago and i think a satellite is harder to hit and drones can remain on station for a lot longer than both.

[@Jakob_DK]

Nealio They could not transfer all the data fast enough in the beginning and the film was developed at Kodak in New York. Later they moved that closer to Vietnam. With data transfer via satellites things changed. Somethings don’t quite fit still. :-)

[@Jakob_DK]

Getting coverage over an unanticipated conflict area is hard and might require a launch of a satellite in a different orbit. (Suez is an example) Have you seen the drone for the modified SR71?

[@taketimeout2share]

Troy and Virgil Tempest right there in the flesh. FAB.

[@mrpricey182]

taketimeout2 you mean scott and virgil tracey right?

[@fazole]

I believe the SR-71 was much faster than admitted. I have watched an interview with an F-111 pilot who stated that plane without a titanium hull and the use of ramjets could make mach 3. SR-71 pilots claim they flew at a max of M3.2 with 3.4 being the tested limit. Something doesn't add up.

[@vk3139]

I recall a SR-71 pilot in a interview saying with a smile and a wink that 3.4 was the fastest he was allowed to admit he had done. In another interview a SR-71 pilot talked about doing a recon mission over the middle east where several SAMs were launched at the aircraft, that while escaping he left the throttles at max and didn't realize it until he was already out over the mediterranean sea again and his RSO was asking him to slow down. He said that when he looked at the meter he saw a "scary" high mach number. So yeah, i think the aircraft had a bit more to give then is in the official numbers.

[@rdubb77]

I believe that 3.4 - 3.5 was truly the limit because there would start to be engine damage. The engine would start to fry at that point, and could only be taken then there for short periods. So either they'd retire the plane, in the case of the plane that flew the coast to cost speed record and taxied to the Smithsonian in 1990, or the engine would need extensive maintenance.