Sunday, February 27, 2011

SR-71 Blackbird, over Libya

How a Pilot Risked His Life To Spy On Libya

Danger Zone
“   We had crossed into Libya and were approaching our final turn over the bleak desert landscape when Walter informed me that he was receiving missile launch signals. I quickly increased our speed, calculating the time it would take for the weapons-most likely SA-2 and SA-4 surface-to-air missiles capable of Mach 5 - to reach our altitude. I estimated that we could beat the rocket-powered missiles to the turn and stayed our course, betting our lives on the plane's performance.

After several agonizingly long seconds, we made the turn and blasted toward the Mediterranean 'You might want to pull it back,' Walter suggested. It was then that I noticed I still had the throttles full forward. The plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit. It was the fastest we would ever fly. I pulled the throttles to idle just south of Sicily , but we still overran the refueling tanker awaiting us over Gibraltar. [Full Article]
 ”
In these matters, real life is always more exciting than Hollywood.
cuzzin ricky
2/27/2011 07:36:00 PM 6 Comments

"If the number of Islamic terror attacks continues at the current rate, candlelight vigils will soon be the number-one cause of global warming. "
Argus Hamilton


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6 comments:

TimO said...

Hmmm... the link doesn't go to the right article, but then Gizmodo and the rest of the Gawker sites have been F'ed-up since their recent redo.

Read Brian Shul's book 'Sled Driver' when it first came out and loved it. A real first-rate account of some seriously ballsy guys going faster than a speeding bullet.

2/27/11, 9:07 PM
Anonymous said...

Here is a working link to the correct story:

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/02/how-a-pilot-risked-his-life-to-spy-on-libya/

Boneshaker

2/27/11, 9:21 PM
Anonymous said...

Google the story of "Aspen 20 " it's one of the coolest stories I've ever read , about a Black Bird ! SMIBSID : ) >

2/27/11, 9:23 PM
Anonymous said...

A tale from the "Old Days" when America was not ashamed of its greatness and the idea that an American President would be running around schmoozing with Marxists and apologizing to 7th Century troglodytes was unthinkable.

It's good for the soul.

- One Man Gang

2/27/11, 9:51 PM
Anonymous said...

Favorite part.

"One day, high above Arizona , we were monitoring the radio traffic of all the mortal airplanes below us. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed. ‘Ninety knots,’ ATC replied. A twin Bonanza soon made the same request. ‘One-twenty on the ground,’ was the reply. To our surprise, a navy F-18 came over the radio with a ground speed check. I knew exactly what he was doing. Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the bug-smashers in the valley know what real speed was ‘Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground,’ ATC responded. The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walter’s mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter startled the controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace. In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, ‘ Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the ground.’ We did not hear another transmis sion on that frequency all the way to the coast."

2/28/11, 1:15 AM
pdwalker said...

I've read that one before. It's a FANTASTIC read.

Can you imagine flying one of those puppies? Well I can now after the way he described it.

Wow!

2/28/11, 5:38 AM

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