[PatBuckley]

I attended the Beale "open house" in 1989 and was lucky enough to be slowly driving to the parking area (driving down a parallel taxiway) when the SR71 took off.....it rotated just as it got to my car and I could clearly see the flame rings coming from the engines as it went up....I was literally speechless as I have always adored this plane.

The plane then made a few low level passes - maybe a couple of hundred feet up -one was done "dirty" and one "clean" - aerodynamically speaking. I remember the difference in noise was amazing - when it flew by clean it was almost quiet.

When it landed they did not allow it to come anywhere near the spectators...the crew disembarked at the end of the runway area.

A few months later they had a decomissioning ceremony for the plane and I was again lucky enough to be able to attend - this time the plane was allowed to taxi up to the waiting crowd - who all applauded it.