SR-71--Now my Cobra feels Flaccid!

[David Kirkham]

Fellow Car Nuts:

I remember laughing when I posted

http://clubcobra.com/forums/showthre...hlight=flaccid

"Yea, we make the coolest cars on earth!" I said--not too humbly.

Then I read this and decided I am NOT worthy. The SR-71 is an AWESOME piece of machinery. Possibly the greatest piece ever made!

My father was a fuels officer in the Air Force and worked on the fuel delivery trucks to refuel those babies. He told me the first time they filled up a tanker the fuel ate through the tank and they ended up with a jellied puddle on the runway with everyone looking at each other. The General was pissed, of course, and said "FIX IT!" So, they ended up getting stainless steel tanker trucks to haul the fuel.

Enjoy!

David


http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com...-that-jet.html

[Brent Mills]

Fixed up the thread title.

[David Kirkham]

Thanks!

David

[dbn04]

great story!!!

[Venamm]

They should have called it a Cobra.....lol (do snakes fly?)

[vettestr]

THANK YOU for the link

[David Kirkham]

Thudmaster,

We have been very fortunate to have all sorts of cool customers. If you have a chance, could you give me a call today at my office? Thanks!

Vettestr,

You are most welcome. It is a really, really cool story.

David

[J. T. Toad]

FYI the Smithsonian isn't the only place to get close to one...

http://www.elite.net/castle-air/index.html

[hey,littlecobra]

wow!!!!

an experience of a lifetime!!

I think I'm going to do this:
http://www.flightmuseum.com/docs/fof...swebposter.pdf

think it might be a similar experience???

k

[saltytri]

David K.:

Thanks for posting that. As skillful as those pilots are, few can convey the experience so well to those of us who are less fortunate.

David I.

[David Kirkham]

No problem for the link. Like my father in law says, "I know good art when I see it."

EDIT: See below...my BS meter is ticking...

David

[olddog]

Great reading and a sexy story, but I have to tell you, I think it was internet BS. Sorry to be the party pooper.

Quote (copy paste) from the link:
As inconceivable as it may sound, I once discarded the plane. Literally. My first encounter with the SR-71 came when I was 10 years old in the form of molded black plastic in a Revell kit. Cementing together the long fuselage parts proved tricky, and my finished product looked less than menacing. Glue,oozing from the seams, discolored the black plastic. It seemed ungainly alongside the fighter planes in my collection, and I threw it away.

Twenty-nine years later, I stood awe-struck in a Beale Air Force Base hangar, staring at the very real SR-71 before me.

end quote.

Ronald Regan declassified the SR71 in the 1980's, when this guy claimed to be flying the SR71 (the bombing of Libia was in the 1980's). 29 years before this, there were no plastic models to build as it was a clasified air craft at that time. Many other statement sounded quite fishy to me as well.

But if a SR71 doesn't give you a mental woody, you are not a man.

PS doing the math 29 years before the mid 1980's puts you in the mid 1950's. I do not think the SR71 was even a wild thought in the designers mind.

[thudmaster]

I live just outside Beale AFB in Yuba City. I have been on and off with the SR since 1969. No I did not fly this aircraft. We never thought it was really that classified. Flew in and out of the base day in and day out. During the base air shows people were allowed to get up close and personal looks into the cockpit. It is probally one of the finest aircraft ever to grace our skys.

Sorry to hear about your model............

[lovehamr]

Originally Posted by Venamm

They should have called it a Cobra.....lol (do snakes fly?)

One of the places that the SR71 flew out of was Kadena AB, Okinawa. The locals and a good bit of the military called it "Habu." The real Habu is a variety of poisonous snakes indigenous to SE Asia including Okinawa. If you liked David’s story you'll probably like this site.

http://www.habu.org

Steve

[turnpike boy]

According to a Squadron/Signals Publications book I have (printed 1982), Lockheed was given the contract to develop the plane in 1959 and the first flight was April 26, 1962. Would have been tough to build a plastic model in the mid-50's of a plane that hadn't been designed yet.

Still, there's a lot in the story that parallels both the aforementioned book and the book that Ben Rich, Johnson's protoge', wrote a few years ago. So, maybe the author of the story does have some seat time in the projectile.

Although....neither his name, as a pilot, nor that of his RIO show up on the list contained in lovehamr's link.

[thudmaster]

Habu snakes usually only come out at night.....hence the referance.

[lovehamr]

Originally Posted by olddog

PS doing the math 29 years before the mid 1980's puts you in the mid 1950's. I do not think the SR71 was even a wild thought in the designers mind.

Considering the first A12 flew in 1962, the fact they got the contract in 1959 and what I have read about Clarence J. "Kelly" Johnson's imagination I think you may have overstepped your BS grounds.

Steve
P.S.
From Habu.org:
"When the A-12s (and later the SR-71s) were first flown to their new remote base at Kadena AFB in Okinawa, the local people thought that this strange and somewhat wicked-looking airplane was shaped like the habu snake. They started calling it the habu airplane, and later just habu. Crews who flew the airplane were also called Habu, and the name came to be recognized with the blackbird program and even incorporated into the insignia worn by the crews on their uniforms."

I still remember references to it all over the island, even in concrete slabs miles from the base.

[olddog]

I do not think the SR71 dodged many missiles. At over 1 miles per second a SR71 was likely gone before anyone new it was there. At more than 15 miles up you need a fricking ICBM to reach it. By the time you can launch such a missile, the SR71 will be in another hemisphere.

Libia did not have a SAM that could climb to near outer space. No way did Libia fire on a SR71.

I don't think a SR71 would have needed a second pass to get the needed pictures.

I question that the SR71 had afterburners.

I boubt military air craft ever ask civilian radar to give them a ground speed reading, and I damn sure do not think a SR71 would have. If they did, I think thier flying days would have been over. Well maybe they could have gotten a job flying rubber dog $hit out of some third world $hit hole in a prop plane.

I do not think a SR71 at altitude makes a sonic boom. Did you ever hear a space shuttle go over head?

I'm far from an expert, and I'm sure there are some members who are.

[David Kirkham]

My BS meter is ticking...

David

[kobrabytes]

Last time I was up at the Hill Air Force Base Museum they had an SR71.

len