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Short History
The SR-71
came from a project designed for the CIA by Kelly Johnson at the
Lockheed Skunk Works. As the project evolved, Lockheed
designated the aircraft A-1 to A-12 as configuration changes
occurred.
The first flight, by an A-12 known as "Article 121", took place
at Groom Lake, Nevada, on April 25, 1962 equipped with the less
powerful Pratt & Whitney J75 engines due to protracted
development of the intended Pratt & Whitney J58. The J58s later
became the standard power plant for all subsequent aircraft in
the series (A-12, YF-12, M-21) as well as the follow-on SR-71
aircraft.
Although the predecessor A-12 first flew in 1962, the first
flight of an SR-71 took place on 22 December 1964, at Air Force
Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. The first SR-71 to enter
service was delivered to the 4200th (later, 9th) Strategic
Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California, in
January 1966. On 21 March 1968, Major (later General) Jerome F.
O'Malley and Major Edward D. Payne flew the first operational
SR-71 sortie in SR-71 serial number 61-7976 from Kadena AB,
Okinawa. The United States Air Force Strategic Air Command had
SR-71 Blackbirds in service from 1966 through 1991.
A total of 32 SR-71 aircraft were built: 29 as SR-71As for
operational missions and two as SR-71B trainers. The 32nd
airframe was fabricated in 1969 as a hybrid trainer designated
the SR-71C by mating the back half of an YF-12 wrecked in a 1966
landing accident with a fully-functional SR-71 forward section
of a static test specimen. Only one crew member, Jim Zwayer, a
Lockheed flight-test reconnaissance and navigation systems
specialist, was killed in a flight accident. The rest of the
crew members ejected safely or evacuated their aircraft on the
ground.
Records
The SR-71 remained the world's fastest and highest-flying
operational manned aircraft throughout its career. From an
altitude of 80,000 ft (24 km), it could survey 100,000 square
miles per hour (72 square kilometers per second) of the Earth's
surface. In addition, it was accurate enough to take a picture
of a car's license plate from this altitude. On 28 July 1976, an
SR-71 broke the world record for its class: an absolute speed
record of 2,193.1669 mph (3,529.56 km/h), and a US "absolute
altitude record" of 85,068.997 feet (25,929 m). Several planes
exceeded this altitude in zoom climbs but not in sustained
flight. When the SR-71 was retired in 1990, one was flown from
its birthplace at United States Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale,
California to go on exhibit at what is now the Smithsonian
Institution's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (an annex of the
National Air & Space Museum) in Chantilly, Virginia. The
Blackbird, piloted by Colonel Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. J.T.
Vida, set a coast-to-coast speed record at an average 2,124 mph
(3,418 km/h). The entire trip was reported as 68 minutes and 17
seconds. Three additional records were set within segments of
the flight, including a new absolute top speed of 2,242 mph
measured between the radar gates set up in St. Louis and
Cincinnati. These were accepted by the National Aeronautic
Association (NAA), the recognized body for aviation records in
the United States.
For a more detailed history, visit the following
sites:
Wikipedia
National Air and Space Museum
For how the museum
managed to acquire the ultra rare Blackbird parts,
Click on the link below:
The Saga of
the SR-71 and the Pacific Coast Air Museum
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