I’ve always been completely fascinated by the SR-71 Blackbird. Ever since I was a kid I’ve thought it was coolest looking fighter/jet ever. I’ve never seen one in person but I’m making it a point from this exact day to make a venture to see the black beast. I’ll have to travel two hours plus to see her here but drive time is unimportant.
Anyway…my buddy sent me an interesting email about the Blackbird. Did some Google searching with some of the text within the email and it led to a post from a site called Pilot Speak. Here is an excerpt from the post about the Habu:
“Celestial navigation is automatic. There are about 50 stars programmed into the computer. These stars can be observed by the navigation system while parked on the ramp during broad daylight. Although the pilot takes off and lands the airplane manually, the navigation system is accurate enough to put the airplane on the runway in zero-zero conditions after flying nonstop from California to Iraq and return with four inflight refuelings.”
Enough said. Also check out the biography on Col. Richard Graham who flew the Blackbird back in the day. I’m itching to read one of the books he wrote called: SR-71 Revealed: The Inside Story.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I saw an SR-71 up close at the March Air Museum, in Southern California a few years ago. It’s a very cool plane! I didn’t know that when on the ground, it leaks fuel like a sieve until it reaches high enough speeds for heat to seal up the fuel system. There are more details about March’s Blackbird here.