Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (Crowood Aviation Series).pdf

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Steve Pace

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LOCKHEED SR-71

BLACKBIRD

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Steve Pace

CROWOOD

I~~cl

Fir;,t published in 2004 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

Dedication

This reference is devoted to my wife and children, mother and father, ister and broth-

ers and to all of my relatives - past, present and future.

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Steve Pace 2004

Acknowledgements

1 FABULOUS TO FANTA TIC

2 BLACK MAGIC

3 AIR DEFEN E FIGHTER

parr of this publication may

be reproduced or transmmed in any form or by any

means, electronic or mechanical, including

pharocopy, recording, or any information rorage

and retrieval system, without permission in writing

from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

catalogue record for this book is available from

the Bri tish Li brary.

o reference of this magnitude could be presented without th many appreciated c ntri-

butions of those with the vital resource that made thi di ertati n po ible. Thi

writer respectfully thanks these individual a follow: Kent Burn, Executive Vic Pr i-

dent, Lockheed Martin Leadership Association; Paul R. Kucher IV, R-71 nline; An

Onlin Aircraft Museum, sr-71.0rg; Tony R. Landis; Denny Lombard, Promotional

Photography, Lo kheed Martin Aeronautics ompany - Palmdale; Mike Machat,

publisher, Republic Press; Peter W. Merlin, archivist and historian, NASA Dryd n

Flight Research Center; Jay N. Miller, Aerofax, Inc; Dr Raymond

Puffer, archivist and

hi torian, USAF Flight Test Center History Office; Terry Panopalis; Major Brian hul,

U AF (Ret.), Gallery One; and John tone, Blackbirds.net.

106

111

115

123

126

129

131

133

PIGGYBACK PEEPER: M-21 'MOTHER' A 0

0-21 'DAUGHTER'

5 SR-7l: LEADER OF THE PACK

6 KEY PER ONALlTIE IN THE BLACKBIRD PROGRAMME

7 STRUCTURES AND SYSTEMS

8 THE J58 ENGINE

9 BIRDS OF A FEATHER

10 NASA BLACKBIRD

BLACKBIRD URVIVOR

BN I 6126 697 9

12 SUMMARIES

Appendix

Typefaces used: Goudy

(rex!),

Cheltenham

(headings).

Type et and de igned by

I A-12, YF-12, M-21, SR-71 and 0-21 Production

ignificant Facts and Figures

III ChronologicalOrd r of First Flight

IV The

Oxcart

Story

V World Records: SR-71 and YF-12

Blackbird Flight Hours

Blackbird erial Number and Production ummari

Blackbird Timeline, 1950s to the Early 2000

159

160

161

163

171

Appendix VII

Appendix VIll

Publishing

Abbreviations, Acronyms and Codenames

Bibliography

Index

Lambourn Woodlands, Hungerford, Berkshire.

172

173

Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Bath.

Foreword

In the first 100 years since the Wright

Brothers first tamed manned flight, the

crown jewel of aircraft design and perfor-

mance was the SR-71. This opinion is held

not only by those lucky enough to have

flown this magnificent aircraft, but by any-

one that has studied this plane's distin-

guished history.

Long cloaked in ecrecy, the plane, now

declassified, i a popular topic for aviation

enthusiasts everywhere. In this highly

researched volume, teve Pace takes the

reader deep behind the scenes of the

development of the world's most famous,

and mo t my terious aircraft.

Le than LOO US Air Force pilot ever

flew actual mis ions in the R-71, and I

am proud to ay that I was one of the lucky

few. While it was a very table and honest

airplane to fly, it routinely would let us

know that it wa not like other airplanes.

Training wa very intense, la ting nearly

one year with many hours spent in the im-

ulator. Thi training wa vital to learning

to fly this airplane well however, as there

were no minor emergencies at Mach 3.

As phenomenal as the pelformance of

the SR-71 wa , the story of its development

and con truction is every bit as amazing. It

is almost incomprehensible to envision that

an aircraft such as this could be built in the

early 1960s, prior to the advanced techno-

logical age of computers and composite

materials. So well was the plane conceived

and built by Kelly Johnson and hi expert

team of engine

,it basic design

mained

unchanged for the life of the aircraft.

appreciated more the expertise with which

this aircraft was constructed than those who

flew it. There wa no greater feeling of tech-

nological uperiority than to be flying with

impunity over ho tile territory, being chased

by the latest MiG fighters, designed decade

after the R-71, and leaving them in the

dust, with several inches of throttle to spare.

The R- 71 represented all that was unde-

feated about our superior manufacturing

capabilities. There was no greater aeronau-

tical engineer in the twentieth Century

than Kelly Johnson and our nation owe

to accomplish this seemingly impos ible

task. The result was the most successful

and impressive reconnaissance aircraft of

the century.

I never once felt like I was flying an 'old'

airplane when in the R-7 I. Built with such

loving care and integrity, it always felt like

the thoroughbred it was. Built for speed, the

aircraft eemed to relish the higher Mach

numbers and actually was more efficient at

its higher speeds. Once I had flown the

Blackbird for a year or two, all the other

fighter jets I had flown eemed like mere

'mortal' planes. The plane continually

impre ed u with its performance and rou-

tinely humbled u . She truly se m d to

have her own per onality.

It was not an airplane that was mastered

so much as under tood. Flying this plane

meant having an intimate relationship

with the aircraft, and you could not do

that for long without coming to love it.

he would crui e with ease at 2,000mph

and alway eemed able to give you a little

more speed if you wanted it. Sometimes we

did, when people were shooting at us, and

she never once hesitated to step it up.

The SR-71 has become a legend, mo t-

ly due to it incredible performance. But

the story of how it all came to be is one

that needs to be told, and Steve Pace does

a remarkable job in this book of taking us

behind the scenes, into the secret world of

'black projects', revealing piece by piece,

the amazing Blackbird story. This aircraft

helped shap our nation's foreign policy

and affected world history.

represents

the very best of what this nation can pro-

duce. I am proud to say I flew the R- 7 I,

and now after reading thi book, know a

great deal more about it development.

The remaining R-71 today it proudly

in twenty museums and air parks, its prede-

SOl'S

in numerous others. Though silent

now, their pre ence speaks volumes about

all that makes this nation proud and trong.

BRIAN SHUL

SR-71 Pilot

9SRW/LSRS

In the late 1950s four highly advanced air-

craft were being designed in the U A,

optimized for extreme flight envelopes

where very high altitude and very high

speed would be the norm. 'Very high alti-

tude' meant 70,000ft (21,OOOm) or even

higher; 'very high speed' meant 2,000mph

(3,200km/h) or more. These advanced air-

craft were: a strategic bomber, the orth

American B-70 Valkyrie; an all-missile-

and-rocket-armed interceptor, the Repub-

lic F-I03 'Thunderwarrior'; an all-missile-

armed interceptor, the orth American

F-lO Rapier; and a reconnaissance aero-

plane, the Lockheed A-l2. At the time,

however, only the B-70, F-I03 and F-I0

programmes were known to the world.

The A-12 project, code-named

OXCQrt,

was classified 'super-secret' and did not

come to light until many years later - and

then only in bits and pieces.

Unbeknownst to the world in the late

1950s and early 1960s, using U govern-

ment funds from the Central Intelligence

Agency (CIA), the Advanced Develop-

ment Projects (ADP) group of the Lock-

heed company in Burbank, California, had

be n ecretly designing the triplesonic A-12

as a replacement for the subsonic U-2 recon-

naissance aircraft; the U-2 had become vul-

nerable to Soviet air defences, as proved on

1 May 1960 when Francis Gary Powers'

U-2C was shot down over the US R.

As the CLA Oxcart programme pro-

gressed into the early 1960 , under the

direction of ADP group leader Clarence

'Kelly' Johnson, several versions of the A-

12 were offered to the U Air Force

(U AF) a potential ub titutes for the B-

70 and the by-now cancelled F-103 and F-

lO aircraft; these included the AF-l2 air-

defence

fighter

and

the

RB-l2

reconnaissance bomber. A third offering

was the R-12, similar in a numb

of ways

to the LA A-l2, but optimized for U AF

reconnai ance missions. The AF-12 (the

Preface

prefix 'AF' meaning air-defence fighter)

ultimately became the YF-L2A; the RB-l2

(the B-70 ub titute) was not proceeded

with; and the R-12 eventually evolved

into the aeroplane that is the subject of

this book, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.

The USAF SR-71 Blackbird became the

definitive devel pm nt of the A-12. From

when it achiev d Initial Operational Capa-

bility (I0C) in late 1966 until it retirement

in early 1990, it was the best photogt:aphic

aerial reconnaissance platform and the won-

der of all spyplanes ever built. It remains the

fa test and highest-flying aeroplane ever

produced for daily operations.

Aerial

connaissance has been ongo-

ing in America since the

Civil War of

1861-65 during which manned lighter-

than-air observation balloon were used to

survey troop position and movements.

Both the Union and onfederate armies

used balloons for reconnaissance during

the conflict, and it was here that aerial

reconnaissance was born.

Aerial reconnaissance did not become of

critical necessity until World War One,

when the combatant had to know exactly

what their enemie w re up to, as soon as

possible. While it i tru that observation

balloons and a limited number of observa-

tion aircraft had performed this duty before

1914, there had never before been uch a

frantic need for observation, photographic

reconnaissance and mapping from the air.

But now, unlike th U Civil War, when

observation balloon could not easily be

shot down due to the limited range of

black-powd

rifles, observation aircraft

and balloons could be hot down by anti-

aircraft guns and fighter aircraft.

After World War One, the value ofhav-

ing dedicated observation, photographic

reconnaissance and mapping aircraft hav-

ing been proven, many air forces set about

the creation of mod rn, high-performance

aircraft for such duties. By the time World

War Two nded on 2 eptember 1945, all

the major powers involved, on both sides

of the conflict, had a number of dedicated

reconnaissance aircraft.

An untold number of these observation

balloons and reconnaissance aircraft (most

of which were unarmed) were lost to

enemy fire in World War Two, however.

Among the first post-war solutions to this

problem was the development of aircraft

that could fly so high that they would be

out of range of exi ting and up oming

anti-aircraft defence.

At thi very minute some air or space

v hicle is performing its very important

work of photographic reconnai ance.

Whether they are surveying fore t fire, or

battlefield actions in the Middle Ea t, the e

'eyes in the sky' are vitally important.

There are pace vehicles capable of reading

and digitally photographing the brand of

cigarett

lying on somebody's outdoor

patio table, in near and/or real time. Much

closer to the ground there are growing

fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles capable

of doing the very ame thing, but at a rela-

tively low co t. It i for these systems that

the USAF worked hard to retire the small

but once v ry productive fleet of Lockheed

SR-71 Blackbird aircraft.

onetheless, for nearly a quarter of a cen-

tury the R-71s performed their photo-

graphic reconnais ance, mapping and

electronic intelligence-gathering duties

with remarkabl ucces. But th y could n t

have had su h a splendid career with ut the

capable pilot that flew them, the dedicated

officers who operated their

connais ance

systems and the hard-working ground rew

that kept them flying.

Thi ,th n, is the story of the Lockh ed

R-71 Blackbird and the amazing fl ck of

highly advanced triplesonic aircraft that

preceded it.

TEVE PA E

Having spent the earlier part of his career flying

North American AT-28D Trojans. the Ling-Temco-

Vought A-7D Corsair II and the Fairchild Republic

A-10 Thunderbolt II, Major Brian Shul was assigned

to the SR-71 Blackbird in 1984. He flew the SR-71

for four years, accumulating 478 flying hours. and

he flew sixty-eight 'hot' missions. His book

Sled

Driver

is a Centennial of Flight commemorative

celebrating the SR-71. It is a Limited Edition and

available only through www.sleddriver.com.

him a great debt of gratitude. His towering

genius spanned three wars and his Blackbird

helped win the Cold War. He often said the

R-71 was his proudest achievement.

Putting an aircraft together with titani-

um was no easy task. It had never been

done before, or since. Kelly and his team

literally had to invent technology in order

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