9 ms·

The Thrill of Flying the SR-71 Blackbird

333 points by jaxc 17y ago

kreneskyp 17y ago
I've loved this plane since I read about it in popular science as a grade school kid. I still remember this line from the article, "after it lands it so hot you can fry an egg on the fuselage".
scdlbx 17y ago
The author states that he graduated high school in 1966 and that he built a model of the the SR-71 when he was 10, presumably 1958 if he graduated at 18. He also states that the SR-71 was designed in 1960. Some of this doesn't quite seem right.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  There is a Colonel Walter L. Watson though: http://scafricanamerican.com/public/pdf/honorees/112004.pdf http://scafricanamerican.com/public/pdf/honorees/112004.pdf The story feels a little strange though, the amount of 'mystic' connection between the plane and the pilot would make me worried if someone that prone to it would be piloting a 747 I'm a passenger on. The pilot would be 'Brian Shul' http://www.sleddriver.com/ http://www.sleddriver.com/
  - dasil003 17y ago
    The story feels a little strange though, the amount of 'mystic' connection between the plane and the pilot would make me worried if someone that prone to it would be piloting a 747 I'm a passenger on. Really? "Mysticism" scares you so much that you'd rather your flight be piloted by a clock punching union man then what the Air Force deemed to be one of the best?
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      Strawman much ? There is a long way to go between a clock punching union man and a person that does not let his love for the machine get in the way of objectivity. Personally I think that those bits are just to juice up the story, but you really have to wonder at passages like: "Like the combat veteran she is, the jet senses the target area and seems to prepare herself." and "There seems to be a confirmed trust now, between me and the jet; she will not hesitate to deliver whatever speed we need".
      - aristoxenus 17y ago
        At least two things at play there: 1) Intuition. His non-conscious brain has developed an understanding of the machine. 2) Focus. When you're a warrior in his situation, you can't be second-guessing your horse. That calculation was made on the ground, and now he's committed -- to be effective, he needs to be fully confident that he's well-taken care of. The human brain seems to be wired for a euphoric reaction to complete and utter trust (parental/social/religious bonding?), and that he was able to let that system kick in at such a moment speaks a lot about his abilities as a pilot and about the engineering feat embodied in that jet.
        aristoxenus 17y ago
        Ok, and one more thing -- poetic license. The guy is a great storyteller.
  - jrockway 17y ago
    Don't worry. Commercial airliners will make various loud noises to prevent the pilots from getting too distracted with flying and forgetting about those mountains that are coming up.
- ctkrohn 17y ago
  Perhaps he built an A-12 model. This was the direct predecessor of the SR-71, designed in the 50s. A very similar aircraft: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12
- unexpected 17y ago
  This is true, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's a smoking gun- "concept models" come out long before the actual plane is built. I remember playing a computer game called "F-22 Raptor" in 1997, and the plane officially entered service in 2005.
- JunkDNA 17y ago
  That doesn't necessarily mean anything. As a kid, I built a model that was supposed to be the "super secret stealth fighter" before people knew what it looked like. It was based on all the leaked reports of what the aircraft might look like. In the end, it was similar but not identical to the actual plane (owing to the fact that nobody predicted how jagged it was going to be). In fact, it looked a bit like a miniature SR-71.
- jbyers 17y ago
  http://www.sleddriver.com/biography.html http://www.sleddriver.com/biography.html
- joss82 17y ago
  But he seems like the kind of guy who graduates at 16.
amichail 17y ago
If this plane looked ugly, would anyone care that it is the fastest plane ever made?
- hugh3 17y ago
  Possibly not. The X-15 (while arguably a rocket with wings rather than an aeroplane) was much faster and less pretty, and you won't find so many nine-year-olds with posters of it.
  - stcredzero 17y ago
    Posters!? [starts Googling]
  - jrockway 17y ago
    It also never flew a real mission. The SR-71 was a real airplane that could take off, fly a mission, and land. The X-15 had to be ferried into space by another aircraft, then it flew around for a while, and then it could destroy part of itself, and finally land. Pretty or not, the SR-71 was a lot more practical.
    - joe_bleau 17y ago
      Never flew a real mission? It was an experimental research tool. Or is Mach 6.72 not 'real' enough for you? It was carried aloft, not into space, by a B-52.
      - jrockway 17y ago
        I'm just explaining why I think kids don't have posters of it on their walls. Experimental research plane? Yawn. Real plane? Awesome.
- mixmax 17y ago
  There was a saying on the Lockheed Martin Skunkworks department where this plane was designed: "If she looks beautiful, she'll fly beautifully"
thejake 17y ago
This reads a bit like fan fiction. Anyone know its authenticity?
- bittersweet 17y ago
  It seems to be from the book 'Sled Driver' by Brian Shul [1] according to the following website [2], on which I found the same article of the parent link. I'm a bit confused though, as I have read the part about the groundspeed check before, I found it again here [3]. This version is longer and worded more beautifully in my opinion. The poster below that is mentioning that it's from the same book so I'm a bit confused. [1] https://galleryonepublishing.com/sleddriver/index.html https://galleryonepublishing.com/sleddriver/index.html [2] http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2007/11/19/sr-71-now-that-was-some-airplane/ http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2007/11/19/sr-71-now-that-was-s... [3] http://www.expressjetpilots.com/the-pipe/showthread.php?31978-ASPEN-20-SR-71-Groundspeed-Check http://www.expressjetpilots.com/the-pipe/showthread.php?3197...
lotharbot 17y ago
I like the more complete version of the "ground speed check" story (which I heard from Brian Shul directly): he says he and Walt hadn't really "clicked" yet, that they were just kinda co-inhabitants of the same jet but not really a team, until that moment. It was when Brian was about to ask the question, and the radio clicked on and Walt asked the exact same question, that he felt they finally became a team. For those concerned with the level of "mysticism" in this: Brian Shul is a remarkable pilot from a technical perspective. But do you really want to read his technical descriptions of flight? He's done a good job of describing the sensations in a way non-pilots can understand.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  It must be a pilot thing. I've read a bunch of books by Richard Bach, and he falls in to this 'mode' quite a few times as well. Agreed that it's a way to take it out of the technical area, but I don't think the story needs embellishing, it is already more than powerful enough by itself. Great read anyway, be sure to check the story linked elsewhere in this thread as well.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- decode 17y ago
  You can read the full version of the story here: http://blog.johnwurth.com/?p=110 http://blog.johnwurth.com/?p=110
  - jbyers 17y ago
    Definitely worth reading, more detail on that incident that the parent article. And just awesome.
fizx 17y ago
I just wanted to chime in that the reason I'm a programmer today is that my grandpa helped program the navigation systems on the SR-71. I found that slightly inspirational :)
- jacquesm 17y ago
  That's so cool. Imagine, most of us don't even have dad programmers, and you have a granddad programmer and one working on such interesting stuff to boot. Is he still alive today? And if so does he still work with computers?
  - fizx 17y ago
    He passed (at 82, I believe) about seven years ago. It was both sad and not sad, as he lived a long and amazing life. He programmed the guidance systems of one of the Titan series rockets. He also was in the Navy in WWII. At one point, his destroyer was sunk, and spent a few days in the open ocean before being rescued. He was also present at the Japanese surrender ceremony. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of learning to play chess with him over Christmas vacation. He was a truly kind man, and an inspiration to many.
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      Quite a guy, that's a grandfather to be truly proud of. You're privileged to have known someone like that from so near.
    - ja27 17y ago
      My dad passed away a few years ago. He worked in defense electronics for 30+ years. It's kind of weird that I know very little of what he actually worked on. I know he did a lot of work on what became GPS and on Tomahawk and F/A-18 projects, but so much of what he worked on will probably always be a mystery to me.
    - scott_s 17y ago
      Interesting. My grandfather died about ten years ago at 86. He was in the Navy during WWII, and was among the first Americans in Tokyo after Japan surrendered. And after the war, he worked on the UNIVAC that was used for the census. We still have all of his UNIVAC programming manuals.
signa11 17y ago
i find this [http://www.sunlakesaeroclub.org/updates_web_data/050828/SR71_breakup.htm http://www.sunlakesaeroclub.org/updates_web_data/050828/SR71...] to be even more amazing...
- jacquesm 17y ago
  Wow. That's just plain scary. It also makes me appreciate more why high jet fighter suits look like space suits, without it the guy would have surely been dead. Another interesting bit: "The SR-71 had a turning radius of about 100 mi. at that speed and altitude". And "The ejection seat had never left the airplane; I had been ripped out of it by the extreme forces, seat belt and shoulder harness still fastened.". Just wow... What a pity his buddy didn't make it.
- kalmi10 17y ago
  "Bill! Bill! Are you there?" "Yeah, George. What's the matter?" "Thank God! I thought you might have left." The rear cockpit of the SR-71 has no forward visibility--only a small window on each side--and George couldn't see me. A big red light on the master-warning panel in the rear cockpit had illuminated just as we rotated, stating, "Pilot Ejected." Fortunately, the cause was a misadjusted micro switch, not my departure.
drtse4 17y ago
Nice video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1250fZuhUg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1250fZuhUg Issues with fuel reported in the story @3:09.
zandor 17y ago
If anyone is interested in a bit more of the history behind the aircraft (also the U-2 and the F-117), do check out Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir... by Ben Rich It's a great read! http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316743003 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316743003
- michael_nielsen 17y ago
  Seconded, it's a fascinating book, both as a memoir of how to do fantastically ambitious engineering, and also how to manage a remarkable group of engineers. The analogue for the web would be something like reading an account of Google written by Page or Brin.
mhd 17y ago
I'm not a big plane or car nut, but the SR-71 just emanated cool. Having a modified carbon copy as the X-Men's "Blackbird" certainly helped...
steadicat 17y ago
The speeds mentioned in this article (Mach 3.5+), are significantly higher than the official airspeed records, set by the SR-71 itself (about Mach 2.9): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_aircraft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_aircraft Fascinating.
- pedrocr 17y ago
  You're calculating it with speed of sound at sea level. At 80,000 feet the 3,530 km/h speed record is Mach 3.289 according to wolframalpha, still bellow the 3.45 claimed in the article. Although it is understandable that this mission wouldn't count for a speed record.
ajtaylor 17y ago
"With all inlet doors tightly shut, at 3.24 Mach, the J-58s are more like ramjets now, gulping 100,000 cubic feet of air per second." Wow... what an awesome job to be able to fly one of these birds! I had a friend in Boston who first flew fighters (F-16 IIRC) and then managed to switch over to the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Apparently it is not common to switch between the two types of platforms. It's a shame he was retired from the AF or I would have begged a ride. :-)
Ben65 17y ago
If you'd like to get a close look at one, there's one in the SAC museum, just outside of Omaha, NE. http://www.sasmuseum.com/2008/11/21/sr-71a-blackbird/ http://www.sasmuseum.com/2008/11/21/sr-71a-blackbird/
- gvb 17y ago
  There is also one in the AirZoo in Kalamazoo, MI. http://www.airzoo.org/ http://www.airzoo.org/ http://www.airzoo.org/page.php?menu_id=3 http://www.airzoo.org/page.php?menu_id=3 Picture of the SR-71: http://www.airzoo.org/page.php?menu_id=108 http://www.airzoo.org/page.php?menu_id=108 It is a very nice museum, well worth some visits.
- cullenking 17y ago
  Add in a M-21 (predecessor, nearly the same but built to launch an unmanned drone) plus the cockpit of an SR-71 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA. I enjoyed seeing this last year, remembering the narrative. I could almost see the fuel dripping from the plane!
mambodog 17y ago
All I can say about that page is thanks Readability for actually making it readable/viewable! (What's going on with the massive images?)
SpacemanSpiff 17y ago
some great blackbird info on this site, including the flight manual! http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/ http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/
scharan 17y ago
Reading this article was the most interesting experience I have had in a long time. The passion and feel of the description and the imagery being described really resonated with my geeky soul. RIP SR-71. You are a truly magnificent creation.

333 points by jaxc 17y ago

I've loved this plane since I read about it in popular science as a grade school kid. I still remember this line from the article, "after it lands it so hot you can fry an egg on the fuselage".

scdlbx 17y ago

The author states that he graduated high school in 1966 and that he built a model of the the SR-71 when he was 10, presumably 1958 if he graduated at 18. He also states that the SR-71 was designed in 1960. Some of this doesn't quite seem right.

jacquesm 17y ago
There is a Colonel Walter L. Watson though: http://scafricanamerican.com/public/pdf/honorees/112004.pdf http://scafricanamerican.com/public/pdf/honorees/112004.pdf The story feels a little strange though, the amount of 'mystic' connection between the plane and the pilot would make me worried if someone that prone to it would be piloting a 747 I'm a passenger on. The pilot would be 'Brian Shul' http://www.sleddriver.com/ http://www.sleddriver.com/
- dasil003 17y ago
  The story feels a little strange though, the amount of 'mystic' connection between the plane and the pilot would make me worried if someone that prone to it would be piloting a 747 I'm a passenger on. Really? "Mysticism" scares you so much that you'd rather your flight be piloted by a clock punching union man then what the Air Force deemed to be one of the best?
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Strawman much ? There is a long way to go between a clock punching union man and a person that does not let his love for the machine get in the way of objectivity. Personally I think that those bits are just to juice up the story, but you really have to wonder at passages like: "Like the combat veteran she is, the jet senses the target area and seems to prepare herself." and "There seems to be a confirmed trust now, between me and the jet; she will not hesitate to deliver whatever speed we need".
    - aristoxenus 17y ago
      At least two things at play there: 1) Intuition. His non-conscious brain has developed an understanding of the machine. 2) Focus. When you're a warrior in his situation, you can't be second-guessing your horse. That calculation was made on the ground, and now he's committed -- to be effective, he needs to be fully confident that he's well-taken care of. The human brain seems to be wired for a euphoric reaction to complete and utter trust (parental/social/religious bonding?), and that he was able to let that system kick in at such a moment speaks a lot about his abilities as a pilot and about the engineering feat embodied in that jet.
      - aristoxenus 17y ago
        Ok, and one more thing -- poetic license. The guy is a great storyteller.
- jrockway 17y ago
  Don't worry. Commercial airliners will make various loud noises to prevent the pilots from getting too distracted with flying and forgetting about those mountains that are coming up.
ctkrohn 17y ago
Perhaps he built an A-12 model. This was the direct predecessor of the SR-71, designed in the 50s. A very similar aircraft: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12
unexpected 17y ago
This is true, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's a smoking gun- "concept models" come out long before the actual plane is built. I remember playing a computer game called "F-22 Raptor" in 1997, and the plane officially entered service in 2005.
JunkDNA 17y ago
That doesn't necessarily mean anything. As a kid, I built a model that was supposed to be the "super secret stealth fighter" before people knew what it looked like. It was based on all the leaked reports of what the aircraft might look like. In the end, it was similar but not identical to the actual plane (owing to the fact that nobody predicted how jagged it was going to be). In fact, it looked a bit like a miniature SR-71.
jbyers 17y ago
http://www.sleddriver.com/biography.html http://www.sleddriver.com/biography.html
joss82 17y ago
But he seems like the kind of guy who graduates at 16.

amichail 17y ago

If this plane looked ugly, would anyone care that it is the fastest plane ever made?

hugh3 17y ago
Possibly not. The X-15 (while arguably a rocket with wings rather than an aeroplane) was much faster and less pretty, and you won't find so many nine-year-olds with posters of it.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  Posters!? [starts Googling]
- jrockway 17y ago
  It also never flew a real mission. The SR-71 was a real airplane that could take off, fly a mission, and land. The X-15 had to be ferried into space by another aircraft, then it flew around for a while, and then it could destroy part of itself, and finally land. Pretty or not, the SR-71 was a lot more practical.
  - joe_bleau 17y ago
    Never flew a real mission? It was an experimental research tool. Or is Mach 6.72 not 'real' enough for you? It was carried aloft, not into space, by a B-52.
    - jrockway 17y ago
      I'm just explaining why I think kids don't have posters of it on their walls. Experimental research plane? Yawn. Real plane? Awesome.
mixmax 17y ago
There was a saying on the Lockheed Martin Skunkworks department where this plane was designed: "If she looks beautiful, she'll fly beautifully"

thejake 17y ago

This reads a bit like fan fiction. Anyone know its authenticity?

bittersweet 17y ago
It seems to be from the book 'Sled Driver' by Brian Shul [1] according to the following website [2], on which I found the same article of the parent link. I'm a bit confused though, as I have read the part about the groundspeed check before, I found it again here [3]. This version is longer and worded more beautifully in my opinion. The poster below that is mentioning that it's from the same book so I'm a bit confused. [1] https://galleryonepublishing.com/sleddriver/index.html https://galleryonepublishing.com/sleddriver/index.html [2] http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2007/11/19/sr-71-now-that-was-some-airplane/ http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2007/11/19/sr-71-now-that-was-s... [3] http://www.expressjetpilots.com/the-pipe/showthread.php?31978-ASPEN-20-SR-71-Groundspeed-Check http://www.expressjetpilots.com/the-pipe/showthread.php?3197...

lotharbot 17y ago

I like the more complete version of the "ground speed check" story (which I heard from Brian Shul directly): he says he and Walt hadn't really "clicked" yet, that they were just kinda co-inhabitants of the same jet but not really a team, until that moment. It was when Brian was about to ask the question, and the radio clicked on and Walt asked the exact same question, that he felt they finally became a team. For those concerned with the level of "mysticism" in this: Brian Shul is a remarkable pilot from a technical perspective. But do you really want to read his technical descriptions of flight? He's done a good job of describing the sensations in a way non-pilots can understand.

jacquesm 17y ago
It must be a pilot thing. I've read a bunch of books by Richard Bach, and he falls in to this 'mode' quite a few times as well. Agreed that it's a way to take it out of the technical area, but I don't think the story needs embellishing, it is already more than powerful enough by itself. Great read anyway, be sure to check the story linked elsewhere in this thread as well.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
decode 17y ago
You can read the full version of the story here: http://blog.johnwurth.com/?p=110 http://blog.johnwurth.com/?p=110
- jbyers 17y ago
  Definitely worth reading, more detail on that incident that the parent article. And just awesome.

fizx 17y ago

I just wanted to chime in that the reason I'm a programmer today is that my grandpa helped program the navigation systems on the SR-71. I found that slightly inspirational :)

jacquesm 17y ago
That's so cool. Imagine, most of us don't even have dad programmers, and you have a granddad programmer and one working on such interesting stuff to boot. Is he still alive today? And if so does he still work with computers?
- fizx 17y ago
  He passed (at 82, I believe) about seven years ago. It was both sad and not sad, as he lived a long and amazing life. He programmed the guidance systems of one of the Titan series rockets. He also was in the Navy in WWII. At one point, his destroyer was sunk, and spent a few days in the open ocean before being rescued. He was also present at the Japanese surrender ceremony. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of learning to play chess with him over Christmas vacation. He was a truly kind man, and an inspiration to many.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Quite a guy, that's a grandfather to be truly proud of. You're privileged to have known someone like that from so near.
  - ja27 17y ago
    My dad passed away a few years ago. He worked in defense electronics for 30+ years. It's kind of weird that I know very little of what he actually worked on. I know he did a lot of work on what became GPS and on Tomahawk and F/A-18 projects, but so much of what he worked on will probably always be a mystery to me.
  - scott_s 17y ago
    Interesting. My grandfather died about ten years ago at 86. He was in the Navy during WWII, and was among the first Americans in Tokyo after Japan surrendered. And after the war, he worked on the UNIVAC that was used for the census. We still have all of his UNIVAC programming manuals.

signa11 17y ago

i find this [http://www.sunlakesaeroclub.org/updates_web_data/050828/SR71_breakup.htm http://www.sunlakesaeroclub.org/updates_web_data/050828/SR71...] to be even more amazing...

jacquesm 17y ago
Wow. That's just plain scary. It also makes me appreciate more why high jet fighter suits look like space suits, without it the guy would have surely been dead. Another interesting bit: "The SR-71 had a turning radius of about 100 mi. at that speed and altitude". And "The ejection seat had never left the airplane; I had been ripped out of it by the extreme forces, seat belt and shoulder harness still fastened.". Just wow... What a pity his buddy didn't make it.
kalmi10 17y ago
"Bill! Bill! Are you there?" "Yeah, George. What's the matter?" "Thank God! I thought you might have left." The rear cockpit of the SR-71 has no forward visibility--only a small window on each side--and George couldn't see me. A big red light on the master-warning panel in the rear cockpit had illuminated just as we rotated, stating, "Pilot Ejected." Fortunately, the cause was a misadjusted micro switch, not my departure.

drtse4 17y ago

Nice video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1250fZuhUg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1250fZuhUg Issues with fuel reported in the story @3:09.

zandor 17y ago

If anyone is interested in a bit more of the history behind the aircraft (also the U-2 and the F-117), do check out Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir... by Ben Rich It's a great read! http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316743003 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316743003

michael_nielsen 17y ago
Seconded, it's a fascinating book, both as a memoir of how to do fantastically ambitious engineering, and also how to manage a remarkable group of engineers. The analogue for the web would be something like reading an account of Google written by Page or Brin.

mhd 17y ago

I'm not a big plane or car nut, but the SR-71 just emanated cool. Having a modified carbon copy as the X-Men's "Blackbird" certainly helped...

steadicat 17y ago

The speeds mentioned in this article (Mach 3.5+), are significantly higher than the official airspeed records, set by the SR-71 itself (about Mach 2.9): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_aircraft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_aircraft Fascinating.

pedrocr 17y ago
You're calculating it with speed of sound at sea level. At 80,000 feet the 3,530 km/h speed record is Mach 3.289 according to wolframalpha, still bellow the 3.45 claimed in the article. Although it is understandable that this mission wouldn't count for a speed record.

ajtaylor 17y ago

"With all inlet doors tightly shut, at 3.24 Mach, the J-58s are more like ramjets now, gulping 100,000 cubic feet of air per second." Wow... what an awesome job to be able to fly one of these birds! I had a friend in Boston who first flew fighters (F-16 IIRC) and then managed to switch over to the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Apparently it is not common to switch between the two types of platforms. It's a shame he was retired from the AF or I would have begged a ride. :-)

Ben65 17y ago

If you'd like to get a close look at one, there's one in the SAC museum, just outside of Omaha, NE. http://www.sasmuseum.com/2008/11/21/sr-71a-blackbird/ http://www.sasmuseum.com/2008/11/21/sr-71a-blackbird/

gvb 17y ago
There is also one in the AirZoo in Kalamazoo, MI. http://www.airzoo.org/ http://www.airzoo.org/ http://www.airzoo.org/page.php?menu_id=3 http://www.airzoo.org/page.php?menu_id=3 Picture of the SR-71: http://www.airzoo.org/page.php?menu_id=108 http://www.airzoo.org/page.php?menu_id=108 It is a very nice museum, well worth some visits.
cullenking 17y ago
Add in a M-21 (predecessor, nearly the same but built to launch an unmanned drone) plus the cockpit of an SR-71 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA. I enjoyed seeing this last year, remembering the narrative. I could almost see the fuel dripping from the plane!

mambodog 17y ago

All I can say about that page is thanks Readability for actually making it readable/viewable! (What's going on with the massive images?)

SpacemanSpiff 17y ago

some great blackbird info on this site, including the flight manual! http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/ http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/

scharan 17y ago

Reading this article was the most interesting experience I have had in a long time. The passion and feel of the description and the imagery being described really resonated with my geeky soul. RIP SR-71. You are a truly magnificent creation.