7 ms·

My favorite story about the SR-71 being badass: http://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-sr-71-story-1079127041 http://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-sr-71-story

My favorite story about the SR-71 being badass: http://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-sr-71-story-1079127041 http://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-sr-71-story-107912704...

jksmith 9y ago
Fuck yeah, that is a badass story. Thanks for link!
Retric 9y ago
That ones great, but I always like the question of how slow it could fly: https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-sr-71-blackbirds-most-spectacular-flyover-was-also-1719654907 https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-sr-71-blackbirds-most-...
- theoh 9y ago
  See also a story about testing the minimum airspeed on a single engine, from the book "Contrails over the Mojave": https://books.google.ie/books?id=NTU9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT114&lpg=PT114&dq=one+engine+blackbird+"contrails+over+the+mojave"&source=bl&ots=peSmq-aYjn&sig=xDfGq9TtVRsbjRCR4keRUoZ5FFk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-yuqQy9DXAhVkDsAKHWcDA34Q6AEIVTAM#v=onepage&q=one%20engine%20blackbird%20%22contrails%20over%20the%20mojave%22&f=false https://books.google.ie/books?id=NTU9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT114&lpg=P...
- justsomedood 9y ago
  I think every SR-71 story I've read has been engrossing, and this one is no exception. Thanks for the link!
strictnein 9y ago
A good one (although some may dislike it): On the way back from a mission to the middle east, they ended up flying over France, even though France had refused them clearance. They were flying low and slow (relative terms obviously), and the pilot looked to his left and saw a French Mirage just off his left wing. The Mirage pilot called over and requested their diplomatic clearance code. The SR-71 pilot told the Mirage to hold on. The reconnaissance systems officer (RCO, the other guy in the plane) then informed the pilot that the code had been transmitted and they went back up to full speed and left the Mirage quickly behind. The code that the RCO transmitted? The middle finger.
- mixmastamyk 9y ago
  How does a middle finger get transmitted? Had ascii art handy?
  - mikeokner 9y ago
    Morse code of ASCII art I think
  - strictnein 9y ago
    They were within visible distance, so he just used his hand up against the window. The plane really was right off the wing. Think Top Gun, with less inversion.
  - jonah 9y ago
    If they were that close, out the window.
  - eesmith 9y ago
    That story is from Ben Rich's book "Skunk Works". https://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/blackbird/ https://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/blackbird/ describes it as "Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr., who shares about a particular mission he flew over Lebanon back in 82." That link also has the full account, ending "What he had given him was “the bird” with his middle finger" - that is, it was not sent by radio signals but by visual light to the Mark I eyeball of the Mirage pilot.
    - aladoc99 9y ago
      digital signalling
      - jacobush 9y ago
        Ahem - digit signalling.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
cyberferret 9y ago
That story is out of Brian Schul's book (he used to be an SR-71 pilot). I am lucky enough that years ago, a girl who had a crush on me bought me that book. Its out of print now, and I've seen copies on eBay for > $1000. Next to Ben Rich's "Skunk Works", it is one of the best books on the SR-71 that I have ever read.
- gbrown_ 9y ago
  > Its out of print now, and I've seen copies on eBay for > $1000. For the rest of us there's this great talk from Brain Schul which covers this story and a few others. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigZsFypdyI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigZsFypdyI
  - Cyph0n 9y ago
    That was amazing. Thanks for linking it!
- da02 9y ago
  What happened to the girl? Did you marry her? That was a good, thoughtful gift.
  - cyberferret 9y ago
    It's one of those "it's complicated" things. She had a boyfriend at the time etc., then she moved cities and we lost touch. Shame - she was a really good friend too, and we used to talk about planes and Formula 1 racing for hours.
    - toomuchtodo 9y ago
      You should try to get back in touch. Good friends are hard to find; hold on to them tightly.
- dboreham 9y ago
  Wow. $1000!! I own two copies because I thought I had lost mine and so bought a second for $10 or so. Then I found the first one.
jonah 9y ago
One of my favorites. Here's Brian Shul telling the story live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg73GKm7GgI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg73GKm7GgI
- dgritsko 9y ago
  That was great, you can tell he really loves telling that story. Here's an excerpt from an interview with him [1] where he discusses telling it: > When I'm doing a talk, if I don't tell that speed check story, they run me out of town. I tried that one year, I thought, I've been speaking at this air museum for 10 years now, I'm gonna change it up this year. People lost their minds. I realized hey, Elvis has to sing Love Me Tender at the end of every show, I gotta tell that story no matter how many times I tell it. > And there's always people who've never heard it. I told it at an FBI conference the other day, out of 800 people I swear 700 had never heard it, and they were falling out of their chairs. [1]: https://newatlas.com/brian-shul-interview-sr-71-blackbird-pilot/46821/ https://newatlas.com/brian-shul-interview-sr-71-blackbird-pi...
- manigandham 9y ago
  Might as well link to the full talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigZsFypdyI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigZsFypdyI It's a great speech about overcoming his war injuries and getting to fly on of the most special planes in history, along with actually documenting most of it himself.
  - jonah 9y ago
    Lots of great photos in his slides.
- dmoy 9y ago
  It's a running gag on some websites now (apparently including hacker news) that whenever there's a mention of the sr71, that story gets posted. I still read it every time too.
  - Murdodc089 9y ago
gxs 9y ago
Every single time this story is posted I take a moment to read it. Truly a bad-ass story in the purest, most distilled essence of the phrase.
mrec 9y ago
Not badass-plane exactly, but Bill Weaver's story is another cracker. His SR-71 disintegrated around him (no ejection) at Mach 3.18 and 78,000 feet. He was back in the cockpit two weeks later. https://theaviationist.com/2015/03/17/sr-71-mid-air-disintegration/ https://theaviationist.com/2015/03/17/sr-71-mid-air-disinteg...
scrooched_moose 9y ago
My favorite fact: If a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate and outfly the missile.

My favorite story about the SR-71 being badass: http://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-sr-71-story-1079127041 http://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-sr-71-story-107912704...

jksmith 9y ago

Fuck yeah, that is a badass story. Thanks for link!

Retric 9y ago

That ones great, but I always like the question of how slow it could fly: https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-sr-71-blackbirds-most-spectacular-flyover-was-also-1719654907 https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-sr-71-blackbirds-most-...

theoh 9y ago
See also a story about testing the minimum airspeed on a single engine, from the book "Contrails over the Mojave": https://books.google.ie/books?id=NTU9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT114&lpg=PT114&dq=one+engine+blackbird+"contrails+over+the+mojave"&source=bl&ots=peSmq-aYjn&sig=xDfGq9TtVRsbjRCR4keRUoZ5FFk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-yuqQy9DXAhVkDsAKHWcDA34Q6AEIVTAM#v=onepage&q=one%20engine%20blackbird%20%22contrails%20over%20the%20mojave%22&f=false https://books.google.ie/books?id=NTU9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT114&lpg=P...
justsomedood 9y ago
I think every SR-71 story I've read has been engrossing, and this one is no exception. Thanks for the link!

strictnein 9y ago

A good one (although some may dislike it): On the way back from a mission to the middle east, they ended up flying over France, even though France had refused them clearance. They were flying low and slow (relative terms obviously), and the pilot looked to his left and saw a French Mirage just off his left wing. The Mirage pilot called over and requested their diplomatic clearance code. The SR-71 pilot told the Mirage to hold on. The reconnaissance systems officer (RCO, the other guy in the plane) then informed the pilot that the code had been transmitted and they went back up to full speed and left the Mirage quickly behind. The code that the RCO transmitted? The middle finger.

mixmastamyk 9y ago
How does a middle finger get transmitted? Had ascii art handy?
- mikeokner 9y ago
  Morse code of ASCII art I think
- strictnein 9y ago
  They were within visible distance, so he just used his hand up against the window. The plane really was right off the wing. Think Top Gun, with less inversion.
- jonah 9y ago
  If they were that close, out the window.
- eesmith 9y ago
  That story is from Ben Rich's book "Skunk Works". https://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/blackbird/ https://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/blackbird/ describes it as "Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr., who shares about a particular mission he flew over Lebanon back in 82." That link also has the full account, ending "What he had given him was “the bird” with his middle finger" - that is, it was not sent by radio signals but by visual light to the Mark I eyeball of the Mirage pilot.
  - aladoc99 9y ago
    digital signalling
    - jacobush 9y ago
      Ahem - digit signalling.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

cyberferret 9y ago

That story is out of Brian Schul's book (he used to be an SR-71 pilot). I am lucky enough that years ago, a girl who had a crush on me bought me that book. Its out of print now, and I've seen copies on eBay for > $1000. Next to Ben Rich's "Skunk Works", it is one of the best books on the SR-71 that I have ever read.

gbrown_ 9y ago
> Its out of print now, and I've seen copies on eBay for > $1000. For the rest of us there's this great talk from Brain Schul which covers this story and a few others. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigZsFypdyI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigZsFypdyI
- Cyph0n 9y ago
  That was amazing. Thanks for linking it!
da02 9y ago
What happened to the girl? Did you marry her? That was a good, thoughtful gift.
- cyberferret 9y ago
  It's one of those "it's complicated" things. She had a boyfriend at the time etc., then she moved cities and we lost touch. Shame - she was a really good friend too, and we used to talk about planes and Formula 1 racing for hours.
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    You should try to get back in touch. Good friends are hard to find; hold on to them tightly.
dboreham 9y ago
Wow. $1000!! I own two copies because I thought I had lost mine and so bought a second for $10 or so. Then I found the first one.

jonah 9y ago

One of my favorites. Here's Brian Shul telling the story live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg73GKm7GgI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg73GKm7GgI

dgritsko 9y ago
That was great, you can tell he really loves telling that story. Here's an excerpt from an interview with him [1] where he discusses telling it: > When I'm doing a talk, if I don't tell that speed check story, they run me out of town. I tried that one year, I thought, I've been speaking at this air museum for 10 years now, I'm gonna change it up this year. People lost their minds. I realized hey, Elvis has to sing Love Me Tender at the end of every show, I gotta tell that story no matter how many times I tell it. > And there's always people who've never heard it. I told it at an FBI conference the other day, out of 800 people I swear 700 had never heard it, and they were falling out of their chairs. [1]: https://newatlas.com/brian-shul-interview-sr-71-blackbird-pilot/46821/ https://newatlas.com/brian-shul-interview-sr-71-blackbird-pi...
manigandham 9y ago
Might as well link to the full talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigZsFypdyI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigZsFypdyI It's a great speech about overcoming his war injuries and getting to fly on of the most special planes in history, along with actually documenting most of it himself.
- jonah 9y ago
  Lots of great photos in his slides.
dmoy 9y ago
It's a running gag on some websites now (apparently including hacker news) that whenever there's a mention of the sr71, that story gets posted. I still read it every time too.
- Murdodc089 9y ago

gxs 9y ago

Every single time this story is posted I take a moment to read it. Truly a bad-ass story in the purest, most distilled essence of the phrase.

mrec 9y ago

Not badass-plane exactly, but Bill Weaver's story is another cracker. His SR-71 disintegrated around him (no ejection) at Mach 3.18 and 78,000 feet. He was back in the cockpit two weeks later. https://theaviationist.com/2015/03/17/sr-71-mid-air-disintegration/ https://theaviationist.com/2015/03/17/sr-71-mid-air-disinteg...

scrooched_moose 9y ago

My favorite fact: If a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate and outfly the missile.