F-12 - BLACKBIRD. The Mightiest!

[XVarior]

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Lurking at the California ScienCenter, the almighty TITANIUM F-12 BLACKBIRD is an Out-Of-This-World sight. Looking at it still gives me GOOSE PUMPS.

Leica X vario.

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[pauledell]

A neat looking aircraft even though , as I understand, it is retired from service.

 

Paul

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[likalar]

Thanks for posting this. I love the 3rd shot; Your pov makes It look like a wild animal at a zoo display, much like a wild cat separated from viewers by a moat.

After viewing your post, I found this wiki site, photo in-flight. Very impressive aircraft! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg

 

Larry

Edited December 4, 2013 by likalar

[XVarior]

Thanks for posting this. I love the 3rd shot; Your pov makes It look like a wild animal at a zoo display, much like a wild cat separated from viewers by a moat.

After viewing your post, I found this wiki site, photo in-flight. Very impressive aircraft! File:Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Larry

 

larry, this is really a beast, thanks for the link. My God, what a beautiful plane. you're right at describing it as a wild cat at the zoo, seeing it in pictures does not pay tribute to how striking the design is, it does not compare to anything you've seen. the metal 'titanium" look out of this world, also the sharpness of the edges. beautiful beautiful craft.

[Karl G]

Very neat plane and the two seater SR-71 B variant is rarer than hen's teeth.

[jdlaing]

Great shots of an impressive aircraft. Back,in the day that thing used to take off, fly over the Soviet Union, snap a set of pictures and be back in the desert by lunch. Top end was somewhere around 2200 Miles per hour. Talk about ridin the rocket!

 

The retirement flight took off over Nevada/California, circled, hit the California coast and was over the East coast in one hour.

Edited December 4, 2013 by jdlaing

[bernd_muc]

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that thing used to take off, fly over the Soviet Union

Blackbirds never flew over the USSR or China after the U-2 was shut down as the US did not insist on "Open Skys" anymore.

[stuny]

Terrific shots of an a/c shape I've long found most enrancing. My favorite is the same one Larry likes best, though I like it since it shows the unique shape of the fuselage.

 

Actually, this is the SR-71, the recon a/c that replaced the U-2 for flying over Soviet airspace after Francis Gary Powers was shot down in his U-2. We promised no more U-2 flights of the USSR, and just replaced them the next day with a faster, higher flying a/c that at the time flew out of range of Soviet air defences in exchange for the return of the pilot. The F-12 (or YF-12A) is exceptionally similar, but lacks the second seat and cockpit. You can see the difference in the YF-12A photos at this link: Barbara & Stu's Excellent Vacations

[XVarior]

Terrific shots of an a/c shape I've long found most enrancing. My favorite is the same one Larry likes best, though I like it since it shows the unique shape of the fuselage.

 

Actually, this is the SR-71, the recon a/c that replaced the U-2 for flying over Soviet airspace after Francis Gary Powers was shot down in his U-2. We promised no more U-2 flights of the USSR, and just replaced them the next day with a faster, higher flying a/c that at the time flew out of range of Soviet air defences in exchange for the return of the pilot. The F-12 (or YF-12A) is exceptionally similar, but lacks the second seat and cockpit. You can see the difference in the YF-12A photos at this link: Barbara & Stu's Excellent Vacations

 

Thanks for the info. Regarding the link picture posted above, I see it has 2 cockpits too. Can't see the difference between the 2!

[stuny]

No, just the one cockpit. I suspect you're seeing the building behind it in this photo (Barbara & Stu's Excellent Vacations) as a second cockpit.

[jdlaing]

Thanks for the info. Regarding the link picture posted above, I see it has 2 cockpits too. Can't see the difference between the 2!

 

One cockpit. Two canopies. Pilot and Intel Co-Pilot. The original version had only one pilot.

[janki]

Hi XVarior!

 

20. February 1987 I worked in the backyard of a plant for cryogenics, with transferring liquid helium from a storage medium to another.

( Liquid helium: - 269° C, - 452° F, 4.2 K )

It was a job that required focus and concentration.

 

The plant was situated on the main approach path to Sola Airport in Stavanger.

Suddenly I heard an extremely aircraft noise just above the head, so to speak.

Instinctively I thought a plane was about to crash into the cryogenic plant.

I bent down at the same time as I looked up, and there, at very low altitude I saw the profile of the ghost aircraft, Lockheed SR 71.

There was a lot of smoke from the left wing, and the engine was clearly on fire.

A colleague, who actually was an airliner pilot, worked at the plant in anticipation of new pilot job, came running out and wondered what kind of extreme sound he had just heard.

I told him what I had seen, but he did not believe me.

Here, - it was he who knew everything about airplanes, - not me. And when it came to

SR 71, I had to understand,

that was an aircraft hardly anyone had ever seen.

 

The plane barely managed to make an emergency landing at the airport. It was immediately taken into a military hangar so no one would be able to see the secret plane.

 

New wing and engine were flown in from America, and a tanker aircraft came with special fuel for the SR 71.

 

After two weeks of repair work, the mysterious plane took off with courses for its base in Mildenhall in Britain.

 

The plane also sometimes had to make emergency landings at Bodo airport in the northern part of Norway.

It was at this airport the famous spy plane U2 had the base for its raids into the USSR.

Bodo Norway

 

If you have a spare moment, one can learn much about SR 71 to watch these films: 2 x 45 minutes

SR-71 Blackbird - YouTube

 

 

There are hardly images from 1987 when the plane made an emergency landing in Stavanger, but I found some in this book as evidence.

System Operator Captain John Manzi and Pilot Lt. Col. Bernie Smith before departing with their Lockheed SR 71.

 

Regards!

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[stuny]

When I was stationed at a SAC base in North Dakota one landed with some mechanical difficulties, and immediately went into a hanger. Somehow word spread and many of us were on the flight line when it departed. The plane took off, turned 180 degrees and came back just meters off the runway. The pilot puled back on the stick and hit full afterburners. It was astonishingly loud and went out of sight faster than we'd ever imagined possible.

Edited December 17, 2013 by stuny

[XVarior]

Hi XVarior!

 

20. February 1987 I worked in the backyard of a plant for cryogenics, with transferring liquid helium from a storage medium to another.

( Liquid helium: - 269° C, - 452° F, 4.2 K )

It was a job that required focus and concentration.

 

The plant was situated on the main approach path to Sola Airport in Stavanger.

Suddenly I heard an extremely aircraft noise just above the head, so to speak.

Instinctively I thought a plane was about to crash into the cryogenic plant.

I bent down at the same time as I looked up, and there, at very low altitude I saw the profile of the ghost aircraft, Lockheed SR 71.

There was a lot of smoke from the left wing, and the engine was clearly on fire.

A colleague, who actually was an airliner pilot, worked at the plant in anticipation of new pilot job, came running out and wondered what kind of extreme sound he had just heard.

I told him what I had seen, but he did not believe me.

Here, - it was he who knew everything about airplanes, - not me. And when it came to

SR 71, I had to understand,

that was an aircraft hardly anyone had ever seen.

 

The plane barely managed to make an emergency landing at the airport. It was immediately taken into a military hangar so no one would be able to see the secret plane.

 

New wing and engine were flown in from America, and a tanker aircraft came with special fuel for the SR 71.

 

After two weeks of repair work, the mysterious plane took off with courses for its base in Mildenhall in Britain.

 

The plane also sometimes had to make emergency landings at Bodo airport in the northern part of Norway.

It was at this airport the famous spy plane U2 had the base for its raids into the USSR.

Bodo Norway

 

If you have a spare moment, one can learn much about SR 71 to watch these films: 2 x 45 minutes

SR-71 Blackbird - YouTube

 

 

There are hardly images from 1987 when the plane made an emergency landing in Stavanger, but I found some in this book as evidence.

System Operator Captain John Manzi and Pilot Lt. Col. Bernie Smith before departing with their Lockheed SR 71.

 

Regards!

 

This is amazing story. You made me feel like a kid again! Wonder why Hollywood never touched this subject yet. Thus plane deserve a movie of its own.

Thanks for the links, I'll watch ASAP!

[dickgrafixstop]

The SR-71 was the crowning achievement for Kelly Johnson, the creative genius that designed planes from the P38, F101, U2 and others. If you're interested in more details,

two books are highly recommended - Sleddriver by Brian Skul and Skunkworks, an autobiography of Ben Rich (Kelly's successor at Lockheed). Blackbird was a fabulous plane that required all sorts of technological innovation, materials and machining techniques,

special fuels and environmental considerations (try long duration missions at 80,000+ altitude). The static displays give a sense of the precision contours of the airframe, but

the roar of the Blackbird's afterburners is something you'd never forget. Wonderful pictures of a wonderful piece of engineering - and, by the way, it carried photography equipment that would knock your socks off.

[pico]

Blackbirds never flew over the USSR or China after the U-2 was shut down as the US did not insist on "Open Skys" anymore.

 

But it did fly near the borders with side scanning cameras.

 

The plane also sometimes had to make emergency landings at Bodo airport in the northern part of Norway.

It was at this airport the famous spy plane U2 had the base for its raids into the USSR.

 

In fact, that aircraft was the most famous in Europe, #64-17964, flown by Major Tom McCleary and Lt Col Stan Gudmundson. Gudmonson is retired and lives close by me.

--

Edited December 27, 2013 by pico

[janki]

Ok, ok, - spy stories & adventure movies, - I agree with you XVarior that Hollywood could certainly made excellent Adventure Movies around the SR-71 aircraft.

 

But as you pico suggests, it is probably infinitely more material to bring about the legendary U-2 aircraft.

 

What follows has its origins in the Soviet nuclear tests on Novaya Zemlya, which began in 1949.

 

Already in the late 1960s, we got a shock in Norway when the Norwegian fisherman Selmer Nielsen was arrested spying for the GRU. He was a classic Cold War spy who spent much time around Bodo airport to observe the U-2 aircraft movements.

He was hiding in the terrain around the airport and photographed and reported to the Soviet Union what he saw.

On 1 May 1960, he could report that the U-2 plane that took off from Peshawar in Pakistan never arrived at the base in Bodo. Pilot Francis Gary Powers were, as we know, shot down over the city of Sverdlovsk.

 

What is more surprising is that now in 2013 it has emerged information in television documentaries about significant traffic that occurred of Norwegian and Finnish agents who entered the Soviet Union throughout the fifties and sixties.

 

They were recruited by the CIA to classical spying on military facilities deep inside the Soviet Union.

The few agents who are still alive, can also tell that they, fitted with hand guns, cut themselves through the border fences and planted mysterious boxes along the telegraph lines that connected the Kola Peninsula with Moscow.

According to Russian military experts today, they believe that these boxes contained listening devices.

 

Finnish agents have told, that they on raid inside the Soviet Union have killed Soviet soldiers who have been surprising them.

In spring, now in 2013, told the former Norwegian agent Arne Lund on his deathbed, that he had killed three Soviet soldiers at the border fence on his way back from a mission.

 

Agents who were taken inside the Soviet Union of course disappeared forever.

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[janki]

In contrast to the SR 71, - a modernized version of the U-2 plane is still flying.

When only the outer space is the constraint;

11 minutes of pure pleasure:

James May from the very popular TV program Top Gear.:)

Breathtaking spy plane footage. [VIDEO]

[XVarior]

In contrast to the SR 71, - a modernized version of the U-2 plane is still flying.

When only the outer space is the constraint;

11 minutes of pure pleasure:

James May from the very popular TV program Top Gear.:)

Breathtaking spy plane footage. [VIDEO]

 

This is as Out-Of-This-world as it can be. I envy you "James" for this amazing experience. The plane is wow just WOW.

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[XVarior]

Ok, ok, - spy stories & adventure movies, - I agree with you XVarior that Hollywood could certainly made excellent Adventure Movies around the SR-71 aircraft.

 

But as you pico suggests, it is probably infinitely more material to bring about the legendary U-2 aircraft.

 

What follows has its origins in the Soviet nuclear tests on Novaya Zemlya, which began in 1949.

 

Already in the late 1960s, we got a shock in Norway when the Norwegian fisherman Selmer Nielsen was arrested spying for the GRU. He was a classic Cold War spy who spent much time around Bodo airport to observe the U-2 aircraft movements.

He was hiding in the terrain around the airport and photographed and reported to the Soviet Union what he saw.

On 1 May 1960, he could report that the U-2 plane that took off from Peshawar in Pakistan never arrived at the base in Bodo. Pilot Francis Gary Powers were, as we know, shot down over the city of Sverdlovsk.

 

What is more surprising is that now in 2013 it has emerged information in television documentaries about significant traffic that occurred of Norwegian and Finnish agents who entered the Soviet Union throughout the fifties and sixties.

 

They were recruited by the CIA to classical spying on military facilities deep inside the Soviet Union.

The few agents who are still alive, can also tell that they, fitted with hand guns, cut themselves through the border fences and planted mysterious boxes along the telegraph lines that connected the Kola Peninsula with Moscow.

According to Russian military experts today, they believe that these boxes contained listening devices.

 

Finnish agents have told, that they on raid inside the Soviet Union have killed Soviet soldiers who have been surprising them.

In spring, now in 2013, told the former Norwegian agent Arne Lund on his deathbed, that he had killed three Soviet soldiers at the border fence on his way back from a mission.

 

Agents who were taken inside the Soviet Union of course disappeared forever.

 

Holly molly, see why I said this should be a coming blockbuster movie :-)