SR-71 Pilots Tale - Major Brian Shul

[Gnomey]

Major Brian Shul: "I loved that jet" - Maggie's Farm



Truly an amazing plane of the likes we will likely not see again (at least not manned).

[Matt308]

Don't believe it Gnomey. She wasn't retired for nothing.

[Henk]

Why was she retired matt?

[wilbur1]

Great story

[Gnomey]

Don't believe it Gnomey. She wasn't retired for nothing.

I'm sure we'll see something like her again I just think there won't be another aircraft like her that will have a pilot. I would say it would likely be unmanned.

[Matt308]

Only now are these technologies coming out of the black world. Pentagon's 2009 budget request includes $750M for the DARPA HTV-3X Mach 6+ hypersonic vehicle. First flight is FY2012.

Hmmmm.... That's awfully quick turnaround for such "high risk technologies" that supposedly have never seen the light of day.

[Matt308]

Here's a mockup from the DARPA announcement as posted in March 10 AvWeek.

[SoD Stitch]

Here's a good article concerning the HTV-3 in an older article from Smithsonian's Air & Space Magazine:

Mach 20 or Bust

[Matt308]

And notice the curvilinear inlets that allow compression in three dimensions. These could be exciting times.

[Gnomey]

Yeah they sure could. We'll be really interesting to see what unmanned vehicles come to light in the next decade or so.

[SoD Stitch]

Why was she retired matt?

The ostensible reason she was retired was rising maintenance costs (the newest SR airframe is/was over 30 years old), fewer spare parts supplies, and a lack of meaningful strategic targets for the -71 to surveille since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. However, there are others who suspect that there was more to it than that; that perhaps there is already a more advanced strategic surveillance platform in operation (Aurora?). There is very little evidence for this, and more evidence to the contrary, but that doesn't stop people from speculating.

[Matt308]

This is the technology that I believe exists. Between the Shuttle and Orbital Sciences, this seems rather trivial since the early 70s.

Aviation Week : Two-Stage-to-Orbit ''Blackstar'' System Shelved at Groom Lake?

[Matt308]

[The Nerd]

Twas a great aircraft, a tad bit expensive, but effective. I heard from an unconfermed source that the US was testing an uma with mach 10 capabilities (like stated above), not to mention the U-2 along with spy satillites provide effective intel.