Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird - Pima ASM, Tucson, AZ - Static Aircraft Displays on Waymarking.com

The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" was an advanced, long-range, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft. It was developed as a black project from the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft in the 1960s by the Lockheed Skunk Works. During reconnaissance missions the SR-71 operated at high speeds and altitudes to allow it to outrace threats. If a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate and outrun the missile.

The SR-71 served with the US Air Force (USAF) from 1964 to 1998. Of the 32 aircraft built, 12 were destroyed in accidents, and none lost to enemy action. The SR-71 has been given several nicknames, including Blackbird and Habu, the latter in reference to an Okinawan species of pit viper. Since 1976, it has held the world record for the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft, a record previously held by the YF-12.

Lockheed's previous reconnaissance aircraft was the U-2, which was designed for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1960, while overflying the USSR, the U-2 flown by Francis Gary Powers was shot down by Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). This highlighted the U-2's vulnerability due to its relatively slow speed; this paved the way for the Lockheed A-12, also designed for the CIA at Lockheed's Skunk Works. The A-12 was the precursor of the SR-71. The A-12's first flight took place at Groom Lake (Area 51), NV, on 25 April 1962. It was equipped with the less powerful Pratt & Whitney J75 engines due to protracted development of the intended Pratt & Whitney J58. The J58s were retrofitted as they became available, and became the standard powerplant for all subsequent aircraft in the series (A-12, YF-12, M-21) as well as the follow-on SR-71 aircraft.

Thirteen A-12s were built. Two A-12 variants were also developed, including three YF-12A interceptor prototypes, and two M-21 drone carrier variants. The cancellation of A-12 program was announced on 28 December 1966, due to budget concerns, and because of the forthcoming SR-71. The A-12 flew missions over Vietnam and North Korea before its retirement in 1968.

The SR-71 designator is a continuation of the pre-1962 bomber series, which ended with the XB-70 Valkyrie. During the later period of its testing, the B-70 was proposed for a reconnaissance/strike role, with an RS-70 designation. When it was clear that the A-12 performance potential was much greater, the USAF ordered a variant of the A-12 in December 1962. Originally named R-12 by Lockheed, the USAF version was longer and heavier than the A-12, with a longer fuselage to hold more fuel, two seats in the cockpit, and reshaped chines. Reconnaissance equipment included signals intelligence sensors, a side-looking radar and a photo camera. The CIA's A-12 was a better photo reconnaissance platform than the USAF's R-12, since the A-12 flew somewhat higher and faster, and with only one pilot it had room to carry a superior camera and more instruments.

During the 1964 campaign, Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater repeatedly criticized President Lyndon B Johnson and his administration for falling behind the Soviet Union in developing new weapons. Johnson decided to counter this criticism by revealing the existence of the YF-12A USAF interceptor, which also served as cover for the still-secret A-12, and the USAF reconnaissance model since July 1964. USAF Chief of Staff Gen Curtis LeMay preferred the SR (Strategic Reconnaissance) designation and wanted the RS-71 to be named SR-71. Before the July speech, LeMay lobbied to modify Johnson's speech to read SR-71 instead of RS-71. The media transcript given to the press at the time still had the earlier RS-71 designation in places, creating the story that the president had misread the aircraft's designation.

This public disclosure of the program and its renaming surprised everyone at the Skunk Works and to USAF personnel involved in the program. All of the printed maintenance manuals, flight crew handbooks, training slides, and other materials were labeled "R-12" and had to be reprinted with the new designation.




The first flight of an SR-71 took place on 22 December 1964, at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, CA. The first SR-71 to enter service was delivered in January 1966. The USAF Strategic Air Command had SR-71 Blackbirds in service from 1966 through 1991.

SR-71s first arrived at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, on 8 March 1968. These deployments were code named "Glowing Heat", while the program as a whole was code named "Senior Crown". Reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam were code named "Giant Scale".

On 21 March 1968, Maj (later General) Jerome F O'Malley and Maj Edward D Payne flew the first operational SR-71 sortie from Kadena AB, Okinawa. From the beginning of the Blackbird's reconnaissance missions over enemy territory (North Vietnam, Laos, etc.) in 1968, the SR-71s averaged approximately one sortie a week for nearly two years. By 1970, the SR-71s were averaging two sorties per week, and by 1972, they were flying nearly one sortie every day.

While deployed in Okinawa, the SR-71s and their aircrew members gained the nickname Habu (as did the A-12s preceding them) after a pit viper indigenous to Japan, which the Okinawans thought the plane resembled.

Swedish JA 37 Viggen fighter pilots, using the predictable patterns of SR-71 routine flights over the Baltic Sea, managed to lock their radar on the SR-71 on numerous occasions. Despite heavy jamming from the SR-71, target illumination was maintained by feeding target location from ground-based radars to the fire-control computer in the Viggen. The most common site for the lock-on to occur was the thin stretch of international airspace between Öland and Gotland that the SR-71 used on the return flight.

The highly specialized tooling used in manufacturing the SR-71 was ordered to be destroyed in 1968 by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, per contractual obligations at the end of production. Destroying the tooling killed any chance of there being an F-12B, but also limited the SR-71 force to the 32 completed, the final SR-71 order having to be cancelled when the tooling was destroyed.

In the 1970s, the SR-71 was placed under closer congressional scrutiny and, with budget concerns, the program was soon under attack. Both Congress and the USAF sought to focus on newer projects like the B-1 Lancer and upgrades to the B-52 Stratofortress, whose replacement was being developed. While the development and construction of reconnaissance satellites was costly, their upkeep was less than that of the nine SR-71s then in service.

The SR-71 had never gathered significant supporters within the USAF, making it an easy target for cost-conscious politicians. Also, parts were no longer being manufactured for the aircraft, so other airframes had to be cannibalized to keep the fleet airworthy. The aircraft's lack of a datalink (unlike the Lockheed U-2) meant that imagery and radar data could not be used in real time, but had to wait until the aircraft returned to base. The Air Force saw the SR-71 as a bargaining chip which could be sacrificed to ensure the survival of other priorities. A general misunderstanding of the nature of aerial reconnaissance and a lack of knowledge about the SR-71 in particular (due to its secretive development and usage) was used by detractors to discredit the aircraft, with the assurance given that a replacement was under development. In 1988, Congress was convinced to allocate $160,000 to keep six SR-71s (along with a trainer model) in flyable storage that would allow the fleet to become airborne within 60 days. The USAF refused to spend the money. While the SR-71 survived attempts to be retired in 1988, partly due to the unmatched ability to provide high quality coverage of the Kola Peninsula for the US Navy, the decision to retire the SR-71 from active duty came in 1989, with the SR-71 flying its last missions in October that year.

Funds were redirected to the financially troubled B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit programs. Four months after the plane's retirement, Gen Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr, was told that the expedited reconnaissance which the SR-71 could have provided was unavailable during Operation Desert Storm. However, it was noted by SR-71 supporters that the SR-71B trainer was just coming out of overhaul and that one SR-71 could have been made available in a few weeks, and a second one within two months. Since the aircraft was recently retired, the support infrastructure was in place and qualified crews available. The decision was made by Washington not to bring the aircraft back.

Due to increasing unease about political conditions in the Middle East and North Korea, the US Congress re-examined the SR-71 beginning in 1993. Senator Robert Byrd and other Senators complained that the "better than" successor to the SR-71 had yet to be developed at the cost of the "good enough" serviceable aircraft. They maintained that, in a time of constrained military budgets, designing, building, and testing an aircraft with the same capabilities as the SR-71 would be impossible.

Congress' disappointment with the lack of a suitable replacement for the Blackbird was cited concerning whether to continue funding imaging sensors on the U-2. Congressional conferees stated the "experience with the SR-71 serves as a reminder of the pitfalls of failing to keep existing systems up-to-date and capable in the hope of acquiring other capabilities."

It was agreed to add $100 million to the budget to return three SR-71s to service, but it was emphasized that this "would not prejudice support for long-endurance UAVs [such as the Global Hawk]." The funding was later cut to $72.5 million. The Skunk Works was able to return the aircraft to service under budget, coming in at $72 million. Still-active USAF pilots and Reconnaissance Systems Officers (RSOs) who had worked with the aircraft were asked to volunteer to fly the reactivated planes. Modifications were made to provide a data-link with "near real-time" transmission of the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar's imagery to sites on the ground.

The reactivation met much resistance: the USAF had not budgeted for the aircraft, and UAV developers worried that their programs would suffer if money was shifted to support the SR-71s. Also, with the allocation requiring yearly reaffirmation by Congress, long-term planning for the SR-71 was difficult. In 1996, the USAF claimed that specific funding had not been authorized, and moved to ground the program. Congress reauthorized the funds, but, in October 1997, President Bill Clinton used the line-item veto to cancel the $39 million allocated for the SR-71. In June 1998, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the line-item veto was unconstitutional. All this left the SR-71's status uncertain until September 1998, when the USAF called for the funds to be redistributed. The plane was permanently retired in 1998. The USAF quickly disposed of their SR-71s, leaving NASA with the two last flyable Blackbirds until 1999. All other Blackbirds have been moved to museums except for the two SR-71s and a few D-21 drones retained by the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

The SR-71 was the world's fastest and highest-flying operational manned aircraft throughout its career. On 28 July 1976, an SR-71 broke the world record for its class: an "absolute altitude record" of 85,069ft/25,929m. Several aircraft exceeded this altitude in zoom climbs but not in sustained flight. That same day another SR-71 set an absolute speed record of 1,905.81kts/2,193.2mph/3,529.6kph.

The SR-71 also holds the "Speed Over a Recognized Course" record from New York to London-distance 3,508mi/5,646km, 1,435.587mph/2,310.353kph, and an elapsed time of 1:54:56.4, set on 1 September 1974. This equates to an average velocity of about Mach 2.68, including deceleration for in-flight refueling. Peak speeds during this flight were probably closer to the declassified top speed of Mach 3.2+. For comparison, the best commercial Concorde flight time was 2:52, and the Boeing 747 averages 6:15.

On 26 April 1971, an SR-71 flew over 15,000mi/24,000km in 10:30. This flight was awarded the 1971 Mackay Trophy for the "most meritorious flight of the year" and the 1972 Harmon Trophy for "most outstanding international achievement in the art/science of aeronautics".

When the SR-71 was retired in 1990, one Blackbird was flown from its birthplace at USAF Plant 42 in Palmdale, CA, to go on exhibit at what is now the Smithsonian Institution's Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. On 6 March 1990, four new speed records were set on the final Senior Crown flight.

-Los Angeles, CA, to Washington, DC, distance 2,299.7mi/3,701.0km, average speed 2,144.8mph/3,451.7kph, and an elapsed time of 1:04:20.
-West Coast to East Coast, distance 2,404mi/3,869km, average speed 2,124.5mph/3,419.1kph, and an elapsed time of 1:07:54.
-Kansas City, MO, to Washington, DC, distance 942mi/1,516km, average speed 2,176mph/3,502kph, and an elapsed time of 0:25:59.
-St Louis, MO to Cincinnati, OH, distance 311.4mi/501.1km, average speed 2,189.9mph/3,524.3kph, and an elapsed time of 0:08:32.
These four speed records were accepted by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA), the recognized body for aviation records in the United States. After the Los Angeles–Washington flight, Sen John Glenn addressed the US Senate, chastening the Department of Defense for not using the SR-71 to its full potential:

“Mr President, the termination of the SR-71 was a grave mistake and could place our nation at a serious disadvantage in the event of a future crisis. Yesterday's historic transcontinental flight was a sad memorial to our short-sighted policy in strategic aerial reconnaissance.”
—Senator John Glenn, 7 March 1990

Much speculation exists regarding a replacement for the SR-71, most notably aircraft identified as the Aurora. This is due to limitations of spy satellites, which are governed by the laws of orbital mechanics. It may take up to 24 hours before a satellite is in proper orbit to photograph a particular target, far longer than a reconnaissance plane. Spy planes can provide the most current intelligence information and collect it when lighting conditions are optimum. The fly-over orbit of spy satellites may also be predicted and can allow the enemy to hide assets when they know the satellite is above, a drawback spy planes lack. These factors have led many to doubt that the US has abandoned the concept of spy planes to complement reconnaissance satellites. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are also used for much aerial reconnaissance in the 2000s. They have the advantage of being able to overfly hostile territory without putting human pilots at risk.

Source: Wikipedia

Type of Aircraft: (make/model): Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird Tail Number: (S/N): s/n 61-7951 Construction:: original aircraft Location (park, airport, museum, etc.): Located in hangar 1S at Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, AZ inside / outside: inside Other Information:: Pima Air & Space Museum 6000 E Valencia Rd Tucson, Arizona 85756 Phone 520-574-0462 Open 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Daily Last admittance at 4:00 PM $15.50-Adults $12.50-Pima Co Residents $12.75-Seniors $ 9.00-Children FREE---Children 6 & under $ 7.00-AMARG $13.50-Group Rate Access restrictions: None

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