We’re still of the strong opinion that the SR-71 Blackbird was one of the most bad ass airborne hot rods ever. The speeds, altitudes, and accomplishments of these planes are so impressive we’re not going to get into all of them here. What we are going to tell you about is the film below, though. “The Blackbirds Are Flying” was made by Lockheed to tell the general public about the airplanes that had been in the air for a few years. While these planes and much of the technology along with the missions they performed were classified, these films helped to build an incredible aviation legend which still exists today. To this moment, we get excited when reading or seeing something new about these planes. Even if the “something new” is a 50 year old film!
What some people may not know is there there were three of these planes built. There was a trainer, a reconnaissance aircraft, and there was an interceptor aircraft as part of the Blackbird family. The jobs, their different specs, and their roles in the Strategic Air Command are all laid out in the film.
We take so much for granted today and we are lacking some of the wide-eyed amazement that people had back in the day when learning about these airplanes. Today we expect that we should be able to do incredible things and make unprecedented stuff on a daily basis because that’s what life is. Back in the day these machines were a part of our national pride. You can hear it in the script of the film and you have to know that there were loads of kids that saw this 50 years ago and were the hooked on the idea of being flyboys. So cool.
Just think ,60 years after Orville and Wilbur made their flight. We were going 2200 MPH.And it is still the bad ass in the air.
One of these made an unscheduled stop at Takhli RTAF base in 1968 when I was there. They weren\’t even supposed to exist. Heavy security around it, so getting close was not possible. Saw it takeoff, what an impressive plane.