this aircraft behind me is the fastest
and the highest flying aircraft in the
museum's collection but not only that it
is the fastest and the highest flying
aircraft in history in fact this sr-71
blackbear behind me has flown higher
than any other as in july 1976 it set
the world record for sustained altitude
flight
flying at a whopping 85 000 feet
[Music]
blackbird was developed in the 1960s the
united states needed a new type of
reconnaissance aircraft after u.s pilot
gary howard was shot down in a u-2 spy
plane over the soviet union in 1960 and
caused a diplomatic incident
u.s forces had previously thought that
the u2 was incapable of being shot down
because it flew so high it was out of
the reach of surface-to-air missiles
the gary powers incident proved this to
be wrong so the need for a new aircraft
which could fly higher and faster and
indeed still take strategic
reconnaissance photographs while not
overflying the soviet union was needed
it was out of this need that the
blackbird was born an aircraft that
could fly at three times the speed of
sound
faster than any weapon that could be
fired at it
i was always wondering if i could ask
you about the sort of sensation of
travelling at you know how does it 35
miles a minute yes you know and that's
why part of it it took us a year to
train
changing your mindset
so you're
constantly thinking well ahead of the
airplane was was a real uh
change in life per se
and in the sr i'll give you a couple
things
when you're in a spacesuit so you're
somewhat isolated uh from some of the
sounds that you would have heard in a
normal airplane
and your greatest census be was actually
on takeoff you get to the end of the
runway and you'd like the after release
your brakes and light the afternoon
within 20 seconds
you will have gone 4 500 feet
you're doing 240 miles an hour and
you're lifting off
in a fairly s
fast climb because you're going to pass
through 20 000 feet
in less than two minutes from the time
you release the brakes now if you keep
climbing
all the way up to 80 000 feet which is
about where you normally level off
uh it's going to take you 17 more
minutes but you're climbing and
accelerating at the same time and you're
going to burn a third of your fuel
but then you're going to steady out up
there now once you're up there
think about it
you're three times the speed of sound so
most the sound is behind you naturally
the ground is 16 miles below you but
when you're at 80 000 feet
doing 2100 miles an hour yes you can see
the ground moving but it doesn't give
you a real sense of speed
the blackbird was developed at the top
secret lockheed skunk works in
california
one of the scientists working on the
project was clarence kelly johnson who
was instrumental in coming up with the
high-tech design in fact it was so
complicated an aircraft to produce that
each aircraft cost 34 million dollars to
make
a typical blackbird intelligence mission
would see the aircraft take off
speed up to three times the speed of
sound and then while flying incredibly
high and incredibly fast take
reconnaissance photography around the
edges of the soviet union now it flew
around the edges of the soviet union
because after the u2 incident the u.s
government had pledged to stop carrying
out overflights over russian territory
instead blackbirds were positioned
strategically in bases where they could
fly around the very edges of the soviet
union in a great height
black bears like this one behind me were
stationed in okinawa in the south
pacific and in mildenhall here in the uk
there's a big difference between an
overt mission and covert
ours were all over
uh covert mission was what the a12 was
doing early on that the cia was flying
out of okinawa
when the sr came along now you have an
airplane it has air force markings we
have geneva convention cards in our
wallets and our pressure suits
this is an overt mission
no blackboard of any variety has ever
been over the land mass of russia or
china never ever we've been around the
periphery in international waters but
never been over the land mass
this specific blackberry carried out
such strategic reconnaissance missions
it was based in both mildenhall and
okinawa from the late 1970s until 1990.
its last flight was in january 1990
following the cancellation of the
blackbird programme and it was the last
aircraft to leave okinawa following
retirement the aircraft remained in
storage for 11 years until it was
shipped to duxford in 2001.
blackbird engines are remarkable because
they are able to fly on continuous
afterburner which is what is able to
make the aircraft go so fast
a blackbird pilot rich graham explained
that this is effectively like when you
have a hose pipe and you pop your thumb
over the end of the hose pipe and the
water comes out much faster as a result
the engines for the airplane are pratt
woody j-58 one-of-a-kind engine nor the
aircraft use them it's the only engine i
know of in the world even today that is
certified for 100 percent
all the time continuous afterburner
operation most engine most jets like the
t-38 f4 and probably many others they
have some kind of a time limitation
they have to they can't be an after
burner the entire time
the backbear is predominantly made from
titanium which is a metal that can
withstand great heat and pressure
it's painted a black colour to help
disrupt radar but also as you may be
able to see
there's a few gaps in between and that's
because the aircraft expands as it is in
flight as it gets very hot when it lands
on the ground after a flight it then
contracts and as a result ground crews
used to complain about how much oil and
fuel the aircraft used to leak
the blackbird was piloted by a crew of
two
a pilot who who flew the aircraft
and a backseater who was responsible for
operating the camera that took strategic
reconnaissance photographs
blackbird pilot rich graham described
the relationship between him and his
fellow crewmen as being so close he
almost knew him better than his own wife
first thing you do when you show up at
veo uh as a new fledgling sr pilot uh
you meet up with who your backseater is
going to be
mine came out of uh b-52h models his
name is don emmons this is who you're
going to mate up with for the rest of
your life in the sr program meanwhile at
the same time you start your simulator
training and this is where it becomes
very very demanding you've got 12
missions you get mission simulator
mission number 1 through 12.
for each of those 12
missions
you get two practice rides and then a
check ride you weren't going to go
anywhere other than training missions
until you got 100 hours
what we must remember about the
blackbird is that it is over 50 years
old it was developed in the mid-1960s
an age that was before internet and
computing
to think that an aircraft that looks so
space-age and so futuristic
is now half a century old is quite
remarkable
what is also remarkable is the amount of
money that was spent on the project each
aircraft cost 34 million dollars to
produce
that typifies what u.s president dwight
d eisenhower described as the
military-industrial complex the
relationship between economy
and the military that typified u.s
policy during the cold war since the end
of the second world war and the advent
of the atomic bomb the united states and
the soviet union had been involved in a
technological conflict that saw them
race to develop new and more exciting
weaponry the blackbird was born out of
this conflict and the idea that you
needed to be aware of what the other
side was doing making sure that you
could keep track and keep tabs on their
activities
one the interesting thing about this
blackbird is it's been signed by some of
the people who operated it and worked on
it on the ground
underneath its nose wheel are their
signatures where they sign their names
to record their experience with this
aircraft
on the tail of this aircraft is a snake
wrapped around a number one which
signifies the insignia of the first
attachment of the ninth strategic
reconnaissance swing the unit this
aircraft served with
the snake symbolizes the habu that was
famously the nickname given to the
blackbird
the habu was a poisonous snake native to
okinawa which was where blackbirds
operated in the south pacific
the local population of okinawa when the
blackbird arrived thought that the
aircraft looked a bit like their
indigenous snake and so started calling
it the habu aircraft eventually the
nickname stuck and even got applied to
the pilots themselves who adopted it as
part of their esprit de corps
indeed only a pilot that had flown the
blackbird on an operational mission
could earn the habu patch aside of their
elite status as a blackbird pilot
even though the blackbird was the
successor to the u2 it ultimately became
financially unsustainable to keep for
the us government to keep operating them
only 32 blackbirds were produced of
which only 29 served in operational
capacity
and at 34 million dollars a unit this
was a hugely expensive program to keep
running
in the early 1990s following the end of
the cold war the u.s government began to
reconsider the use of the blackbird
satellite technology had developed to
such an extent in the 1980s that it
could fulfill a similar role to the
intelligence capacity fulfilled by the
blackbird and indeed more economically
friendly
alternatives like satellites and like
the u2 were considered
so in 1990 the blackbird program was
formally retired for the first time
after much deliberation they were
brought back briefly in 1995 before the
program was ultimately cancelled in
1998.
the u2 still remains in service in u.s
forces in a limited way and has seen
action in more recent conflicts such as
the war in afghanistan
this blackbird's last flight was in
january 1990 following the cancellation
of the blackberry program
it flew from okinawa and was the last
aircraft to leave there
back to its base in california
where it was put into storage for 11
years until it was brought to duxford in
2001.
the blackbird is so impressive because
for over 50 years it has remained the
fastest and highest flying manned
aircraft
it looked space-age when it was
developed in the 1960s and it still
looks like a product of science fiction
today
indeed the blackbird is flown by the
x-men in their comics though they call
it the x-jet
and was the personal craft of queen
amidala in star wars
it still looks futuristic to us today 50
years on
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