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20 of them are on display in museums; 19 in the US and one in England.

One location has 2 planes. Edwards Air Force Base in California has the oldest surviving aircraft (61–7955) as well as one of the last ones built (61–7980). The latter was used by NASA as the testing platform for the Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment:

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Probably the most famous plane (61–7964) is on display at the Strategic Air Command Museum in Ashland, Nebraska.

On 29 JUN 1987, 61–7964 was flying very near the western Soviet border when one of her engines exploded. A flight of 4 or 5 MIG-25 Foxbats were scrambled out of East Germany with orders to force down the aircraft or, failing that, to shoot it out of the sky.

Two unarmed Swedish Saab JA-37 Viggens aircraft were already airborne at the time and flew over to see what was going on. When they recognized that the SR-71 was in distress and being hunted by the MIGs, they took up escort positions, interposing themselves between the MIGs and the SR-71. A pair of armed JA-37s were scrambled by the Swedish Air Force and took over escort duties until the MIGs broke off.

30 years later, on 28 NOV 2018 (after the incident was declassified), the four Swedish pilots were awarded the Air Medal by the US Air Force.

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The SR71 was a pure hotrod!! It was built using thinking that was totally out of the box, particularly for its time.

 

 It was powered by ram jets! What could have been more appropriate than that the original “starter” for the propulsion system was two supercharged Buick Nailhead V8 engines!!

 

:FlagAm: :lol:
 

 

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On 7/9/2024 at 6:13 PM, Blackwater 53393 said:

The SR71 was a pure hotrod!! It was built using thinking that was totally out of the box, particularly for its time.

 

 It was powered by ram jets! What could have been more appropriate than that the original “starter” for the propulsion system was two supercharged Buick Nailhead V8 engines!!

 

:FlagAm: :lol:
 

 

Actually the engines were turbo-ramjets. They operated as pure turbojets until the plane had built up enough speed to operate at high bypass ramjets. The inlets were adjustable to slow the incoming air to subsonic ramjet velocity. (These were NOT "Sramjets"...i.e., Supersonic combustion ramjets.)

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2 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

Actually the engines were turbo-ramjets. They operated as pure turbojets until the plane had built up enough speed to operate at high bypass ramjets. The inlets were adjustable to slow the incoming air to subsonic ramjet velocity. (These were NOT "Sramjets"...i.e., Supersonic combustion ramjets.)


 

My point was the starting system when the Blackbird was first flown!!

 

I remember reading about this years ago! The writer, who was part of the design team, made a comment about “the sound of two blown Buicks screaming” just before ignition of the plane’s engines!!  :wub:

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21 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

I love the "pilots' story" by Brian Schul.

 

  ...... I might have his name wrong but he was a SR71 pilot, and his story about the "speed check" is hilarious .....  🙃

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Herd another story on Blackbird...ATC gets a call request to go to 60 angles (60,000 feet)....Controller gives  him OK and says good luck getting up to there...Pilot radios radios back, not going up to dropping down to....

 

Texas Lizard

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