"The Fastest Guys Out There" SR71 Pilot (Sled Driver) story

[A HERETIC I AM]

The Fastest Guys Out There



Written by Brian Schul - former sled driver





There were a lot of things we couldn’t do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact.



People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane. Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment.



It occurred when Walt and I were flying our final training sortie. We needed 100 hours in the jet to complete our training and attain Mission Ready status. Somewhere over Colorado we had passed the century mark. We had made the turn in Arizona and the jet was performing flawlessly. My gauges were wired in the front seat and we were starting to feel pretty good about ourselves, not only because we would soon be flying real missions but because we had gained a great deal of confidence in the plan in the past ten months. Ripping across the barren deserts 80,000 feet below us, I could already see the coast of California from the Arizona border. I was, finally, after many humbling months of simulators and study, ahead of the jet.



I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for Walter in the back seat. There he was, with no really good view of the incredible sights before us, tasked with monitoring four different radios. This was good practice for him for when we began flying real missions, when a priority transmission from headquarters could be vital. It had been difficult, too, for me to relinquish control of the radios, as during my entire flying career I had controlled my own transmissions. But it was part of the division of duties in this plane and I had adjusted to it. I still insisted on talking on the radio while we were on the ground, however. Walt was so good at many things, but he couldn’t match my expertise at sounding smooth on the radios, a skill that had been honed sharply with years in fighter squadrons where the slightest radio miscue was grounds for beheading. He understood that and allowed me that luxury. Just to get a sense of what Walt had to contend with, I pulled the radio toggle switches and monitored the frequencies along with him. The predominant radio chatter was from Los Angeles Center, far below us, controlling daily traffic in their sector. While they had us on their scope (albeit briefly), we were in uncontrolled airspace and normally would not talk to them unless we needed to descend into their airspace.



We listened as the shaky voice of a lone Cessna pilot asked Center for a readout of his ground speed. Center replied:



November Charlie 175, I’m showing you at ninety knots on the ground.



Now the thing to understand about Center controllers, was that whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna, or to Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep, professional, tone that made one feel important. I referred to it as the “ HoustonCentervoice.” I have always felt that after years of seeing documentaries on this country’s space program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the Houstoncontrollers, that all other controllers since then wanted to sound like that… and that they basically did. And it didn’t matter what sector of the country we would be flying in, it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than sound bad on the radios.



Just moments after the Cessna’s inquiry, a Twin Beech piped up on frequency, in a rather superior tone, asking for his groundspeed.

in Beach.



I have you at one hundred and twenty-five knots of ground speed.



Boy, I thought, the Beechcraft really must think he is dazzling his Cessna brethren.



Then out of the blue, a navy F-18 pilot out of NAS Lemoore came up on frequency. You knew right away it was a Navy jock because he sounded very cool on the radios.


Center, Dusty 52 ground speed check



Before Center could reply, I’m thinking to myself, hey, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in that million-dollar cockpit, so why is he asking Center for a readout? Then I got it, ol’ Dusty here is making sure that every bug smasher from Mount Whitney to the Mojave knows what true speed is. He’s the fastest dude in the valley today, and he just wants everyone to know how much fun he is having in his new Hornet.



And the reply, always with that same, calm, voice, with more distinct alliteration than emotion:



Dusty 52, Center, we have you at 620 on the ground.



And I thought to myself, is this a ripe situation, or what? As my hand instinctively reached for the mic button, I had to remind myself that Walt was in control of the radios. Still, I thought, it must be done – in mere seconds we’ll be out of the sector and the opportunity will be lost. That Hornet must die, and die now.



I thought about all of our Sim training and how important it was that we developed well as a crew and knew that to jump in on the radios now would destroy the integrity of all that we had worked toward becoming. I was torn. Somewhere, 13 miles above Arizona, there was a pilot screaming inside his space helmet.



Then, I heard it. The click of the mic button from the back seat. That was the very moment that I knew Walter and I had become a crew. Very professionally, and with no emotion, Walter spoke:



Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check?



There was no hesitation, and the replay came as if was an everyday request.



Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground.



I think it was the forty-two knots that I liked the best, so accurate and proud was Center to deliver that information without hesitation, and you just knew he was smiling. But the precise point at which I knew that Walt and I were going to be really good friends for a long time was when he keyed the mic once again to say, in his most fighter-pilot-like voice:



Ah, Center, much thanks,

We’re showing closer to nineteen hundred on the money.



For a moment Walter was a god. And we finally heard a little crack in the armor of the HoustonCentervoice, when L.A.came back with,



Roger that Aspen,

Your equipment is probably more accurate than ours.



You boys have a good one.



It all had lasted for just moments, but in that short, memorable sprint across the southwest, the Navy had been flamed, all mortal airplanes on freq were forced to bow before the King of Speed, and more importantly, Walter and I had crossed the threshold of being a crew. A fine day’s work.



We never heard another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast. For just one day, it truly was fun being the fastest guys out there.

From various places around the intertubes

[Electric Monk]

1. Ahh, Blackbird stories

(snip)

One SR-71 over Ohio called in to its operations center saying that it had a dual flame-out. Both engines were not producing power. As instructed, the operations center notified a key person at the Pentagon who notified a congressman who was his contact. The congressman became worried, asking where the SR-71 would have to make an emergency landing. The Pentagon official told him not to worry. At its speed and altitude, the SR-71 would be able to glide all the way from Ohio to its base in California.

http://www.barthworks.com/aviation/sr71buckley.htm

another dramatic story
http://www.barthworks.com/aviation/sr71breakup.htm

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. I've read that breakup story before...

Pretty amazing.

78,000 feet is a long way up.

[Blue_Tires]

6. Was any of the wreckage ever recovered?

There's probably still quite a bit of it out there...

[Javaman]

3. you might want to limit the story to 4 paragraphs...

otherwise DU will be copywrite violation.

Also you might want to provide a link.

[caraher]

18. Here's a link

http://wesclark.com/burbank/sr_71.html

[cherokeeprogressive]

4. I could read stuff like that all day.

Thank You for sharing.

Have a Wonderful Day My Friend.

Chris

[MineralMan]

5. This looks like an excerpt from Mr. Schul's book.

As such, it is protected by copyright laws. DU has a limit of four paragraphs for excerpts of such content, to protect itself against copyright lawsuits. You should probably reduce the size of your excerpt, for DU's sake.

[Lurks Often]

7. Even now the SR-71 remains an amazing technical achievement.

No computer models or simulations, just really smart men with slide rulers resulted in an aircraft that was, while not true stealth, stealthy enough that by the time it showed up on radars at Mach 3+ it was far to late for fighters to intercept it. Not at all bad for an airplane that first flew in 1964 and entered Air Force service in 1966.

Even now, the exact performance of the SR-71 remains classified, although reliable numbers suggest a top speed of Mach 3.2-3.5 and a maximum alititude between 95,000-100,000 feet.

Skunkworks by Ben Rich, who worked on the design of the SR-71 under Kelly Johnson goes into a lot of interesting detail about the technological difficulties they had to overcome to build the plane. It also covers the U-2 and the F-117 among others.

[FogerRox]

8. I'm fairly certain in a dive it'll hit mach 4.5

I got to speak for about 10 minutes with a certain person, in the business, it was great...

SO thats you & Kelly in that picture, right?

Yup.

I understand that the Blackbird can climb and accelerate from a Mig-25 that does mach 3.

Easily.

Are we talking mach 3.5?

(smiles)

(^++@>!!!!!!)

(big grin)

SO in a dive they could hit mach 4, or 4.5?

(Bigger grin)

Then we went into the relation of the Bell X-15 to the SR-71, some of the X-15 research did grow up into the SR-71. they knew the X-15 was very good and ran with it.

[Lurks Often]

9. A SR-71 is not going to be doing any steep dives

it wasn't designed for that and structurally probably couldn't handle it. To get the performance they did required the plane to be at light as possible. The top speed limitation seems to be more a function of temperature then power. Much above Mach 3.5 and various parts of the plane, including the engine, windshield and possibly the internal AC, exceed their maximum allowed temp and things begin to fail.

Given that the exact numbers remain classified to this day and that the penalties for revealing classified information can be steep, it is likely that the person you spoke with found smiling an easy way to not answer the question at all, without being rude.

[Major Nikon]

16. Agreed. The lower you go, the slower you go

The reason the SR-71 is able to achieve such high speeds is because it flies at insanely high altitudes where the air molecules get very far apart. Planes that fly high, even airliners, operate in a narrow band between max speed and stall. In order to dive at relatively steep angles, you have to pull the power back in order to keep the speed within the envelope.

[FogerRox]

17. Thick air is below 18k ft

[Major Nikon]

23. Within the statosphere air molecules get farther apart the higher you go

There's a good reason airliners typically don't cruise in the lower flight levels.

Aircraft flight

Commercial airliners typically cruise at altitudes of 9–12 km (29,500–39,400 ft) in temperate latitudes (in the lower reaches of the stratosphere).[3] This optimizes fuel burn, mostly due to the low temperatures encountered near the tropopause and low air density, reducing parasitic drag on the airframe. (Stated another way, it allows the airliner to fly faster for the same amount of drag.) It also allows them to stay above hard weather (extreme turbulence).

Concorde would cruise at mach 2 at about 18,000 m (59,000 ft), and the SR-71 would cruise at mach 3 at 26,000 m (85,000 ft), all still in the stratosphere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratosphere

More air molecules means more parasitic drag (which takes exponentially more power to maintain the same air speeds). It also means more heat buildup on the airframe which isn't a limiting factor for airliners, but most certainly is for the SR-71.

[FogerRox]

28. No, the #1 limiting factor is the Prat and Whitney 427C limit on the engines.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4170738

[Major Nikon]

31. There are all sorts of limiting factors

You listed one of many. Max operating speed is listed as Mach 3.3 even if 427C limit is not reached. I'm sure the specified operating limitations include some type of buffer, perhaps 5-10% that the aircraft was tested for. Beyond that you've just become a test pilot and all bets are off.

[FogerRox]

33. Could you read the 2 NASA sites I linked to?

Procedures are spelled out for differing weather conditions inflight, its all based on 427C.

[Major Nikon]

34. The operating manual specifically lists Mach 3.3 as the limitation

Operational limitations are based on demonstrated test data from flight test pilots who flew prototype versions of the aircraft with all sorts of test devices attached. If you have any sites that show someone actually did what you're claiming, I'd be glad to have a look, but I have little interest in sifting through a plethora of theoretical data and the one or two links you listed that I viewed contained nothing but. Just because someone thinks something can be done, doesn't mean it can be done.

[FogerRox]

39. I said I was wrong and posted info showing why I was wrong, from NASA

Apparently you skipped over that part and continued on some sort of mission with blinders on.

Kindly fold it 5 times and put it where the Moon doesn't shine.

[Major Nikon]

40. ....enclosed in a reply to someone else (Response to Lurks Often (Reply #9))

And you didn't bother editing the subject line of the post where you did get it wrong. So excuse me, but my psychic link is on the fritz right now.

Since you've decided to be rude I don't mind saying the reason I "skipped over that part" is because the reply was to someone else and I didn't read it because I just don't find you that interesting. So perhaps next time you won't assume everyone reads everything you author. Now I will respectfully invite you to go pee up a rope.

Cheers!

[FogerRox]

20. Prat & Whitney limitation is 427 degrees C in the engines. (Compressors)

Pushing over at 80 or 90k ft down to 50k or 40k, higher mach might have been possible, in fact it was studied.
http://drum.lib.umd.edu//handle/1903/2542

Which the wiki mentions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird#Engines

1990s studies of inlets of this type indicated that newer technology could allow for inlet speeds with a lower limit of Mach 6.[47]

From the paper itself:

results indicate that two new designs can maintain self-starting capability into the Mach 6-7 range.
http://drum.lib.umd.edu//handle/1903/2542

Thick air is below 18k ft, the Sr-71 does a "dipsey Doodle" dive to transverse transonic speeds. See sharp dive:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/88507main_H-2179.pdf

@ 80k ft, @ -67 degrees, mach 3.5 the CIT is 437 C. the chart only goes that cold, obviously a few more degrees colder and it'll reach 427C.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/88507main_H-2179.pdf

The systems that records mach speed is the TDI, which seems to not function above mach 3.25.

After reading these documents, I agree

found smiling an easy way to not answer the question at all

Theoretically the Sr-71 should be good for much more than mach 3.3, in a dive the engines arent pushed, gravity does the work. An aeronautical engineer more than likely might have thought she was good to mach 4+, in a dive. And seriously, these document leave it unsaid, but suggest more was available before the shape of the aircraft became the limiting factor.

[Adam-Bomb]

29. a HUGE second to "Skunkworks"

That is one great read!

Informative, easy to read and funny as hell at times.

If you like aviation you will LOVE this book.

[11 Bravo]

10. Even as the son of a Naval Aviator fighter pilot (RIP Dad), I started smiling ...

halfway through that read and haven't stopped yet.

[K.O. Stradivarius]

11. just transporting it from Burbank CA, to Area 51 is a great story

http://www.roadrunnersinternationale.com/transporting_the_a-12.html?m=8

[oneshooter]

12. It was 11" longer when it landed, than when it took off.

The titanium skin would stretch that much at high speed.

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. Fascinating. Thanks. n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

14. "I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots" ...That airplane is something else.

[DrDan]

15. as an Air Force vet, I loved that story!

sorry sailors

[Ranchemp.]

19. A truly remarkable aircraft,

the Soviets hated it, they had nothing that could come close to catching it and had nothing even close to it capabilities.

[Aristus]

21. Love it! Love radio ops.

My first year on active duty, I was a radio operator for battalion operations. I hated being on staff when I had trained so hard to be a tank crewman. But I learned how to have fun on training exercises as the radio operator for the Ops sergeant-major, and, occasionally, the CO.

I worked very hard on my radio voice. I cultivated a good one.

My favorite story from those times had to do with our scout platoon sergeant. He was tough as nails, but was very excitable, and had a high-pitched radio voice that was nearly unintelligible.

"Charlie Niner-Two, Scout Five, sitrep, over!"

"Scout Five, Charlie Niner-Two Delta, send it, over."

"tamforwashambultirdewopakjtnhiscoblushish, over!"

"Uh...Scout Five, say again? Over."

"I say again: tamforwashambultirdewopakjtnhiscoblushish, over!"

"Uh...Sergeant-Major? I think Sergeant Flowers and the scouts just made contact..."

[A HERETIC I AM]

42. LOL! Hilarious!

Last edited Mon Dec 16, 2013, 10:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Too funny

Years ago I worked as a course Marshall doing flagging and communications at SCCA events. I was the radio guy too, and like you, cultivated a clear and concise radio voice. Something needed when there is a crash on course and emergency services need to respond quickly.

It always amused me when a new guy would get on the radio and blurt out a string of sounds like you suggest. You want to yell into the mic "slow the fuck down and make some damned sense!"

[neverforget]

22. I'd love to know what replaced the SR71.

[oneshooter]

24. Satelites. With known flight paths.

They can be changed but there is a limited amount of fuel to do so. Launch a 71 and 3 hrs later get live shots, much better, but doesn't have the sex appeal of a spybird in space.

[neverforget]

25. True but I don't believe that the Air Force would

give up such a capability without something like the SR71 replacing it. The satellites are great but you know exactly where they are at all times. I think another aircraft replaced it so as to have an on-call anywhere in the world spying capability. Just my opinion.

[pinboy3niner]

26. Aviation Week Exclusive: Skunk Works Reveals SR-71 Successor Plan

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_11_01_2013_p0-632731.xml

[madrchsod]

27. cool....

[neverforget]

32. Cool! Thanks for the link!

I love cutting edge aircraft.

[A HERETIC I AM]

43. It was said during the Cold War that the Russians could get more intel..

From one issue of Av Week than we could get from them in 6 months!

[Corgigal]

30. I was a Air Traffic Controller in the Air Force

and the blackbird , landed only once at our airbase. We all went to the hanger to go look at her. She was/still is a rock star. Did you know that when she takes off the she doesn't fly up in a straight line? She has to circle the airport a few times, then she shoots off like rocket. We all stood out of the GCA that day to watch her.

My favorite plane till this day.

[okaawhatever]

35. My Dad flew C-130's and while it wasn't sexy, the great equalizer for him was giving a hop to a jet

pilot and watch them freak out. Apparently they feel like they're going to fall out of the sky going that slow. Their minds can't wrap around that much weight going that slow and staying airborne.

I don't remember when the Blackbird came out but I remember quizzing my brother on it for his Civil Air Patrol stuff when he was a kid. That was early 80's?

[oneshooter]

36. This would really make the jet jockeys quiver.

[okaawhatever]

37. LOL. No kidding. nt

[oneshooter]

38. Especially since that was a Air Force C-130

And the pilots were Marines!

[Lurks Often]

44. It was a Marine KC-130 tanker with Navy pilots

more details here:

http://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/c130_forrestal.asp

[adirondacker]

41. Interesting read and also to see how many Airdales DU has enlisted :) nt