"SR-71 Fuel Control" on local Craigslist

[blue3992]

Craigslist added an "Aviation" section a couple of years ago. It's always fun to poke through there to see what pops up (lots of random aviation toys and memorabilia, the occasional single-engine aircraft project, etc). The below "SR-71 Fuel Control" has been posted and re-posted for several months in the NW Indiana Craigslist.

Obviously, it would be cool to have a genuine piece of SR-71 hardware decorating your basement. Of course, you'd want to be sure you've got the real thing. I'm struggling on how to verify this particular piece though. Some thoughts:

- Bendix (now Honeywell) did make the fuel system for the SR-71, and they had a plant in South Bend Indiana, so that part is plausible.
- The ad lists it as "New," in the shipping container. Based on the photos of the documentation in the link, it appears to be reworked/overhauled, but I suppose that wouldn't matter to a collector.
- The link has several photos of "documentation." Most are kind of tough to decipher (some of them being upside down doesn't help). I don't see anything that looks like an 8130 tag. Most of them look like test data sheets from a Repair/Overhaul operation. The couple of part numbers that were visible didn't turn anything up in a google search.

So, actual artifact of the Mach 3+ Blackbird? Or shiny boat anchor? You decide!

https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/avo/d/merrillville-sr-71-fuel-control-make/7254994036.html

SR-71 Fuel Control (Make a Offer)
SR-71 Fuel Control (New) Still in the shipping container. I had it for over 25 Years time to move on. I'm NOT GOING TO GIVE IT AWAY. Make a Serious Offer
SERIOUS COLLECTORS

[WIXerGreg]

No help for your cause, but my dad grew up in Merrillville. Him and his friends used to dive in the water at Turkey Creek, clean the golf balls up and sell them back to the golfers.

[mike furline]

I used to work on J58's at Pratt & Whitney back in the mid 80's, looks the part at least. You know you can save the photos to your computer, then open them up and rotate them right side up to read it.

Night runs were the best.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/pr0digie/6182601450/


https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo- ... ge41357014

[airtj]

[quote="blue3992"]Craigslist added an "Aviation" section a couple of years ago. It's always fun to poke through there to see what pops up (lots of random aviation toys and memorabilia, the occasional single-engine aircraft project, etc). The below "SR-71 Fuel Control" has been posted and re-posted for several months in the NW Indiana Craigslist.

My dad worked on the SR-71 and the picture looks like the fuel control for the engine. I wonder how much this will go for? The mini museum has a piece of the SR-71 for 69.00.

https://shop.minimuseum.com/products/mi ... 1296&_ss=r

[wendovertom]

Mike - those are some seriously cool photos!

Tom P.

[CoastieJohn]

No help for your cause, but my dad grew up in Merrillville. Him and his friends used to dive in the water at Turkey Creek, clean the golf balls up and sell them back to the golfers.

Ha!! I gotta mention this. When me and my buddies were little kids way, way back when in the early 70's, we use to do the same thing. Some golfers were hacks and would slice the balls across the golf course property line onto a road and the balls would bounce forever until they went into the woods on the other side of the road. We would look for them, clean them up and re-sell them back to the golfers for whatever we could get.....5 cents, 10 cents, 15 cents and if we had a nice Titleist.....maybe quarter. Our first foray into capitalism. Cool to see other kids did the same thing.

Back on topic....I didn't know Craigslist had an Aviation section. Just doing a quick glance, there are some old, vintage things offered for sale. I can't relocate it but someone was selling a release quadrant for dropping bombs. This one has some old metal seats. Someone might recognize what they could have gone to.

https://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/avo/d/ ... 44839.html

[JohnB]

Hopefully, the part and technology is not classified!

[lucky52]

Communist China probably has had the blueprints fo 20 years.