SR-71 today?

[warbird1]

I hear this HUGE RUMBLE, and look over my shoulder from the peak of the roof towards the runway.
I see the SR-71 launch off the runway and execute a tight climbing bank...pivoting a 180 around me from my left to right!!!
I sat down on the roof..'cause I almost fell off of it due to vertigo focusing on the '71.

He straightened out of the turn and dropped on the deck on a course bisecting the base where repeated the maneuver
completing a huge tight figure-8 which put him back where he started at the north/south runway heading south.

He POURED the coals to 'er.. and when he got near the end of the runway..he hauld back on 'er into
a 45 degree climb...crackling..popping..roaring...like a Saturn 5 launch...till he was out of sight!!!

Simply..F*cking...Stupendous!!!! What a machine!

Yep, I've seen the same thing at an air display in the 80's. The SR-71 in full AB is VERY loud and disruptive. It's the kind of sound that makes the hair stand up on your arms - quite the sight. The SR-71 is, by far, the coolest flyby I've ever seen in my life of attending airshows for many years. Too bad, we'll never get to see it again.

[T2 Ernie]

Didn't the NASA birds have the big yellow stripe across the tail?

While paint may be cheap - I don't believe it was any ordinary paint on the SR-71...

I figured NASA would paint theirs white with the light blue stripe!

[JDK]

Yet the top speed is STILL classified. There are some things that are secret, Top Secret and color classified. They are that way for a reason. The F-117 was used in Panama for the first time, it has been divulged. Was it used prior to that in action? Do we really need to know if it was?

There is some amount of OpSec that we need to observe on public forums, gentlemen. If there are operations that have been done that are not public knowledge, there is probably a reason for it. remember that anything you type can be readable by anyone in the world. And within a few days has been mapped by any number of search engines.

Funny, the Roman empire had a similar question asked of it.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custo ... ustodes%3F

If you trust any Government and armed forces with total power and secrecy... Just something to think about.

[vg-photo]

Did I say anything about total power and secrecy?? I simply said that things need to stay classified for OpSec. Because believe me, I know what happens when OpSec doesn't get followed. PEOPLE GET KILLED.

'nuff said.

[JDK]

...and do you believe everything that's cloaked on in state or military secrecy's under that blanket because it really, really only needs to be? Or is there a proportion of covering incompetence, political mistakes, personal / professional failures etc etc... ...Which also get people killed.

Who do you trust to set the needs for security? Who is vetting them?

What I referred to was an perennial ethical state vs liberty dilemma, touched on numerous times here - I don't know the answer, and I do know I don't trust the military or government to always get it right - not do I believe they always get it wrong.

Regards,

(PS: these are general observations, valid throughout and do not relate to any specific government, military person or party. Your mileage may vary and the enemy always look bigger in the mirror etc. )

[vg-photo]

Nothing is perfect in any system, but I have seen what can happen. Are some things "over-classified"? Sure, but in the case of denying knowledge to an enemy, I would rather over-classify than under-classify. But I never said that everything the military does needs to be kept secret. Mission capabilities and operational readiness, etc needs to be kept from the public, especially in this day and age where word spreads like wildfire.

AFTER an engagement is over, some details can, and should be divulged. You also need to remember that right now, and for the foreseeable future, we have our militaries in harm's way.

[mustangdriver]

I didn't mean to get every one into a fight, I was just stating what I saw. I don't beleive to be classified, but I am also not about to go into everything on line. I am sorry I brought it up, but I saw what I saw.

[Garth]

I'm hesitant to mention this, but here goes...
I mention that to say that my dad knows airplanes & isn't a dummy when it comes to spotting them. Additionally, he's worked in aviation his entire life & currently owns an FAA repair station.

All that for the punch line - the year my dad claims he saw the SR-71 was 1962 - at least two years before all accepted timelines have IOC for SR-71. BTW, this was during the Cuban Missile Crisis in Oct '62.

Bottom line - you may not believe my dad, but I do. Similarly, I believe mustangdriver's story to be plausible simply because there is so much that is classified at many different levels...many are not even aware there are classification levels above TS...

The timeline may not fit for the SR-71, but it does fit for the SR-71's predecessor, the CIA's A-12 Oxcart (first flight in early 1962).

The A-12 was the first member of the Blackbird family, and was a single-seater with some structural differences (mainly in the nose area, it didn't have as pronouced a chine as the SR-71 did). It was followed by the YF-12 and the SR-71.

IIRC the Oxcart program was only declassified in the 1990s, when the SR-71s were first retired. I think all the survivors are on display somewhere - I've seen the A-12 that's on the Intrepid up in NYC. There was even a controversy recently where the USAF repo'd the A-12 that was on loan to the MN ANG Museum. After the A-12 program ended in the late 1960s the USAF took ownership of the airframes ... since this year is the 60th Anniversary of both the USAF and the CIA the USAF decided to make a "gift" of the A-12 for display at CIA HQ in VA.

[maxum96]

There had been a previous thread about SR-71/A-12's having been painted different colors. Here's a picture of the A-12 that is now on a stick at the San Diego Aerospace Museum taken when it was in operation. I've never seen a Blackbird painted like this.

[T2 Ernie]

The timeline may not fit for the SR-71, but it does fit for the SR-71's predecessor, the CIA's A-12 Oxcart (first flight in early 1962).

Very plausible (and probable) explanation & one, I'm embarassed to say, I hadn't considered...