SR-71 Slide-show by Pilots
Sat, 06/27/2009 - 09:07 | 
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Click here to see the slide-show
One of the great airplanes of our day...it provided valuable intelligence that probably prevented the cold war from becoming a hot war... possibly with nuclear consequences....turn on your speakers...
Grab your coffee and relax for a few minutes of awesome beauty. The SR-71 was the creation of Kelly Johnson, Lockheed, Eisenhower, and the Air Force. It was envisioned in the first flown in the '50s,first flown in the early '60s, retired in the '80s, briefly brought back in the '90s.
In all 13 units of the single seat A-12 were built, and 32 of the Pilot + Recon 2-seat SR-71 units were built. Five A-12s were lost and one is stored. Twelve 2-seaters were lost. The remaining 27 are on display around the USA. One more thing - The author of t he captions to the picture in this video made one misstatement: The U-2 Recon aircraft was created in 1955 and flew operationally in 1956. Kelly thought the USSR would shoot it down in 18 months. Lucky us, it flew until Gary Powers was downed on 1 May 1960.
But Kelly Johnson already had the go-ahead from Ike for the A-12. It first flew in 1962 and JFK kept the manufacture of it active. No one told LBJ, 'cause everyone knew he would spill the secret. He wasn't told until the week after JFK left us. And sure enough, LBJ gave out the secret in a matter of months.
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