SR 71, Shul's writing, and a question.

The following text is from Brian Shul's Sled Driver, his memoir of
flying the SR-71. It's a great read, and most of us has seen parts of
it before. If and when you read it, I'd appreciate your thoughts about
this. how is it such an airplane had been resticted to recon? Had any
been configured as a first strike weapon? I suppose some may have and
we'd never know.

I'd wonder the same thing about the U2.

Shul's writings follow


In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin
disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's
terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and take
photos recording the damage our F-111s had inflicted. Qaddafi had
established a "line of death," a territorial marking across the Gulf
of Sidra, swearing to shoot down any intruder that crossed the
boundary. On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at
2,125 mph. I was piloting the SR-71 spy plane, the world's fastest
jet, accompanied by Maj. Walter Watson, the aircraft's reconnaissance
systems officer (RSO). We had crossed into Libya and were approaching
our final turn over the bleak desert landscape when Walter informed me
that he was receiving missile launch signals. I quickly increased our
speed, calculating the time it would take for the weapons-most likely
SA-2 and SA-4 surface-to-air missiles capable of Mach 5-to reach our
altitude. I estimated that we could beat the rocket-powered missiles
to the turn and stayed our course, betting our lives on the plane's
performance.

After several agonizingly long seconds, we made the turn and blasted
toward the Mediterranean. "You might want to pull it back," Walter
suggested. It was then that I noticed I still had the throttles full
forward. The plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our
Mach 3.2 limit. It was the fastest we would ever fly. I pulled the
throttles to idle just south of Sicily, but we still overran the
refueling tanker awaiting us over Gibraltar.

Scores of significant aircraft have been produced in the 100 years of
flight following the achievements of the Wright brothers, which we
celebrate in December. Aircraft such as the Boeing 707, the F-86 Sabre
Jet, and the P-51 Mustang are among the important machines that have
flown our skies. But the SR-71, also known as the Blackbird, stands
alone as a significant contributor to Cold War victory and as the
fastest plane ever-and only 93 Air Force pilots ever steered the
"sled," as we called our aircraft.

As inconceivable as it may sound, I once discarded the plane.
Literally. My first encounter with the SR-71 came when I was 10 years
old in the form of molded black plastic in a Revell kit. Cementing
together the long fuselage parts proved tricky, and my finished
product looked less than menacing. Glue, oozing from the seams,
discolored the black plastic. It seemed ungainly alongside the fighter
planes in my collection, and I threw it away.

Twenty-nine years later, I stood awe-struck in a Beale Air Force Base
hangar, staring at the very real SR-71 before me. I had applied to fly
the world's fastest jet and was receiving my first walk-around of our
nation's most prestigious aircraft. In my previous 13 years as an Air
Force fighter pilot, I had never seen an aircraft with such presence.
At 107 feet long, it appeared big, but far from ungainly.

Ironically, the plane was dripping, much like the misshapen model I
had assembled in my youth. Fuel was seeping through the joints,
raining down on the hangar floor. At Mach 3, the plane would expand
several inches because of the severe temperature, which could heat the
leading edge of the wing to 1,100 degrees. To prevent cracking,
expansion joints had been built into the plane. Sealant resembling
rubber glue covered the seams, but when the plane was subsonic, fuel
would leak through the joints.

The SR-71 was the brainchild of Kelly Johnson, the famed Lockheed
designer who created the P-38, the F-104 Starfighter, and the U-2.
After the Soviets shot down Gary Powers' U-2 in 1960, Johnson began to
develop an aircraft that would fly three miles higher and five times
faster than the spy plane-and still be capable of photographing your
license plate. However, flying at 2,000 mph would create intense heat
on the aircraft's skin. Lockheed engineers used a titanium alloy to
construct more than 90 percent of the SR-71, creating special tools
and manufacturing procedures to hand-build each of the 40 planes.
Special heat-resistant fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluids that would
function at 85,000 feet and higher also had to be developed.

In 1962, the first Blackbird successfully flew, and in 1966, the same
year I graduated from high school, the Air Force began flying
operational SR-71 missions. I came to the program in 1983 with a
sterling record and a recommendation from my commander, completing the
weeklong interview and meeting Walter, my partner for the next four
years. He would ride four feet behind me, working all the cameras,
radios, and electronic jamming equipment. I joked that if we were ever
captured, he was the spy and I was just the driver. He told me to keep
the pointy end forward.

We trained for a year, flying out of Beale AFB in California, Kadena
Airbase in Okinawa, and RAF Mildenhall in England. On a typical
training mission, we would take off near Sacramento, refuel over
Nevada, accelerate into Montana, obtain high Mach over Colorado, turn
right over New Mexico, speed across the Los Angeles Basin, run up the
West Coast, turn right at Seattle, then return to Beale. Total flight
time: two hours and 40 minutes.

One day, high above Arizona, we were monitoring the radio traffic of
all the mortal airplanes below us. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air
traffic controllers to check his ground speed. "Ninety knots," ATC
replied. A twin Bonanza soon made the same request. "One-twenty on the
ground," was the reply. To our surprise, a navy F-18 came over the
radio with a ground speed check. I knew exactly what he was doing. Of
course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted
to let all the bug-smashers in the valley know what real speed was.
"Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground," ATC responded.

The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walter's mike button
in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter startled the
controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet,
clearly above controlled airspace. In a cool, professional voice, the
controller replied, "Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the
ground." We did not hear another transmission on that frequency all
the way to the coast.
The Blackbird always showed us something new, each aircraft possessing
its own unique personality. In time, we realized we were flying a
national treasure. When we taxied out of our revetments for takeoff,
people took notice. Traffic congregated near the airfield fences,
because everyone wanted to see and hear the mighty SR-71. You could
not be a part of this program and not come to love the airplane.
Slowly, she revealed her secrets to us as we earned her trust.

One moonless night, while flying a routine training mission over the
Pacific, I wondered what the sky would look like from 84,000 feet if
the cockpit lighting were dark. While heading home on a straight
course, I slowly turned down all of the lighting, reducing the glare
and revealing the night sky. Within seconds, I turned the lights back
up, fearful that the jet would know and somehow punish me. But my
desire to see the sky overruled my caution, and I dimmed the lighting
again. To my amazement, I saw a bright light outside my window. As my
eyes adjusted to the view, I realized that the brilliance was the
broad expanse of the Milky Way, now a gleaming stripe across the sky.
Where dark spaces in the sky had usually existed, there were now dense
clusters of sparkling stars. Shooting stars flashed across the canvas
every few seconds. It was like a fireworks display with no sound.

I knew I had to get my eyes back on the instruments, and reluctantly I
brought my attention back inside. To my surprise, with the cockpit
lighting still off, I could see every gauge, lit by starlight. In the
plane's mirrors, I could see the eerie shine of my gold spacesuit
incandescently illuminated in a celestial glow. I stole one last
glance out the window. Despite our speed, we seemed still before the
heavens, humbled in the radiance of a much greater power. For those
few moments, I felt a part of something far more significant than
anything we were doing in the plane. The sharp sound of Walt's voice
on the radio brought me back to the tasks at hand as I prepared for
our descent.

The SR-71 was an expensive aircraft to operate. The most significant
cost was tanker support, and in 1990, confronted with budget cutbacks,
the Air Force retired the SR-71. The Blackbird had outrun nearly 4,000
missiles, not once taking a scratch from enemy fire. On her final
flight, the Blackbird, destined for the Smithsonian National Air and
Space Museum, sped from Los Angeles to Washington in 64 minutes,
averaging 2,145 mph and setting four speed records.

The SR-71 served six presidents, protecting America for a quarter of a
century. Unbeknownst to most of the country, the plane flew over North
Vietnam, Red China, North Korea, the Middle East, South Africa, Cuba,
Nicaragua, Iran, Libya, and the Falkland Islands. On a weekly basis,
the SR-71 kept watch over every Soviet nuclear submarine and mobile
missile site, and all of their troop movements. It was a key factor in
winning the Cold War.

I am proud to say I flew about 500 hours in this aircraft. I knew her
well. She gave way to no plane, proudly dragging her sonic boom
through enemy backyards with great impunity. She defeated every
missile, outran every MiG, and always brought us home. In the first
100 years of manned flight, no aircraft was more remarkable.

With the Libyan coast fast approaching now, Walt asks me for the third
time if I think the jet will get to the speed and altitude we want in
time. I tell him yes. I know he is concerned. He is dealing with the
data; that's what engineers do, and I am glad he is. But I have my
hands on the stick and throttles and can feel the heart of a
thoroughbred, running now with the power and perfection she was
designed to possess. I also talk to her. Like the combat veteran she
is, the jet senses the target area and seems to prepare herself. For
the first time in two days, the inlet door closes flush and all
vibration is gone. We've become so used to the constant buzzing that
the jet sounds quiet now in comparison. The Mach correspondingly
increases slightly and the jet is flying in that confidently smooth
and steady style we have so often seen at these speeds. We reach our
target altitude and speed, with five miles to spare.

Entering the target area, in response to the jet's new-found vitality,
Walt says, "That's amazing S" and with my left hand pushing two
throttles farther forward, I think to myself that there is much they
don't teach in engineering school.

Out my left window, Libya looks like one huge sandbox. A featureless
brown terrain stretches all the way to the horizon. There is no sign
of any activity. Then Walt tells me that he is getting lots of
electronic signals, and they are not the friendly kind.

The jet is performing perfectly now, flying better than she has in
weeks. She seems to know where she is. She likes the high Mach, as we
penetrate deeper into Libyan airspace. Leaving the footprint of our
sonic boom across Benghazi, I sit motionless, with stilled hands on
throttles and the pitch control, my eyes glued to the gauges. Only the
Mach indicator is moving, steadily increasing in hundredths, in a
rhythmic consistency similar to the long distance runner who has
caught his second wind and picked up the pace. The jet was made for
this kind of performance and she wasn't about to let an errant inlet
door make her miss the show. With the power of forty locomotives, we
puncture the quiet African sky and continue farther south across a
bleak landscape.

Walt continues to update me with numerous reactions he sees on the DEF
panel. He is receiving missile tracking signals. With each mile we
traverse, every two seconds, I become more uncomfortable driving
deeper into this barren and hostile land.

I am glad the DEF panel is not in the front seat. It would be a big
distraction now, seeing the lights flashing. In contrast, my cockpit
is "quiet" as the jet purrs and relishes her new-found strength,
continuing to slowly accelerate. The spikes are full aft now, tucked
twenty-six inches deep into the nacelles. With all inlet doors tightly
shut, at 3.24 Mach, the J-58s are more like ramjets now, gulping
100,000 cubic feet of air per second. We are a roaring express now,
and as we roll through the enemy's backyard, I hope our speed
continues to defeat the missile radars below.

We are approaching a turn, and this is good. It will only make it more
difficult for any launched missile to solve the solution for hitting
our aircraft. I push the speed up at Walt's request. The jet does not
skip a beat, nothing fluctuates, and the cameras have a rock steady
platform.
Walt received missile launch signals. Before he can say anything else,
my left hand instinctively moves the throttles yet farther forward. My
eyes are glued to temperature gauges now, as I know the jet will
willingly go to speeds that can harm her. The temps are relatively
cool and from all the warm temps we've encountered thus far, this
surprises meS but then, it really doesn't surprise me. Mach 3.31 and
Walt are quiet for the moment.

I move my gloved finger across the small silver wheel on the autopilot
panel which controls the aircraft's pitch. With the deft feel known to
Swiss watchmakers, surgeons, and "dinosaurs" (old-time pilots who not
only fly an airplane but "feel it") I rotate the pitch wheel somewhere
between one-sixteenth and one-eighth inch, location a position which
yields the 500-foot-per-minute climb I desire. The jet raises her nose
one-sixth of a degree and knows I'll push her higher as she goes
faster. The Mach continues to rise, but during this segment of our
route, I am in no mood to pull throttles back.

Walt's voice pierces the quiet of my cockpit with the news of more
missile launch signals. The gravity of Walter's voice tells me that he
believes the signals to be a more valid threat than the others. Within
seconds he tells me to "push it up" and I firmly press both throttles
against their stops. For the next few seconds I will let the jet go as
fast as she wants.

A final turn is coming up and we both know that if we can hit that
turn at this speed, we most likely will defeat any missiles. We are
not there yet, though, and I'm wondering if Walt will call for a
defensive turn off our course. With no words spoken, I sense Walter is
thinking in concert with me about maintaining our programmed course.

To keep from worrying, I glance outside, wondering if I'll be able to
visually pick up a missile aimed at us. Odd are the thoughts that
wander through one's mind in times like these. I found myself
recalling the words of former SR-71 pilots who were fired upon while
flying missions over North Vietnam. They said the few errant missile
detonations they were able to observe from the cockpit looked like
implosions rather than explosions. This was due to the great speed at
which the jet was hurling away from the exploding missile. I see
nothing outside except the endless expanse of a steel blue sky and the
broad patch of tan earth far below.

I have only had my eyes out of the cockpit for seconds, but it seems
like many minutes since I have last checked the gauges inside.
Returning my attention inward, I glance first at the miles counter
telling me how many more to go until we can start our turn. Then I
note the Mach, and passing beyond 3.45, I realize that Walter and I
have attained new personal records. The Mach continues to increase.
The ride is incredibly smooth.

There seems to be a confirmed trust now, between me and the jet; she
will not hesitate to deliver whatever speed we need, and I can count
on no problems with the inlets. Walt and I are ultimately depending on
the jet now - more so than normal - and she seems to know it. The
cooler outside temperatures have awakened the spirit born into her
years ago, when men dedicated to excellence took the time and care to
build her well. With spikes and doors as tight as they can get we are
racing against the time it could take a missile to reach our altitude.
It is a race this jet will not let us lose. The Mach eases to 3.5 as
we crest 80,000 feet. We are a bullet now - except faster.

We hit the turn, and I feel some relief as our nose swings away from a
country we have seen quite enough of. Screaming past Tripoli, our
phenomenal speed continues to rise, and the screaming Sled pummels the
enemy one more time, laying down a parting sonic boom.
In seconds, we can see nothing but the expansive blue of the
Mediterranean. I realize that I still have my left hand full-forward
and we're continuing to rocket along in maximum afterburner. The TDI
now shows us Mach numbers not only new to our experience but flat out
scary. Walt says the DEF panel is now quiet and I know it is time to
reduce our incredible speed. I pull the throttles to the min 'burner
range and the jet still doesn't want to slow down. Normally, the Mach
would be affected immediately when making such a large throttle
movement. But for just a few moments, old 960 just sat out there at
the high Mach she seemed to love and, like the proud Sled she was,
only began to slow when we were well out of danger. I loved that jet.