Do we need the SR-71?

I believe that the final nail in the SR71s coffin, after the program costs
and maintenence and all of that stuff, was simply that the information
coming out of the SR71 took too long to get a hold of, and was limited in
scope.

According to Bill Fox, Lockheed Skunkworks project coordinator for over 30
years (and the guy who donated all the stuff for our Blackbird Suite), the
final nail in the coffin was politics, pure and simple.

Clinton was having trouble cashing the mythic post-Cold War "Peace
Dividend" -- and the system that had over-flown the Soviet Union, China, and
every other hot spot on the planet with complete impunity was viewed as "war
surplus." It was thought that satellites alone could do the job, in a
"safer world."

Although the Air Force and CIA lost 15 (of 31?) Blackbirds, none were lost
to hostile fire. It was an incredibly dangerous plane to fly, but -- when
everything was working properly -- it was completely invulnerable. Even
the vaunted Soviet MiG-25 Foxbat, with all of it's Mach 3.3 muscle, simply
couldn't catch it.

I spent some time talking with Bill about the possibility of resurrecting
the Blackbird, and he sadly shook his head. The incredibly expensive
infrastructure -- a special fuel refinery; special ground and aerial
tankers; special support; special training; special EVERYTHING -- is all
gone. Worse, many of the SR-71s and YF-12s were actually cut up internally
in order to more cheaply transport them to museums.

Thus, although they may *look* intact, many, in fact, are not airworthy.
(One notable exception is the YF-12A at the US Air Force Museum in Dayton.
This plane was flown in to that little-bitty strip alongside the museum.
I've got a great picture of this, thanks to Bill.)

No, the Blackbird is gone forever -- and, from what I've read, so is Aurora,
although Bill would skillfully change the subject whenever asked. As
always, who really knows what's going on out in the desert?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Some SR-71 overflights of Iraq a
couple of years ago might have meant
all the difference in the world.


I think the decision to go to war was made long before, and intellegence wasn't
going to change it.

Jose

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:CYonc.57309$kh4.3397705@attbi_s52...

According to Bill Fox, Lockheed Skunkworks project coordinator for over 30
years (and the guy who donated all the stuff for our Blackbird Suite), the
final nail in the coffin was politics, pure and simple.


There are still intact Blackbirds around. The Air Force has the optical
packages in storage somewhere, too.

The same political forces that killed the SR-71 would also have killed the
Aurora -- they would have hated it for the same reason they hated the
Blackbirds.

The SR-71 was assigned to SAC, which never wanted it. It competed for tanker
resources, did not carry any ordnance, and stole all the glory at airshows.
When it was retired, no high-ranking members of the military or Pentagon
were present at the ceremony.

x-no-archive: yes
Teacherjh wrote:


Some SR-71 overflights of Iraq a
couple of years ago might have meant
all the difference in the world.


I think the decision to go to war was made long before, and intellegence wasn't
going to change it.

I think the interior of the earth is filled with jello.

Really hot jello.

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...

But what the US really needs is spies on the ground.

Pretty much banned by the Tower Commission in 1979.

The biggest problem
in the lead-up to Iraq is that they put too much emphasis on the tales of
one guy, who lied through his teeth trying to get the US to depose Saddam
so he could take over.

_One_ guy wanted to take over? Slight under-estiamte, I'd say.

"John Harlow" wrote in message
...
One of the most important lessons, I think, coming from the war on
terrorism
is that poor intelligence is becoming very costly.

From "The Simpsons" episode where the FBI enlists Homer as a spy to find a
trillion dollar bill:

"Agent Johnson: We believe Burns still has the bill hidden somewhere in
his
house, but all we've ascertained from satellite photos is that it's not on
the roof."
Humorous as it is, one of our presidential candidates has been pushing just
about that scenario for quite a few years.

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
But an armed TR-2 or Global Hawk are useless for searching for WMDs in a
hostile country. Ascertaining whether such weapons exist can mean the
difference between going to war or not. Some SR-71 overflights of Iraq a
couple of years ago might have meant all the difference in the world. They
would also give us more information as to whether Iran or North Korea
actually have WMDs and where they are located. Besides, even terrorists
can
shoot the drones down. It is too easy to hide things from satellites. The
satellites' orbits are known. One reason we were led to believe that Iraq
had WMDs was the evidence of vehicles and people scurrying around to hide
things whenever a satellite came over the horizon.

Also, when it was "leaked" that the UN inspectors were going to inspect a
certain site, photo recon showed immediate and frantic activity at that
particular site (IOW: there was at least three moles in the UN inspection
teams).

"C J Campbell" writes:

But an armed TR-2 or Global Hawk are useless for searching for WMDs in a
hostile country.

Why is that?

Ascertaining whether such weapons exist can mean the difference
between going to war or not. Some SR-71 overflights of Iraq a couple
of years ago might have meant all the difference in the world. They
would also give us more information as to whether Iran or North
Korea actually have WMDs and where they are located. Besides, even
terrorists can shoot the drones down. It is too easy to hide things
from satellites. The satellites' orbits are known. One reason we
were led to believe that Iraq had WMDs was the evidence of vehicles
and people scurrying around to hide things whenever a satellite came
over the horizon.

During the period in question, we had total air superiority over Iraq;
so we could have flown Piper Cubs over the installations to take
pictures if we'd wanted to. If we didn't fly thousands of
reconnaissance missions over Iraq during the period between the two
ways, then everybody involved is an idiot.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Photos: dd-b.lighthunters.net Snapshots: www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/

Tim Broche writes:

Teacherjh wrote:


Some SR-71 overflights of Iraq a
couple of years ago might have meant
all the difference in the world.


I think the decision to go to war was made long before, and intellegence wasn't
going to change it.

I think the interior of the earth is filled with jello.

Really hot jello.

The difference between these views is that there's a lot of evidence
confirming the first one, and no evidence against it. Whereas there's
quite a lot of evidence *against* the second theory, and little
evidence supporting it.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Photos: dd-b.lighthunters.net Snapshots: www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/

Strange that nobody in this thread has mentioned the U2, which
*is* still flying, for all the satellites-not-good-enough reasons
that are mentioned. Surely all the good reasons pro-SR71 are
just as valid for the U2 (except raw speed, but the U2 uses
altitude to avoid being shot down).

But anyway as someone else said, a Piper Cub would have done
the job in Iraq. Aerial reconnaisance is probably a terrible way
to find WMDs, and particularly ineffective when there aren't
any in the first place.

John

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
One of the most important lessons, I think, coming from the war on
terrorism
is that poor intelligence is becoming very costly. Satellites are
predictable and are unable to loiter over an area, while drones can cover
only relatively small areas. From Desert Shield up to now we have been
basically blind in our search for WMDs, terrorist and troop
concentrations,
mobile Scuds, etc.

I think we are shooting ourselves in the foot, here. The SR-71 is
relatively
cheap, there are enough spare parts to last virtually forever, and it
would
be enormously effective in giving us better intelligence. The planes are
in
pretty good shape; in fact, their airframes are stronger than they were
when
first built. I believe these planes should be re-activated.

--
Christopher J. Campbell
World Famous Flight Instructor
Port Orchard, WA


If you go around beating the Bush, don't complain if you rile the animals.