“What was the slowest you ever flew in the Blackbird?”

"Gamecat235" (Gamecat235)
01/14/2014 at 16:38 • Filed to: planelopnik, Blackbird, sr-71

I came across this story a couple of years ago, and while it isn't as mindblowing as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ever, it's still pretty awesome (and was way more mindblowing for those that were there). Brian Shul is a man among men and author of one of the definitive works on the SR-71, Sled Driver. He is also a wonderful orator and storyteller. Needing no fiction whatsoever to captivate his audience. In this story, which was originally published in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! by Mr. Shul himself, we get the other end of the speed spectrum.

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As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question I'm most often asked is "How fast would that SR-71 fly?" I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I attend. It's an interesting question, given the aircraft's proclivity for speed, but there really isn't one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little more speed if you wanted it to. It was common to see 35 miles a minute. Because we flew a programmed Mach number on most missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run out to any limits of temperature or speed. Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own individual "high" speed that he saw at some point on some mission. I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max power was in order. Let's just say that the plane truly loved speed and effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadn't previously seen.

So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, "What was the slowest you ever flew in the Blackbird?" This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story that I had never shared before, and relayed the following.

I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England, with my back-seater, Walt Watson; we were returning from a mission over Europe and the Iron Curtain when we received a radio transmission from home base. As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 flypast. The air cadet commander there was a former Blackbird pilot, and thought it would be a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low approach. No problem, we were happy to do it. After a quick aerial refueling over the North Sea, we proceeded to find the small airfield.

Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment in the back seat, and began to vector me toward the field. Descending to subsonic speeds, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in a slight haze. Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were close and that I should be able to see the field, but I saw nothing. Nothing but trees as far as I could see in the haze. We got a little lower, and I pulled the throttles back from the 325 knots we were at. With the gear up, anything under 275 was just uncomfortable. Walt said we were practically over the field—yet, there was nothing in my windscreen. I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver in hopes of picking up anything that looked like a field.

Meanwhile, below, the cadet commander had taken the cadets up on the catwalk of the tower in order to get a prime view of the flypast. It was a quiet, still day with no wind and partial gray overcast. Walter continued to give me indications that the field should be below us, but in the overcast and haze, I couldn't see it. The longer we continued to peer out the window and circle, the slower we got. With our power back, the awaiting cadets heard nothing. I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me I better cross-check the gauges. As I noticed the airspeed indicator slide below 160 knots, my heart stopped and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed two throttles full forward. At this point, we weren't really flying, but were falling in a slight bank. Just at the moment that both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame (and what a joyous feeling that was), the aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the tower. Shattering the still quiet of that morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their face as the plane leveled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer than expected, maintaining what could only be described as some sort of ultimate knife-edge pass.

Quickly reaching the field boundary, we proceeded back to Mildenhall without incident. We didn't say a word for those next 14 minutes. After landing, our commander greeted us, and we were both certain he was reaching for our wings. Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 flypast he had ever seen, especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could only be described as breathtaking. He said that some of the cadet's hats were blown off and the sight of the planform of the plane in full afterburner dropping right in front of them was unbelievable. Walt and I both understood the concept of "breathtaking" very well that morning, and sheepishly replied that they were just excited to see our low approach.

As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight suits, we just sat there—we hadn't spoken a word since "the pass." Finally, Walter looked at me and said, "One hundred fifty-six knots. What did you see?" Trying to find my voice, I stammered, "One hundred fifty-two." We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt said, "Don't ever do that to me again!" And I never did.

A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officer's Club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 flypast that he had seen one day. Of course, by now the story included kids falling off the tower and screaming as the heat of the jet singed their eyebrows. Noticing our HABU patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, he asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred. Walt just shook his head and said, "It was probably just a routine low approach; they're pretty impressive in that plane." Impressive indeed.

Little did I realize after relaying this experience to my audience that day that it would become one of the most popular and most requested stories. It's ironic that people are interested in how slow the world's fastest jet can fly. Regardless of your speed, however, it's always a good idea to keep that cross-check up...and keep your Mach up, too.

Picture credit: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! / Brian Shul / USAF

DISCUSSION (28)

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Gamecat235
01/14/2014 at 16:48

That might be a better story than the ultimate speed check. I can't imagine the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you realize that the greatest plane ever made that you have been trusted to fly is in rock mode.

ttyymmnn > Gamecat235
01/14/2014 at 16:49

That's a great story. Last July, I posted a story about a Canadian F-86 pilot and his experiences with fly-pasts. It's a great read.

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/fly-pasts-4972…

Bad Idea Hat > Gamecat235
01/14/2014 at 16:50

It's a good question. I'm personally amazed the stall speed on the bird is so low. I would have expected well above 200 knots.

Gamecat235 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
01/14/2014 at 16:51

No kidding. I got chills just reading it. What a crazy crazy experience that must have been.

Gamecat235 > ttyymmnn
01/14/2014 at 16:52

I don't know how I missed that. Bookmarked. Awesome, thanks for resharing.

ttyymmnn > Gamecat235
01/14/2014 at 16:53

Back in the days when you could request an SR-71 fly-past and task a tanker for the purpose. Cold War budgets certainly weren't what they are now.

ttyymmnn > Gamecat235
01/14/2014 at 16:54

My pleasure. It was in the pre-Kinja days. I'm surprised I could find it.

Simplify, then add beer > ttyymmnn
01/14/2014 at 18:24

Imagine what that would have cost? 80 thousand pounds of JP-7, plus the tanker.

deangacheson > Gamecat235
01/14/2014 at 18:29

Great story!

f86sabre > Gamecat235
01/14/2014 at 22:19

Geez, you can almost feel the cold sweat and the urge to get the burners lit. Must have been a heck of a thing.

Gamecat235 > f86sabre
01/14/2014 at 22:48

He is a truly excellent storyteller.

samssun > Gamecat235
01/17/2014 at 20:57

So it's more fun to fly a fast plane slow than a slow plane fast?

HossWhisperer58 > Bad Idea Hat
01/18/2014 at 16:48

They WERE stalled!

benja10 > Gamecat235
01/18/2014 at 17:15

I recall an incident which was very similar to this. The airfield you mention was probably RAF Woodbridge, you flew over their runway and then proceeded to RAF Bentwaters just a few miles to the north where you did an east to west pass, on the second pass you went near vertical and within a few moments there was nothing. It was the most impressive sight I had ever seen and you almost blew the windows out of my roach coach, yes I was the kid in the truck serving you all lunch lol. Happy times.

Bad Idea Hat > HossWhisperer58
01/18/2014 at 17:36

Yes, and I would have expected that to have happened at a much higher airspeed in that plane.

prophetofhoon > Gamecat235
01/24/2014 at 00:12

Jets make me smile, especially ridiculously overpowered ones.

moetop > Simplify, then add beer
01/24/2014 at 08:33

80 thousand pounds worth of JP-7 $35,294

Cost of flying the refueling aircraft $30,000

Cost of SR-71 $33 Million

Having the ability to tell a story like this, blow the hats off of some cadets from your jet blast, and inspire them, Priceless

Jayhawk Jake > Gamecat235
02/28/2014 at 10:25

This reminds me of something I heard at Oshkosh.

A friend and I went to a presentation by a U-2 pilot. It was an amazing presentation, and very interesting on the whole. In the room there were a few elderly gentlemen, which we soon found out were former SR-71 and U-2 pilots. At one point during the presentation the speaker mentioned that the Air Force tested aerial refueling with the U2 but it never worked well.

At that point one of the elderly gentlemen spoke up. "I flew those test missions, it was fucking terrifying"

He went on to describe that the tankers had to fly extremely slowly and the U2 was operating at near full throttle. It made the tankers unstable and the U2 was never a nimble airplane, so it was a harrowing experience. All summed up perfectly by one old man's terse profanity.

William Byrd > Gamecat235
11/14/2014 at 12:05

I hadn't seen this one yet. I retell the "ultimate ground check" to people occasionally, this one is just as good.

Birddog > Gamecat235
11/14/2014 at 19:11

I don't think there's such a thing as a bad Blackbird story.

f86sabre > William Byrd
11/14/2014 at 21:45

Find the book. It is a great read.

jsbjr > samssun
11/30/2014 at 04:27

Well, it's doubtless more "exciting", anyway...

Leadbull > Gamecat235
12/13/2014 at 12:25

About tree-fiddy.

McMike > Gamecat235
07/24/2015 at 08:22

Aspen 20, I show you at one hundred fifty-two knots, across the ground

Kinja'd!!!

Walter is not impressed.

EvilSuperMonkey > samssun
09/23/2015 at 11:46

It’s more fun to fly a fast plane slow....and then pour the coal to it.

EvilSuperMonkey > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
09/23/2015 at 11:47

I enjoyed “rock mode”.

KeithW > Gamecat235
12/13/2018 at 18:22

Love this forum and stories!
Is there anyone here who by chance knew Ken Brantley, who passed away several years ago? He worked with me as a mentor and always impressed me with his personal SR-71 and early Apollo program experiences. I miss him! After his Apollo program stint, he went on to be the father of ATM’s for NCR. Yet I cannot find anything online about him and would love to know of anyone who worked with him and has memories to share.

KeithW > Gamecat235
12/13/2018 at 18:22