Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire "I pulled the throttles to idle just south of Sicily, but we still overran the refueling tanker awaiting us over Gibraltar."

I'm hot so sure the SR was a misprint simply for security reasons as I can remember another photo recon plane that had a fighter designation and it was flown off navy carriers in the sixties and seventies, They were origionally stationed at NAS Sanford, FL and the only rework facility for them was at NAS Jax, FL it was called the VooDoo.

There is also one at the Air museum in Tucson. You used to be able to climb into it.

I met a guy once at McChord who flew the YF 12. The Air Interceptor version. The main problem with it as a fighter was lack of maneuverability and lack of weapons that were capable of utilizing the speed and altitude. I believe he said it shrunk by a couple of feet at altitude.

The F-101 was originally designed to be a fighter though and wasn't just limited to Recce service.

thanks for the read. simply incredible.

Indeed there's "Habu fast!" Faster than the velocity of a .30/06 boolit!

In the summer of 1980 I once flew space-A to Japan when I was still a dependent. We entered Japan through AFB Kadena, where we also cleared customs. During that briefing I looked up in time to see a Blackbird launch (with that incredible rooooaar!) All I saw looked like a black arrow streaking by ..... and that fast ..... was gone!

The Blackbird is still my favorite and I get to see most of them up close. Doing some mods to the NASA two seat version back in the mid 90�s and got to poke around on one�. Very very thin skin and -- you have that plane to thank for a lot of the synthetic oils we use today in our cars for example! That plane even used the fuel system as part of the ECS for the cockpit. If memory serves me correctly the paint that that was used on the nose was still burning off until some time in the 80�s when they used a new paint that would not..

To this day it was the saddest I can remember except for the A-12 cancellation when they formally shut down the �Program� in 2000. Still wish we had those planes and we may regret it someday but they were absolutely brutal in their per hour cost!!

Could your Navy jet have been the RF8G? That bird flew recce for the Navy almost until TARPS was developed and used on the Tomcat.

The A.F. McDonnel-Douglas F101 along with the A.F. Convair F106 were used as intercepters by ADCOM. There was a recce version of the F101, but never used on a carrier-deck.

We had an SR-71 here at the Minesota Air Guard museum. Somebody here had connections and got one for the base. They then reconstructed the aircraft complete with instrumentation for a static display. It was so good, that the azzholes in Langley demanded it back for their CIA museum. Lotta unhappy folks around here that rescued it from the scrap heap and brought it back to it's full glory, only to have it snatched.

Great aircraft, some of the continued testing of systems etc. of the SR-71, had taken place involving the great folks at, AEDC Arnold Engineering & Developement Center, Arnold AFB, Tullahoma,TN.

This is slightly off the SR71 (which I see regularly at Pima Air Museum) topic but spot on about BIG FAST aircraft. Several years ago (over ten because it was before my wife died) my wife and I were driving from Green Valley to Big Bend one July morning on I10. I BELIEVE we were in New Mexico and driving along a really flat piece of real estate on a slightly elevated roadway when I heard this tremendous noise and my car actually rocked. Scared hell out of me. Two seconds later it happened again and when I looked up I saw a B52 going flat out at what was not over 100' altitude. The second bounce was a B-1 chasing the 52. I have never seen such large aircraft flat out so close to the ground. Have no idea whether they were training or playing all I KNOW is they were fast and low. It was the highlight of my trip I can assure you.

Maybe he was thinking of the RA-5, which also started with a "V"igilante and ended up being used more for recce than it's original purpose.

There was no moss growing on those Vigilantes either, my friends.

The only thing faster than that plane was the way a fifth disappears at Tail Hook!

Zimhunter:

About 35 years ago I was canoing on a lake formed by an impoundment of the Pigeon River in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We heard a roar and looked up just in time to see a B-52 doing nap of the earth practice fly over us. I don't know how high up he was, but it wasn't very high, because the engine wake left ripples on the lake and the wings seemed to go from horizon to horizon. It was simply one of the most memorable moments of my life.

Some of you are wondering about the retiring of the SR71 and maybe needing it for recon work in the future. I have a history book that was authorized by the Air Force and the Department of Defense on the SR71. There is a chapter dedicated to the SR71's replacement called the Aurora. I've heard no more about the Aurora so maybe it doesn't exist and maybe it does. Probably the reason one can't find out anything is the Department of Defense wish they hadn't put a chapter in a general publication book about the newest, fastest spy plane replacement.

cooooooooooooooooool.

I opemed my mouth and got it wrong it was the Vigilante not F-101 VooDoo.

I'm pretty sure the Aurora got canned some years ago. I seem to recall that a few of the SR's was taken out of mothballs some years ago for a short period of time. Hard to say if that may occur again. I think we are relying on non air breathers and UAV's to fill the SR's role now, though I am not personally comfortable with that decision. I hope the rumors of the Aurora's death were false, though it's been a heck of a long time to keep a black program like that veiled. Even the SR and F-117 could only keep the lid on a few years and there were rumors floating around the intel crowd of the F-117's existence (not by name of course) long before it was unveiled.

That's alright, that's what I figured you meant.

The SR71 and the B1 rattled the hell out of my windows when I was stationed at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. When I came back to Ms, I couldn't sleep because it was too quiet.

Interesting reading the article as I know we ran TR-1 recce missions over Libya that morning as well. That was our first clue that something was up. I was TDY for a month to Alconbury RAF at the 497th RTG doing an Intel course and we were awakened very early that morning by several TR-1's taking off which they had not done the entire time we were there.

When we finally went in the TR-1's were landing and they were running the film into the building. Of course by then everything was a buzz and we observed from across the room as they started doing the BDA. Don't think we got much accomplished that day.

By the afternoon they had shut down the base because the Brits were climbing the fences and spray painting static aircraft with red paint and attempting to get at the Aggressors (F-5's). The Tr-1's were all safely tucked away.

I assume the author had taken off from Mildenhall RAF that morning, which was where SR's staged for that part of the world. It was a wild time to be in Britain.