On November 19th, 2007, I published a story written by Brian Shul, who was fortunate and good enough to fly the SR 71, maybe the coolest plane ever. Since then almost 100 people have left me comments about their own experiences and interactions with the airplane and those men who flew it.

The SR-71: Now That Was Some Airplane

Note: At the Air Force Academy, part of our training was that we had to fly (as passengers) in every AF airplane. One plane, however, was off limits and that was the SR-71. If memory serves, we could barely get close enough to even touch it, it was so classified. I did get to break the sound barrier in an F-4 Phantom once, mostly because the pilot had just returned from VietNam and had no fear nor regard for orders, “don’t be breaking the sound barrier for these cadets,” he was told. Yeah, right. He was a stud, and no one could make him not do something. We broke the sound barrier at 100 feet over the desert in Nevada. Years later, I flew faster than Mach 1 in that little British-French, pointy-nosed commercial plane, the Concorde. I paid dearly ($$) for the experience and it wasn’t even a thrill. Anything that has to do with the SR-71 interests me…so this first person account by another USAFA grad who got to fly it, was of particular interest. In it, he says he was flying at Mach 3.5. To keep it in perspective for you, airliners today travel at about 550-600 mph. He was flying at Mach 3.5 or 2,663 mph. Rifle bullets ‘fly’ at 1,600 mph.

sr71.jpg

by Brian Shul, from his book SLED DRIVER

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…..MORE LOTS MORE…click here.