BeechTalk - BT - NASA SR-71 @ OSH; Do Not Light the Afterburners

Username Protected · **Posted:** 16 Aug 2021, 21:02

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/nasa-83 ... a-oshkosh/

Username Protected · **Posted:** 16 Aug 2021, 21:27

Whoa...

I'd never heard that story before, thanks for sharing it.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 16 Aug 2021, 21:54

I might have been there for this. It was in the 90s I was a teenager and I love(d) the SR-71. It was flying at OSH, it did a pass or two down the runway and was supposed to go out over the lake and make a high speed pass but something went wrong and it never came back.

Incredible in the air.

Thanks for sharing the link

Username Protected · **Posted:** 16 Aug 2021, 22:50

Rogers Smith is a cool cat!

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Oct 2022, 01:05

Jim Zazas! The same famous Jim Zazas that buzzed E45 (then Q68) early one morning in a B-17❤️

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Oct 2022, 08:25

Why would they light an AB during refueling?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Oct 2022, 09:13

That low speed is a super high drag configuration, almost on the back side of the power curve. They need a little more power than mil, but not as much as both afterburners.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Oct 2022, 10:58

Username Protected wrote:

That low speed is a super high drag configuration, almost on the back side of the power curve. They need a little more power than mil, but not as much as both afterburners.

Correct, same when tankering off a KC-97 in an F-4 with 3 external fuel tanks.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Oct 2022, 14:37

That brought back memories. The one and only time that I refueled from a guard KC97 in an F111D the KC97 had to be in a slight descent so we could maintain a safe speed with wings full forward and partial flaps.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Oct 2022, 15:35

Username Protected wrote:

That brought back memories. The one and only time that I refueled from a guard KC97 in an F111D the KC97 had to be in a slight descent so we could maintain a safe speed with wings full forward and partial flaps.

Sort of off topic, but I was at Cannon with F-111D's in 1972-73. Terrible electronics problems and the fancy electronic testers for the boxes didn't work very well either. A team from GD came in on a major effort to fix fuel leaks, and just before I left, I heard they were leaking again. Do you know if they ever resolved any of this?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Oct 2022, 17:00

Bob Meyer's wife, Marta, also flew in the SR-71. Both great aerobatic pilots. Sadly she passed away about a year before I got into the sport but Bob is still an active IAC judge.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 Oct 2022, 19:43

We had an SR-71 divert into Korat in 1972. They promptly put in a hangar with armed guards (but Thai guards), so no one could come near it. Flew in a KC-135 with people and parts to fix it. I missed the takeoff, have never seen one fly.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 08 Oct 2022, 19:47

My one and only chance to see an SR, it cancelled. The airplane was doing a final repositioning flight from the West Coast to Warner Robbins and was supposed to do an en-route flyby at Lockheed Georgia. I begged off work to see it, but it never appeared.

They got smoke in the cockpit and went direct Warner Robbins.