Thnaks! Interesting tidbit, the original pilot of that aircraft lives in the Omaha metro and that is his flight suit on display when you walk by the gift shop.
Pretty cool stance they put it in. Beats having it sit outside to rot. T-minus 1 day til I see the first of four Blackbirds unless I run into some trouble. Found out today my rental car company was sold yesterday shortly after making a reservation (Advantage Rent A Car). Now I know why no one answered my call after 20+ mins, lol. Thankfully I found out before going to KMCO to [try to] pick it up today. Will post pics by the weekend if I see it.
Standing under it is amazing as well. 3rd most used/highest hours SR-71 out there. There is one of the engines sitting in hangar A and the lander gear is next to it. The SR-71's landing gear is (learned from jcurry) "aluminum impregnated" which gives it its grayish color.
So I found out today there are actually 3 Blackbirds in Virginia. Dulles International Airport Richmond International Airport ...and CIA headquarters in Langley (McLean). Apparently they took away the Minneapolis Air National Guard's A12 5 years ago and it was in pretty rough shape. Lots of cockpit parts were stolen. Anyway, pretty sure I will never get the chance to see that particular Blackbird as it's on their property, which is very highly secured as you can imagine. One of a few pics I found of it... Image Unavailable, Please Login
several SR-71 SNs are listed as "location unknown". How exactly does this happen?! http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/d-21serialnumbers.php I'm currently trying to resist buying an RC version. Blackbird is right up there with the P-38 in terms of badassness http://www.bananahobby.com/sr-71-blackbird-v2-rc-edf-jet-arf-75517-prd1.html
Well, my friend Paul, who runs SR-71.org is VERY good at tracking them, so if they are unknown to him that means they probably went to storage and got moved. Maybe they went back into service - (play mystery music) EDIT: For clarity - those are the D-21s with location unknown NOT SR-71s. The D-21 was an unmanned vehicle that was intended to fly, gather data, and come back. It is a different animal altogether. PDG
Also designed to attatch to the B-52 and M-21 Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Kurt, Have you searched YouTube for videos of r/c SR-71s? BananaHobby has a clip, but add "Cologne" to the search criteria to pull up a huge, jumbo-scale model. KevFla
Still out there at DM... I counted three. Copy and paste these into Google Maps: 32.169348,-110.866658 32.170766,-110.857383 ... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The white material is the "mothball" wrapping or coating. I'm not sure what they're using nowadays. One looks to be covered like this: Image Unavailable, Please Login
Quick update...currently in Birmingham. Haven't had much time to post since I did 12 hours of driving yesterday and spent my day today at UAB. First two are of the SR-71 at Eglin aka "Big Tail" as you may notice in side profile view. Second two pics are of the A-12 at Birmingham Airport. REALLY sad the condition it's in as well as the location. The area around it is a complete dump and you can't even get a good view of the plane through the chainlink fence and barbed wire. I was standing on a ledge with barbed wire around me (you can see my shadow). Almost cut my hands next to that thing. I will start a thread with a lot more pics after I see the A-12 in Huntsville tomorrow and SR-71 at Warner Robbins on Sunday. Eglin was a lot of fun. F15 and F16 kept flying overhead. Will post pics of those as well. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Beyond sad, BMW. I was sad to see the one at Omaha in the early 90s just out in the weather on concrete at the museum - but that is really bad. But, of course, not as sadly displayed as the ex-Soviet Union displays their remaining aircraft of the day.
Yes, it is sad how the one in Birmingham is neglected. If you are in Alabama there is another A12 up in Huntsville. Yes, three A12s in Alabama!!! Might be worth the trip if you have the time. PDG
They are probably just in storage at Edwards/NASA Dryden or someplace like that. A while back there were several in some variety of storage out there..... Basically they just hadn't been shipped to a museum.
His earlier post actually was referring to D-21s which were location unknown. The Blackbird variants are all accounted for. Although there are some that may be waiting to go to a museum their location is known. I tracked them down 12 years ago in only a day or two with minimal resources at my disposal. I even had photographs of all but one of them. PDG
Yeah, that was the plan this trip. Went to Huntsville today and saw the Nasa visitor center there and their A12. Also in pretty rough shape. Like I noted earlier, I will post more pics on all of these Blackbirds in addition the other aircraft at these locations in a separate thread probably in a week. People even write their names or other stupid things on the engine cone (2nd pic). I'm going back to Orlando tomorrow and will stop by Warner Robins AFB. They keep their SR71 thankfully indoors and the last time I saw it it was in great shape. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I made a plastic model of this when I was a kid, and I've seen the one on the Intrepid in NYC buut only from a distance. The first one I saw up close was at the Smithsonian annex at Dulles in DC. It is absolutely incredible to see it up close. what a machine.
1,620 miles of driving and 4 Blackbirds later, I'm finally back home in Orlando. Made a quick stop at Warner Robins today to see just the Blackbird...they have a large collection of planes, but I simply didn't have the time as I had to return my rental car. Nice to finally see one of these birds kept in good condition. Gotta say I don't think any of them belong outdoors, but if it needs to...please keep them in the desert to better preserve them. I gotta fly out to Connecticut early tomorrow morning for a few days so I won't be able to post more pics until later this week and I haven't packed yet for that. Hope you guys enjoyed the pics! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
No, unfortunately not. I had plans a few months ago to be in New Haven for a few days for business. I didn't find out about that shooting until late Friday and couldn't believe it. I still can't...really big tragedy. Very thankful for everything I have.
