SR-71 Blackbird: Stories, Tales, and Legends - Tapa dura

For a quarter-century, Lockheed's Mach 3 SR-71A Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft dominated the skies as no other. The men that flew the 55-ton "Habu" (so dubbed by Okinawans near one of its bases because of its resemblance to a local deadly black snake) at 80,000 feet and 33 miles per minute were the rarest of fraternities, and author and former 9th Recon Wing commander Richard Graham provides a score of them--as well as key ground personnel--a generous forum for their self-penned recollections here. Where Graham's first book, SR-71 Revealed: The Inside Story, dealt more with the Blackbird's remarkable hardware and history, this volume details the human dimensions of the SR-71 program, from its dangerous days of development and testing through decades of intelligence-gathering operations in the world's hot spots, to its final, bittersweet confrontation with the one foe it couldn't elude: self-serving Pentagon politics. Inspired by flying a plane that often seemed to have a mind of its own--and a sometimes malicious one at that--the anecdotes here are seasoned with a compelling mix of boyish humor, sheer terror, and enviable camaraderie. As Graham's fellow SR-71 pilot and author Brian Shul once noted, more people have stood atop Mt. Everest than have flown what remains the world's fastest, highest-flying jet. (The author is donating all royalties to the J.T. Vida Memorial Fund, set up to preserve Blackbird 972, whose 1990 transcontinental, record-setting retirement flight is recounted herein, currently housed at the Smithsonian Museum) --Jerry Mccaulley

A number of books have been written about this remarkble aircraft. Most good, a few not so. This book definitely falls into the good (no, excellent) category. It is not as technical as some of the other books (although some technical concepts are very clearly explained) as much as it is a book relating some of the tales of those who actually operated the aircraft. It gives a wonderful insight into what is probably the best reconaissance system the US ever had. Even today, we have no systems that are capable of doing all the things the SR could. For one thing it was the only atmospheric system that could safely penetrate defended airspace. For another, it remains the only system that can do wide spectrum multi-sensor reconaissance of a given target on the same mission. This book relates some of the missions that demonstrated this as well as what was involved "behind the scenes" in pulling off these successes. Although satellites are wonderful, there are things they simply can't do that the SR-71 could (For one thing, since the orbits of the satellites are known, the bad guys know when to hide the stuff they don't want seen. The SR could surprise its targets). The last part of the book is valuable in relating the real reasons this remarkable system was retired. It wasn't for cost and it wasn't for lack of capability. The hard numbers provided and the stories of the shenanigans pulled to 'justify' a bad decision are almost worth the price of the book itself. --Yardbird

Rich Graham has followed the winning formula he used in SR-71 Revealed: The Inside Story with this book. Who knows as much about something, as those that operate it, and Rich and a select group of aviators flew the amazing Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. In SR-71 Blackbird: Stories, Tales and Legends Rich has written about squadron life and what it was like to fly and operate this amazing aircraft over some of the most politically hot spots around the world. There is a great mix of historical information, aircraft facts, and funny stories to keep everyone's attention. There is more in-depth stories about the program, and what it was like to fly the fastest aircraft in the world. --John Freedman

This book was origionally published in 2002 and at first glance you might expect it to be 'just' the recollections of the author, a retierd USAF Colonel and a veteran pilot of this unique aircraft. In fact it contains the personal stories of no fewer tahn ninteen members of the SR-71 community. With this large number of peopl we get an extremly comprehesive picture of not just operations but the 'free time' life on the base. You will find some of these recollections fascinating. One I found to be particularly interesting was the piece by Colonel Alan B Cirino. Suffering engine failure at Mach 3 he ahd to descend and with the resultant reduction in speed try to limp home. All the trials and tribulations are chronicled down to the time when ejection was necessary. Unlike some aircraft the ejection systems of both pilot and RSO are seperate, so the pilot must order a bailout and then leave the other crewmen to do his own thing. Cirino ejected with the RSO a few seconds later and by doing so he claimed to be the only RSO in command of an SR-71 - even though he had no control! If you want to know just what it was like in this elite unit then this book is for you. --Model Aircraft Monthly, June, 2009

A number of books have been written about this remarkble aircraft. Most good, a few not so. This book definitely falls into the good (no, excellent) category. It is not as technical as some of the other books (although some technical concepts are very clearly explained) as much as it is a book relating some of the tales of those who actually operated the aircraft. It gives a wonderful insight into what is probably the best reconaissance system the US ever had. Even today, we have no systems that are capable of doing all the things the SR could. For one thing it was the only atmospheric system that could safely penetrate defended airspace. For another, it remains the only system that can do wide spectrum multi-sensor reconaissance of a given target on the same mission. This book relates some of the missions that demonstrated this as well as what was involved 'behind the scenes' in pulling off these successes. Although satellites are wonderful, there are things they simply can't do that the SR-71 could (For one thing, since the orbits of the satellites are known, the bad guys know when to hide the stuff they don't want seen. The SR could surprise its targets). The last part of the book is valuable in relating the real reasons this remarkable system was retired. It wasn't for cost and it wasn't for lack of capability. The hard numbers provided and the stories of the shenanigans pulled to 'justify' a bad decision are almost worth the price of the book itself. Col. Graham has done it again and this is a worthy companion piece to his excellent 'SR-71 Revealed' book --Rich Graham has followed the winning formula he used in SR-71 Revealed: The Inside Story with this book. Who knows as much about something, as those that operate it, and Rich and a select group of aviators flew the amazing Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. In SR-71 Blackbird: Stories, Tales and Legends Rich has written about squadron life and what it was like to fly and operate this amazing aircraft over some of the most politically hot spots around the world. There is a great mix of historical information, aircraft facts, and funny stories to keep everyone's attention. There is more in-depth stories about the program, and what it was like to fly the fastest aircraft in the world. Rich also invited fellow 'Habus' to relive moments from the operational life of the program. These ARE the people that walked the walk, and you get to sit in the ejection seat on exciting missions, and know what it was like to fly the Blackbird. --John Freedman--Colonel Graham has put together unique memories of 19 former pilots and RSOs for the 3 Blackbirds, (A-12, YF-12 & SR-71) in cronological order from the first A-12 ejection through the retirement of the SR-71, (both times). Most of the chapters deal with the SR-71 at it's two deployment detachments, Det 1 at Kadena AB, Okinawa and Det 4 at RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom. These are fabulously interesting insights into the lives and times of the best men in the US Air Force who were chosen to fly the best plane in the US Air Force, the titanium wonder-bird, SR-71. It doesn't provide much in the way of facts, figures, drawings and detailed photographs, but that was not the intent of this book. It is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. All profits from the book go the J.T. Vida memorial fund to help maintain SR-71 # 17972 at the Smithsonian Musuem at the Dulles Air Port west of Washington, DC. Lt Col Vida spent 16 years as an RSO and amassed nearly 1400 hours in the SR-71, the most of any crew member. He was the RSO for 972 on it's record breaking flight from LA to DC in March of 1990. --yardbird78

Feel the Mach 3 power generated by Lockheed's incredibly fast SR-71 Blackbird! Former SR-71 pilot, instructor and wing commander, Richard Graham, presents the most intriguing SR-71 stories ever told. This once highly classified program is fully revealed through the words of pilots, commanders, mechanics, and instructors involved in the Blackbird's creation and flight-testing. From grueling reconnaissance missions to the Persian Gulf conflict, this insightful book tells stories of bravery and daring determination.