Author Topic: I'm sure most of you have read this before but I think it's worth reading again  (Read 2345 times)

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Offline Tzoom

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  • All revved up with no place to go - Meatloaf 1977
Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ... all others are games --- Ernest Hemingway

Offline Peter Jack

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Wow!!! Thanks Tzoom. Glad you guys are on our side. :-D :-D :-D

Pete

Offline Freud

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Several years ago the Friday night speaker at the Bonneville NW Reunion was BC Thomas.

He is the man with the most hours flying the SR-71.

Everyone was both entertained and educated regarding the most incredible aircraft ever built.

I wish you could have been there.

After Saturday night, he had an idea of what an LSR driver was all about.

We may be out in the forests of Oregon, but some incredible people find us.

FREUD
Since '63

Offline Freud

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Just as a point of interest, BC flew 1217.3 hours in the Blackbird.

If it was only at 2000 MPH that is 2,434,600 miles.

Almost equal to the last Datsun B210 in Alaska.

FREUD
Since '63

Offline Tzoom

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That's a ton of frequent flier miles.

I had two encounters with the SR-71.  The first was in Thailand in 1968.  I was working as a weapons assignment tech at a radar site.  We saw a target coming in from the southwest extremely fast.  Our first thought was a missile or something but it was coming from the wrong direction.  The boss looked at the daily frag order and told us it was an SR-71 on a photo run going to Hanoi and Haiphong.  Our radar had a 12 second sweep and the target looked to be moving about 4 or 5 miles per sweep.  It covered the 400 mile diameter of out radar coverage in just a few minutes. 

The second was in 1988 when I was stationed in England.  On very rare occasions an SR-71 returning from a mission and heavy on fuel would fly an approach or two at our base to burn off fuel on its way back to Mildenhall.  I was driving around the base on the perimeter road.  I saw the aircraft cross the runway threshold and apply the power on its climb out.  The flames from the afterburners looked to be almost a third the length of the aircraft.  I watched it climb out.  It got real small real fast. 
Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ... all others are games --- Ernest Hemingway

Offline 4-barrel Mike

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Remote control (scale) SR-71.  Probably costs no more than your average 200mph salt roadster.  :cheers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=SDbQ5xvsrIU

Mike
Mike Kelly - PROUD owner of the V4F that powered the #1931 VGC to a 82.803 mph record in 2008!