Milton, you oughta have been at the NW Reunion a couple of years ago. The guest for Friday night's "symposium" was an SR71 pilot -- the guy that logged the most hours at the stick in that plane. Wonderful stories, and lots of good information, and - I admit it - a bunch of envy from me (and probably a bunch of others). One interesting tidbit -- the plane was leaky as the dickens while on the ground. There was so much expansion from the heat of air friction at speed that things would expand quite a bit, so the plane's builders had to compensate by making clearances large for when the plane was cold. I remember him telling us that the '71, while on the tarmac, would mark its territory with puddles of fuel leaking out of the tanks. I suppose that's one reason it would take off with minimum fuel load and refuel when airborne. I admit -- that "empty" takeoff might also have had to do with getting airborne without having to push the motors hard - and therefore burn up excess fuel. Okay, back to Habu.