A close buddy of mine's dad told us this one — he was working on an Air Force base before the general public (or much of the miliary) knew what an SR-71 Blackbird was.

One day they got word that there was an emergency, and that they needed to clear the runways of all non-essential personnel.

So eventually an SR-71 lands, a crew comes in to fix something, and for their trouble they allowed some of the guys to watch it takeoff.

He said it got airborne at the end of the runway, turned almost ninety degrees upwards, and essentially went straight up into the sky until they lost sight of it.

Imagine witnessing that thing both on the ground and in the air up close, having no prior idea that it even existed.

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Posted by five_fivesix

Y’all

Member since Aug 2012

13846 posts

Posted on 10/19/23 at 7:29 pm to paperwasp

quote:
He said it got airborne at the end of the runway, turned almost ninety degrees upwards, and essentially went straight up into the sky until they lost sight of it.

Watched this very thing when a Blackbird IFE’d into MacDill back in the 80’s. Loudest noise I’ve ever heard when that sucker lit off.

Also watched C-130s take off from a dirt strip called Firebird in Alaska. We were just a step off the edge of the strip. Impressive.

Almost shite my pants flying in a Beaver on a bear hunt on Kodiak. Pilot was nuts. Tried to make it over a clouded in mountain pass and at the last second he aborts and turns the SOB on its wing to bank out of there. Wing tip on my side got spruce sap on it.

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