Aviation art prints of the Lockheed
SR71. The Lockheed SR71 can travel at three times the speed of sound.
Known as the Blackbird the Sr71 is shown in these superb aviation art
prints by Philip West and Keith Woodcock available form aviation art
prints a division of Cranston Fine Arts
Construction
of the first SR-71 Blackbird (61-7950) was completed by Lockheed at its
Burbank California Skunk Works in October of 1964. The aircraft was then
broken down for shipment to Palmdale, California where it was
reassembled. Kelly Johnson, the famous aircraft designer for Lockheed,
had oversight responsibility for this project, and Kelly gave specific
instructions to Robert Gilliland, the pilot chosen for the first flight
of the Blackbird. The first flight was originally scheduled for December
21, 1964. Bad weather had caused a one-day postponement. During the
first flight only Gilliland would be on board, and a trio of F-104
fighters would fly chase. Following take off Gilliland performed a
number of stability and handling checks. He then took the Blackbird up
to 30,000 feet and easily went supersonic (hitting Mach 1.2) before some
caution lights came on. Determining that he faced no serious problems
Gilliland accelerated to Mach 1.5 and climbed to 50,000 feet. Returning
to Palmdale he made a subsonic flyby before lining up for his landing.
Gillilands first flight is commemorated in Stan Stokes painting. The
first six SR-71s produced were assigned to flight-testing at Edwards
AFB. The first successful aerial refueling of a Blackbird occurred on
April 25, 1965, and two pilot training aircraft (designated SR-71B) were
delivered in 1965. A set back to the program occurred in January 1966
when an SR-71 was lost over New Mexico and a year later the original
Blackbird (61-7950) was destroyed when the craft caught fire during
braking tests at Edwards.
Overall ten Blackbirds were lost during the first six years of
the program. A total of thirty-two SR-71A aircraft were produced. In
March of 1990 an SR-71 was flown from California to Washington before
being retired to the Smithsonians Air and Space Museum. This flight was
interesting because it set a coast-to-coast speed record of 68 minutes.
The aircraft took off from Southern California and flew north to
rendezvous with a tanker near San Francisco. The craft then flew south
while refueling. It passed over its official starting point for the trip
near Ventura. Accelerating to Mach 2.5 the Blackbird reached Kansas City
in 39 minutes. Climbing to 85,000 feet the aircraft reached a top speed
of Mach 3.2 as it passed the official finish line near Baltimore. After
slowing to subsonic speeds the bird needed another shot of fuel prior to
making its final approach into Dulles Airport. This truly amazing
aircraft had once again demonstrated its capabilities more than two
decades after its first flight.
The Blackbirds origins,
amazingly, date back to the 1950s. At that time the U.S. government was
very concerned about nuclear developments in the Soviet Union, and a
high altitude reconnaissance aircraft was needed to overfly the Soviet
Union. The Lockheed Corporation responded by developing the U-2, which
was akin to a high powered glider. The U-2 was based on cost effective
adaptations of currently available technologies, and was very effective
initially, but as surface-to-air missile capability improved, the U-2
became vulnerable. What was needed was a long-range, very fast, very
high altitude aircraft, capable of outrunning Soviet surface-to-air
missiles. Mr. Kelly Johnson, Lockheeds project engineer who oversaw the
famous skunkworks, presented a proposal to the U.S. government in 1959
regarding the development of a state-of-the-art ultra high speed and
ultra high altitude aircraft. The plane, initially designated the A-12,
first appeared as the YF-12 interceptor, but the government decided not
to fund the YF-12. The design, however, became the SR-71, and the first
production Blackbird took to the skies in 1964. The aircraft
incorporated many design features never utilized on any aircraft up to
that time. For example, at cruising speed the Blackbirds skin would
reach nearly 1000 degrees, so the aircraft had to be constructed
primarily from a titanium alloy. The SR-71 gets so hot, in fact, that
the plane is one foot longer at cruising speed than it is on the ground.
For twenty-six years this secretive aircraft held many of the worlds
records for both speed and altitude. It is believed that about thirty
two Blackbirds were produced, and about twenty of these were still in
service with the Air Force in 1990. With the development of more capable
satellites, and the high cost of maintaining the Blackbird fleet, the
Air Force suspended Blackbird operations in 1990. On the final Air Force
flight of a Blackbird, from California to Washington, D.C., this
incredible aircraft once again set a speed record in making the trip in
only sixty-eight minutes. Mr. Stokes has depicted in his painting a
SR-71 Blackbird flying at 80,000 feet and at Mach 3.1 over the west
coast of the United States. The plane as depicted is piloted by Col.
Robert Powell, who is believed to have logged over 1.0 million miles in
his 1,020 hours of flight time. Becoming a Blackbird pilot was about as
difficult as becoming an astronaut, and Col. Powell personifies the
talented and dedicated pioneers, who much like the Blackbird, were way
ahead of their time.
