This is an incredible story, and goes to show that you never know what you can do, until you do it. On purpose, or not.
UPDATE: Troy Stephens has this video in a comment below. I thought it deserved to be up here. Beautiful song, beautiful bird.
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History Guy: Fall from a Blackbird
14 replies on “History Guy: Fall from a Blackbird”
Brian Shul is one hell of a survivor, hero, and patriot. I’ve had the good fortune of getting to see him speak (twice) and meet him afterward at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, CA (a great local aviation museum, by the way, for those in or visiting the Bay Area — I used to be a supporting member when I lived out there). I keep a couple of signed postcards of Brian’s SR-71 photographs in the “Blackbird corner” I set up for inspiration on my office wall. I could listen to his “speed check” story and harrowing tale of the Vietnam crash and burn recovery again and again. A great pilot, American, and storyteller. And I only gained further respect for him after stumbling across this post-9/11 speech he gave, which I think readers here would appreciate.
The Blackbird itself is a characteristically American achievement if I ever saw one, designed by a genius well ahead of his time. I wish we were still flying these beautiful birds today — tearing across the open sky and dropping sonic booms over N.K. just for kicks. I don’t care how many satellites we have. We still fly U-2s. Alas, they say all the tooling was destroyed. But man, would their revival be a sight.
For appreciation of the sheer beauty of this living, breathing thing, this video by “sonicbomb”, set to “Rachel’s Song” by Vangelis, is one of my favorites. (Someone also did a great SR-71 vid set to Van Halen’s “Humans Being”, but it got removed long ago for copyright issues. Wish I’d saved a copy.)
Helluva story. I’d read or heard mention that an ejection at altitude had happened, but I’d never heard the details before. Wow. — Thank you, Steve, for finding and posting this!
A side note. Years ago I had the chance to go through the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson. Got to see the XB-70 Valkyrie. Inside, it’s amazing how small those space capsules actually are, and how thin those jumpsuits like in Apollo 13 are. Need to get to the Smithsonian at Dulles to see this bird.
I was deployed to Kadena AFB Okinawa in 1982 with Patrol Squadron 9 (VP-9) U.S.Navy. Our hanger was right next to the “Habu Hanger” SR-71 squadron. I watched these beauties operate for 6 months (up close). Any time I was running the P-3’s APU (engine) on the ramp, we had to be monitoring the “tower radio” (ground control). One day this SR-71 taxies out in front of me and we heard a radio request to take the runway and “Depart for 80,000 feet for randevu”. The tower calls back “Randevu with what?” Plane calls back “None of your damn business.”
LOL!
I never got close to Blackbirds, but I spent some time near Moffett Field and saw a couple of U2s take off. Also spent some time in the hangar at the end of the main runway at Eglin AFB — they would hit the afterburners right on top of us.
I envy you! — Never did get to see one fly in person. Thanks for bumping the video I posted — I love that one!
They went practically straight up. I don’t know the exact altitude, but it was said that they were above missile range before they got past the end of the runway.
Simply fantastic. A great recounting of a harrowing tale.
This was great.
Thanks!
Very interesting – thanks for sharing.
Very Nice, I caught Brian Shul’s long form history. Lengthy but worth it. Quite the story. Makes you wonder where we really are today. Would like the book, but kind of pricey.
Posted about Brian Shul below, but I meant to reply to your comment. Col. Richard Graham’s “The Complete Book of the SR-71 Blackbird” is another worthy book on the subject, that I’ve been enjoying since my awesome sister gifted it to me for Christmas. Looks like Amazon’s out of the hardcover at the moment, but it’s worth tracking down.
Colonel Graham’s video meshes nicely with Brian’s story to flesh out the SR saga. I was unaware of the book, now on my todo list. All this comes on the heels of a miraculous story of ejection survival. A wealth of insight with great links. This is why I’m here.