Is the Lockheed Black Bird still in use?

And what faces did you have to black out in the hangar exactly? This pic isn't even remotely close to the pic you said you had of it sitting in the hangar, with faces you had to black out. Like ape said, where's the pic that proves it's there now?

I dont believe that there are any blackbirds still flying, except with nasa and even they dont believe that theres much life left in the ones they have, this is due (apparentley) to the air frame tolerances.

sorry because i cant remember where i read that, it was something to do with the titanium and the cost of overhauling the chassis and re-tooling for it, hence playing a part in the military retiring them.

If these birds were flying out of cyprus it would be everywhere, cyrpus is not that big, hiding these planes out in the deserts of the states is one thing but running them in and out of a holiday island un seen?..nah....

That picture is just asking for trouble, its a blackbird in a blue sky, im suprissed you posted that.

Originally posted by MadGreebo
Its not the aurora or any super stealth its just a pair of SR-71's.

The fuels there for them, the hangers at the back of the base are there for them, and so are the support staff - I have alot more info from another source, and the aircraft in question arrived in fake NASA colours and were re-painted black at the base in Febuary.

Please if any cypriot members of ATS can get a piccie - Launch times are approx 4 30am and 1130 pm - please post them. appreciated.


Oh and please can i qoute this from an Air force Major.

"The Air Force has since re-activated two SR-71s to operational flight status, in an off- again, on-again, tug-of-war battle of funding appropriations. NASA also now flies an SR-71 as part of their ongoing hypersonic research program. It is still the fastest, highest flying aircraft ever made - almost 35 years after it first flew. (photo by NASA)" The piccie ill post on file shack and link.


edited as file hosting site has gone down...ill post piccie soon

[edit on 5/6/06 by MadGreebo]

i65.photobucket.com...

[edit on 5/6/06 by MadGreebo]

I have some insight into this particular bird. They are retired for all I know, and that's a very 'educated' opinion.

OH SWEET!

I know I've seen that pic somewhere before!

Looks to me like it's a low-res, very old pic possibly from the early 1980's.

Still flying? Hmm, I'm not involved directly with the programs, so I can't be 100 percent sure, but I can say that I don't believe it to still be flying.

That pic is old, I can vaguely remember seeing it on the net before possibly more than once. It's a beautiful bird, but I think it's been layed to rest.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by MadGreebo
The fuels there for them, the hangers at the back of the base are there for them, and so are the support staff - I have alot more info from another source, and the aircraft in question arrived in fake NASA colours and were re-painted black at the base in Febuary.

And you know this how? Your sources again?

"The Air Force has since re-activated two SR-71s to operational flight status, in an off- again, on-again, tug-of-war battle of funding appropriations. NASA also now flies an SR-71 as part of their ongoing hypersonic research program. It is still the fastest, highest flying aircraft ever made - almost 35 years after it first flew. (photo by NASA)"

And you got this quote from where? Who said it? When?

OK, I'll bend to the thread killer extrodinare, i'll not question the official line ever again, and i'll delete the piccies from my hard drive, because a SR-71 cannot possibly be in Cyprus because the Goverment said so and Zaphod said so to.

Nothing like taking your ball and going home, eh?

Originally posted by MadGreebo
A great big massive THANK YOU to the sender of this piccie.

And who was that? I'm seriously doubting your credibility, as the first image that one of your sources supposedly took was nothing more than a clever attempt at resizing and cropping an image...

MadGreebo's image from one of his/her sources

(Can also be found here, in case something happens to that image...)

NASA image


As for the second picture? It sure is pretty bright for being taken at either 4:30 AM or 11:30 PM when the take-offs supposedly are.

[edit on 6/7/2006 by cmdrkeenkid]

That's where I saw the pics, thanks Cmdr, thought the pic looked familiar.

Now I know it's from Dryden when the worked on the plane.

Shattered OUT...

No, read my post and you will see that IS NOT THE PICCIE I HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

It was to go with the post to show what it was - a SR-71 in a NASA PAINT JOB - AND THEN THE ONES IN CYPRUS WERE PAINTED OVER.PAINTED OVER. At no time did I say that was a picture from 2006 - never at all. The one in the hanger needed alot of blanking out and disguising, and yet when i got another pic, A close in over flight i got slated for taking the time to remove details because i havent posted it fast enough.



Edit: Damn man, watch your language.

[edit on 9-6-2006 by intrepid]

How long does it take to blacken faces? And who's protecting the gov't? We're waiting for something other than a picture of an SR-71 flying overhead, looking up at a blue sky. You've been working on this picture for how many days now? When you posted the NASA pic, why not post the whole thing? Why cut the bottom part off? What reason would the USAF have to paint them in NASA colors, and repaint them when they got there? Why the secrecy? And how are they supposed to KEEP this big secret if they are taking off in the middle of lunch? Why doesn't ANYONE that kept track of the SR know that they're flying again? How is it that every one was sent to a museum, or their position is WELL DOCUMENTED, but none are missing from there?

I'm no expert by any means but I once asked a retired Air Force Officer why the Black Bird was retired and his response was "there were many reasons but one of them was because the Black Bird was incredibly expensive to fly." He did tell me how much it cost to fly the SR-71 per hour but I forget the amount. I remember it was astronomical. I'm not saying that it isnt flying again but I can't imagine that the US government would have been approved that much funding to pull the SR-71 out of retirement. Remember that in addition to the fuel costs they would have also had to pay to make them flight ready again which is pretty expensive.

MadGreebo, from the amount of time you have been registeres on these forums I would have thought that you would know that people tend not to liste to you when you become ridiculously agressive.

I would also think that you would know better than to make counterintuitive claims without any proof. Show us the photo and then we can have a real discussion.

There are NO flyable Blackbirds left. All Blackbird airframes of every type (A-12, YF-12A, M-21, and SR-71) are accounted for. The surviving airframes are in museums. Most were rendered unflyable by cutting the wing spars. The USAF no longer flies them. Neither does NASA or the CIA.

The last SR-71 flight took place on 9 October 1999 (Max speed Mach 3.21, max altitude 80,100 ft.) at Edwards AFB. I was there. It wasn't supposed to be the last flight, but a massive fuel leak cancelled the next scheduled mission. SR-71A (AFSN 61-7980) never flew again. There were no customers to justify the expense.

The last flight crews gradually lost their currency (as did the tanker crews). The simulator broke down. Program personnel were reassigned or moved on to other things. No one ran the engines or maintained the systems. The fuel tank sealant dried up and cracked. After a while it was no longer economically feasible to reactivate the airplanes.

The Blackbird is dead with apparently no successor. The U-2 still flies because the RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV isn't ready to replace it yet.

Realistically speaking, could an SR-71 complete a 12 hour flight and then be ready for takoff again 12 hours later? Day after day?

I don't know exactly how many planes would be required to keep one in the air 24/7, but i HIGHLY doubt that two would be enough to cover it.

Why would they be flying them out of Akrotiri? Is the runway there even long enough to allow the SR-71 to take off and land?

Originally posted by Donner
Realistically speaking, could an SR-71 complete a 12 hour flight and then be ready for takoff again 12 hours later? Day after day?

I don't know exactly how many planes would be required to keep one in the air 24/7, but i HIGHLY doubt that two would be enough to cover it.

No. You would need at least 4 realistically. Theoretically you could keep up 24/7 with two for about a week or so, but eventually you're going to HAVE to have more planes, because you ARE going to have failures.

shall we cut to the quick ?

questions : if SR-71 aircraft are actually flying out of Akrotiri [ note correct spelling ] then why is it that your contact and ONLY your contact has any information of this activity ?

there are 1500 service personel , 5000+ british dependants , thousands of cypriots who commute to work in the area every day , tourists etc etc .

on a clear day you can see the airbase from tall buildings in Limassol , a civillian town , but if you are to be believed , not a single one of them bats an eyelid when the USAF sudenly trun up with a brace of aircraft that the entire world believes are obsolete museum peices - no one takes pictures , it isnt reported in any media or press , no one posts pictures to military forums , blogs -- anywhere -- they just ignore the presense of one of the most sophisticated recce platform that ever flew and get on with thier lives

do you think this is credible and believeable ??? Because i do not .

forget all the technical questions that remain unanswered , and just consider why would over 10 thousand people who could not fail to notice such a significant deployment just ignore it ??

operations at akrotiri are constantly monitored by plane spoters many of whom would sell thier first born child to see the SR-71 fly again , why are they ignoring this deployment ??

still believe your " mate " ? because i for one do not , and i suspect few others do either .

i believe you have cried wolf here before , and now consider your credibility to be washed out , along with your " mates " .

APE OUT

When are we going to get to see this photo inside a hangar madgreebo? As this is apparently the ONLY evidence you have for the suspect claims you are making we are all waiting to see it.

You have been taking your time to blank out these faces and in my opinion you are not telling the truth. I dont believe that SR-71s are flying out of cyprus and I dont believe that you or your friend (if he/she even exists) have any evidence to prove it.

I'll happily take back what I've just said, apologise and eat my hat if you provide information to the contrary but I really dont see that happening.

As far as I know, all Blackbirds are retired! It's been years since the Blackbird has flown. The Report of an SR-71 in Cyperus sound highly questionanable to me. Is there any hard evidence for the amazing claim? If not, I think we can discontinue this discussion.

Tim

Ghost is right! Why are we still discussing this?

All 50 Blackbird airframes are accounted for. None are currently flyable. If somebody saw something at Akotiri, it was not a Blackbird.

I would like to know more about your info Madgreebo. I have asked this question too. I know for a fact that even after the initial retirement, the Blackbird remained ready. I live outside Beale AFB and have many friends who were involved with the SR-71 program. More than one person told me that at any given time there was a Blackbird in a closed hangar that could be flight ready in eight hours. This was as recent as 2002. Believe me, I have been assured the all the frame numbers have not been accounted for - only the ones made public. There are still many working parts and the JP7 tanks at Beale remain (not for the U-2; the U-2 uses JP-4 because it does not generate the heat thus eliminating the need for such a high flashpoint).

With aquisition of the Global Hawk, Beale has seen a lot of construction lately. Most interesting of all, eight of the twelve Blackbird hangars were removed two years ago. Four remain today - and two are always closed. The Global Hawk and U-2's don't fit in them. Only Blackbirds and another aircraft that will remain unnamed were used in those hangars. I don't have proof for any of this, I'm just telling you what I know, what my friends have told me on seperate occasions, and what I have seen over the last few years. Your story could be very likely given the volatility of the world today and the need for intel right now.

A Blackbird taking off at 04.30am would wake up Limassol surely?

Anyone who has been fortunate enough to be within the vicinity of one of these birds taking off will know what I mean.

Whilst I'd love to think the Blackbird is still flying, there are much better and more private bases for it to stage at that one on Cyprus. Diego Garcia is one, Ascension is another.

I can't see it being the case myself, but I dearly hope its true

I imagine the OP's friend is mixing up his U2's and SR's