Is this real??

The SR71 was decomisioned ages ago, so there is no problem with taking it out on the road, they even had one at an airshow I went to once. It looks like it's covered in dirt and hasn't flowen in years, I think it's legit personally

Peace
DJDOHBOY

I think the photo is a fake. The plane looks out of scale with everything else in the pic.

There is a blackbird on the intrepid aircraft carrier museum here in NY. I see it all the time when I drive down the westside highway.....

Originally posted by CanadaCANfight
it seem's kinda fake to me... only because i doubt the united states airforce would allow a blackbird to be towed down a highway with ( just) police escort's i dont see any military vheicles's they could be in front of the plane out of view... but it just seems highly unlikely to me that the usaf would do something like that

( unless they were moving a unusable one to a air force museum )

I agree 100%.

I think that it is probably real and it an unusable one being moved to a museum or something.

Allthough, the front of the engines look to be covered. Don't they remove the engines on museum type SR's?

Looks real to me. I see 3 cop cars, 2 escort trucks, and 3 guys WALKING on the ground.

It is a fake, the landing gear are down and look at the shadows on the craft and the plane. One is high noon and the truck and cars are at 3'o'clock or 9

I believe you are mistaken. Look more closely at the shadows beneath the SR-71 and the shading of the body itself. The sun angle hitting it is the same as the cars in the background. The plane is also on record as having been moved to a museum, where it can be viewed now. Check back in the thread, you'll find the answer.

are you sure that SR71 blackbirds arent in service anymore? I dunno, I'll poke around the web to find more, but I never thought that the blackbird wasnt being used.

Originally posted by Catfish
are you sure that SR71 blackbirds arent in service anymore? I dunno, I'll poke around the web to find more, but I never thought that the blackbird wasnt being used.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Hope this helps

Yep it is real and to proper scale. It is an old picture. The SR-71 was retired years ago and replaced by satelites, UAV's and some classified spy/recon aircraft. I am in the USAF now 18 years =). You can walk up to these things at museums etc.. They are not really classified anymore only what they did while in service is classified.

We tow aircraft down roads all the time when required. Especially when moving them to museums or set up in display parks.

I believe Nasa owns the last two? Operational SR-71's.
There is also tons of info on these available on the web.

It is real picture for sure!

The only really odd thing about these are the time in which they were built. They seem really high tech for that time in history "shrug".

Originally posted by browha
they'd land it in an emergency, which is the whole point of having 1 in every 3 miles of road straight for this purpose...
i doubt they'd land it like that regularly, but i think the pic kinda looks real...
any photo shop genii here?

edit
though the colour changing does look very suspicios

[Edited on 27-1-2004 by browha]

I used to be something of a PS wiz-- and I'll tell you, the resolution on the plane appears finer than that of the rest of the image. That's just at a glance tho... On the other hand, it appears that the rest of the highway (or road) is empty. There are no cars on the opposite side, and there is a discrepency in the shading of the plane's shadow on the left side.

IMO:

Well, everyone who said the photo was real is correct (including me). The photo is of SR-71 Blackbird #17958 being towed to it�s final resting place at Robins AFB in central Georgia.

958 was the first "regular" (neither test vehicle nor trainer) blackbird delivered to the Air Force. She left the assembly line on July 22, 1965, and made her first flight with pilot Bill Weaver and RSO George Andre on December 15 of that year (Lockheed Skunk Works).

958 was used to set all 3 records:

World absolute and class record for speed over a 15/25 km straight course: 2,193.167 mph

World absolute and class record for sustained altitude (horizontal flight): 85,069 ft

World absolute and class record for speed (1,000 km closed circuit): 2,092.29 mph

EVIDENCE

Wow, very nice - Iwas wrong.

I'm glad someone agrees with me. I emailed the museum at Warner Robins AFB to see if anyone there would confirm the photo as 958, but I never got a response. When I go tour the place this Spring I am going to make a pest of myself and see if I can get an answer.
Warner Robins AFB - Museum of Aviation

[Edited on 20-3-2004 by Spectre]

I think if it were being moved to a museum, wouldn't they dismatle it a little bit? I'm sure they could take the wings off and such and throw it all on a semi. I just don't see it fit that they would drag it down some busy road and slow everyone down, it's old but not a cheap piece of equipment to do that.

[Edited on 20-3-2004 by pyxsul]

I will paste the excerpt from the Skunk Works document I found confirming that they did tow the aircraft down the highway.

_________________________________________


Fifth page, bottom:
- -------------------
"Blackbird production line at the Skunk Works. In the mid-1970s, they produced a new Blackbird every month."

* Should read: "in the mid-1960s".

Sixth page, top:
- ----------------
"SR-71 Blackbird rolling down a highway en route to permanent display at the air museum at Beale Air Force base in central California."

* Photo shows SR-71 being towed to display at another site - not Beale AFB.

Text Errors - a) "Skunk Works aircraft":

_________________________________________

Skunk Works Digest V5 #398 DOCUMENT




[Edited on 20-3-2004 by kinglizard]

I believe the photo is real. I believe it is an old photo by the age of ALL the vehicles in the photo including the escort police type cars. This was most likely being escorted to one of the many museums that have one now including not mentioned yet, Lincoln Nebraska. This photo looks like it was taken some place that had a recent wind storm to blow so much dirt or dust over the road. As for landing this on a highway, uhhh,, NO. It takes 200 miles for it to slow down enough to be able to land, allowing some time to choose airports, not a freeway to crash into cars. They never lost a blackbird and they didnt loose this one either.

The SAC museum has a great looking exhibit for their bird, #964. It is inside and not exposed to the elements, thankfully. I can't find any photos or stories about them taking delivery of the plane, though.

MJ, I am not sure what you mean about a Blackbird never having been lost. Quite a few crashed over the years.
Blackbird Losses

Spectre,

The last link you provided had Blackbird #17958 photos.(same blackbird being towed on the highway).



# 17958 Museum Photos

All Blackbird Photos by #

The link about Blackbird crashes? Hmm, the URL looks right and works for me. Mysterious.
www.sr-71.org...

People are probably tired of me linking to that page anyway. It's just so darned handy!

Well I am new here and only on my second post.

I have looked at all the evidence that this is real and agree that its overwhelming, however, can someone please explain whats going on with the starboard wing ?

It appears as if the wing has been clipped for the transportation, you can even see a small wire or piece of metal hanging from where the wing was. (Its better seen on the link posted earlier than the original posted photo. www.habu.org...)

However, if the wing has been clipped, why is there still a shadow ? the sun is at a slight angle, casting a shadow left to right, therefore the shadow cast by the clipped wing should end with a straight line, slightly to the right of the clipped wing ? Instead we can plainly see a triangular shadow ending in a point ?

By the way, great to be here !