
The Story Behind a Famed SR-71 Blackbird Knife-Edge Pass (2017) - Alupis
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/story-behind-famed-sr-71-blackbird-super-low-knife-edge-pass/
======
fixermark
For reference, the 152-156 knots speeds were well below the plane's nose-up
(180 knots) and takeoff (210 knots), according to the Flight Manual
([https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/manual/](https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/manual/)).

Playing with fire.

------
cwkoss
Haha, great ending to the story:

"A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officer’s
club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 fly-past
that he had seen one day. Of course, by now the story included kids falling
off the tower and screaming as the heat of the jet singed their eyebrows.
Noticing our HABU patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, he
asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred. Walt just
shook his head and said, “It was probably just a routine low approach; they’re
pretty impressive in that plane.”"

------
fmajid
My favorite story about the SR-71 is how the CIA set up front companies to buy
titanium from the Soviets because the US didn’t have sufficient production
capacity.

------
dotancohen
The whole article is just plagiarized from the book Sled Driver, by a Habu
pilot. A fun read, but the whole site looks like click-bait titles and
plagiarized content.

~~~
Xylakant
The article explicitly states in the second paragraph that the story is taken
from that book and even links to it. It also mentions the author.

It may be plagiarized, but it might just as well be copied with permission,
but in either case the page is upfront about it.

~~~
dotancohen
Then the HN link should point somewhere else and the HN date should have the
book copyright date.

I don't object to anybody spreading Blackbird information, quite the opposite,
I want young people to be exposed to the wonder which is the SR-71. Let every
blog Google indexes repeat these stories. But when specifically mentioning
them, the clickbait blogs should not be considered the canonical source.

