Sled Driver

CHAPTER VI
On Display
I was fortunate enough to fly the Blackbird during a time when public displays of the
airplane were more commonplace than were allowed in the early days of the
program. The only thing we enjoyed more than flying her was showing her off to an
enthusiastic crowd. People at airshows were genuinely excited to see the jet. It was
a pleasure to talk with them and try to answer their questions. I had attended many
airshows before in other airplanes, but nothing compared to the attention the
crowd gave the Blackbird. Even when the SR-71 didn't fly in the show, it seemed to
be the main attraction. When it was scheduled to fly, no one left until it had flown.
Most people had never seen the SR-71 before, so they were thrilled to see it on
display and to talk with squadron members. Many were genuinely interested in
everything about the SR-71 and they expressed appreciation for what we did that
deeply touched us.
Some of the best airshows we attended were in England; the British really knew
how to put on a show. Plenty of airplanes flew throughout the day, and at the larger
airshows it was common for 150,000 people to attend each day of the event. When
we displayed the Blackbird in England, it seemed as if every one of the 150,000
people wanted to see the jet up close. They wanted to talk to the crew members and
have them sign their programs. We got writer's cramp, but we didn't complain; the
people were such a joy.
Accurate data about the airplane was unavailable to the public for so long, many
people filled in the blanks themselves. This made for some entertaining sessions
while standing in front of the jet. Many times people were eager to show us how
much they knew about our jet. We were interested in their estimates of the SR-71's
performance; often they exceeded what the airplane was capable of doing. I'm not
sure that we convinced some of them the SR-71 did not go into orbit during its
missions. People knew we couldn't answer many of their questions, yet when their
questions concerned classified information, they enjoyed hearing our answer, "I'm
sorry, we can't talk about that." We noticed this response often generated more
speculation on the topic. Even as the merits of different outrageous theories were
discussed, people quickly assured us they understood we couldn't talk about some
things, and they didn't want us to divulge any secrets to them.