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someone will declassify bits of information about this jet, publish them, and then it<br />
won't matter to anyone anymore. I could never write that book. As one who shared<br />
intimate secrets with the airplane, I feel less inclined to reveal all that she could do.<br />
Most of the men who flew her feel the same way. To fly this jet, and fly it well, meant<br />
establishing a personal relationship with a fusion of titanium, fuel, stick and<br />
throttles. It meant feeling the airplane came alive and had a personality all her own.<br />
To betray her confidences now would be unthinkable.<br />
My experiences and those of my back-seater are no more and no less than those<br />
of many other men who strapped themselves into this black aircraft. Our<br />
experiences were more typical than exceptional ofthe many who went before us<br />
and the few who flew the jet after us. My back-seater and I were always grateful for<br />
the opportunity to serve our country in this particular way.<br />
Few aviators ever got the chance to fly the SR-71. In over twenty years of service,<br />
a total of only 314 Air Force aviators flew the Blackbird. (In the same time period<br />
over 6,000 Air Force aviators flew the F-4 Phantom 11.) I was one of only 152 Air<br />
Force pilots to fly the SR-71 during its lifetime. The following pages describe a little<br />
of what that was like.
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