Sled Driver

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f"' Once training was completed, the Jet took on a new look to the crew. Missions had a deadly serious purpose now.
My main objective during a mission was to keep the jet on the preplan ned route, sometimes called the black line. If we got off the black line, or if the jet malfunctioned, we came home. If the jet were seriously broken, we landed at one of the emergency airfields along the route. Either way, we never took the risk of having even one piece of the jet touch hostile soil. Although getting the images gathered by the sensors was important, we avoided unnecessary risks. The unspoken word was that no part of this aircraft would ever fall into the other side's hands. As a pilot, I felt as if my life were in danger on every mission. Often the regime in which we flew harbored more potential danger than the other side's offensive abilities. I feared no one while flying the SR-71 in pursuit of its mission. My confidence was born out of increased experience in the jet. Many times we never saw the images we brought back. Our job was only to collect them; others interpreted them. Many people were interested in receiving the product the jet brought back. These people included senior ranking members of the Department of Defense, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and even the President of the United Sates. Most of the time we never knew who these people were. If we did our job properly, everyone else was satisfied. Many days I felt as if I were sitting at the tip of the sword of a system that was larger in scope than I could imagine. There were many important people who took what we did seriously, but nobody took this work more seriously than the guy with his hand on the stick. On rare occasions, the photo interpreters showed us the product of our labor. This gave us a better perspective of the process involved in interpreting hundreds of feet of film, and an appreciation for the resolving power of cameras shooting through heat soaked windows. On one occasion after a mission in the Caribbean, the photo folks showed us some pictures they thought we would find interesting. They depicted parts of a gunnery range used by Cuban fighter jets to sharpen their strafing skills. On close inspection, the pictures revealed the targets were large silhouettes of SR-71s painted on cloth. We considered this a compliment of sorts. The next time over that route, I pushed the Mach up slightly to insure they would hear the boom. Although the <strong>Sled</strong> was ahead of its time with stealth-like design, it was not invisible. At high Mach, extreme temperatures covered the aircraft like a warm glove. This heat source did not go unnoticed by countries that preferred not to have their pictures taken. The <strong>Sled</strong> also left a bold signature written across its flight path: a healthy sonic boom. Certain foreign governments didn't like this sound over their heads, but I wasn't too enamored with some of their practices and was always pleased to bring it to them.
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Flying the World's Fastest Jet by B
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• 1 ) I I I
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CHAPTER IV Going Operationa1 . Supp
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Introduction In 1966, I was still i
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The cockpit was my office. It was a
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CHAPTER I First Meeting When I was
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Only with a feeling closely resembl
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The Buick V-8 Start Cart. Tetraethy
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In the run-up area, a Sled waits fo
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Mach indicator read 13.' Throughout
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A crew is formed: Brian and Walter,
Page 28 and 29: There was much to learn, and the bo
Page 30 and 31: J-58 casing glows red from intense
Page 32 and 33: Full thrust on takeoff- a sight and
Page 34 and 35: The "B", the only Sled on the ramp
Page 36 and 37: the cockpit passing through 52,000
Page 38 and 39: can slip into the blood stream. Thi
Page 40 and 41: straw to my mouth through a small o
Page 42 and 43: military jets I had flown. Normally
Page 44 and 45: The final closing of the canopy pri
Page 46 and 47: Regardless of the weather or the mi
Page 49 and 50: 25,000 feet. Normally, military jet
Page 51 and 52: at refueling in the B-model were hu
Page 53 and 54: Sled driver's view of the approachi
Page 55 and 56: Streaked with fuel, a satisfied Bla
Page 59: THE DEEP BLUE It felt good to level
Page 63 and 64: SYSTEMS Though the RSO was responsi
Page 65: Mach 3 if the autopilot failed, as
Page 68 and 69: eflections and could more easily se
Page 70 and 71: "We did Nebraska in 7Y2 minutes tod
Page 72 and 73: Passing by Mount Lassen the rigors
Page 74 and 75: She was an armful in the landing pa
Page 76 and 77: Sled taxis in after flight. Open dr
Page 80 and 81: The HABU patch was a prized collect
Page 82 and 83: The guys that kept us flying. Long
Page 84 and 85: Every landing required a chute, and
Page 86: Beale tanker displays nose art refl
Page 89 and 90: Climbing out on a foggy day in Engl
Page 92 and 93: After hours in a clear blue sky, co
Page 95 and 96: helmet, overshooting my mouth and p
Page 97: THE UNPREDICTABLE One night near th
Page 100 and 101: Ferrying the Jet from Beale AFB to
Page 103 and 104: Most of our sorties from Okinawa to
Page 105 and 106: A barren hostile Iandi with no sign
Page 107 and 108: A self portrait, helmet visor refle
Page 110: path through the evening sky. The c
Page 113 and 114: T-38, the sports car of Beale. Auth
Page 116 and 117: CHAPTER VI On Display I was fortuna
Page 118 and 119: I really enjoyed talking to these y
Page 120 and 121: Flying the SR in front of thousands
Page 122 and 123: folks on the ground as we thundered
Page 124 and 125: A flurry of excitement greeted us o
Page 126: he could take his people in the wea
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the program couldn't last forever.
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hoping somehow to keep her alive, b
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Photography Notes All the photograp
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Like the Jet my cameras had to be r
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make if only there was more light.
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Sled Driver

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