Nothing had prepared me to fly that fast. A typical training flight, we’d take off from Beale, then head east. I’d look out and see the Great Salt Lake—hell of a landmark. Then look back in the cockpit to be sure everything was okay. Then look out again and the Great Salt Lake had vanished. In its place, the Rockies. Then you scribbled on your flight plan and looked out again—this time at the Mississippi River. You were gobbling up huge hunks of geography by the minute. Hell, you’re flying three thousand feet a second! We flew coast to coast and border to border in three hours fifty-nine minutes with two air-to-air refuelings. One day I heard another SR-71 pilot calling Albuquerque Center. I recognized his voice and knew he was flying lower than me but in the vicinity, so I called and said, “Tony, dump some fuel so I can see you.” In only a couple of blinks of an eye, fuel streaked by underneath my airplane. He was like one hundred and fifty miles ahead of me.
One day our automatic navigation system failed. Ordinarily that’s an automatic abort situation, but I decided to try to fly without the automatic navigation. I advised the FAA I was going to try this and to monitor us and let us know where we were if we got lost. I quickly learned that if we started a turn one second late, we were already off course, and if my bank angle wasn’t exact, I was off by a long shot. I started a turn just below L.A. and wound up over Mexico! I realized right then that we couldn’t navigate by the seat of our pants. Not at those incredible speeds.
I remember when a new pilot flying the SR-71 for the first time out of Beale began shouting “Mayday, Mayday” over Salt Lake City. “My nose is coming off!” My God, we all panicked and cranked out all the emergency vehicles. The guy aborted, staggered back to Beale. All that really happened was that the airplane’s nose wrinkled from the heat. The skin always did that. The crew smoothed it out using a blowtorch. It was just like ironing a shirt.
-- Colonel Jim Wadkins, quoted in Skunk Works by Ben Rich
Controls
Normal flight mode (AG3 OFF)
- All flight controls normal
- Brake to reverse
- Custom camera 1: cockpit view
- AG1: afterburner
- AG2: high agility mode
- AG3: toggle VTOL mode
- FireGuns: fire plasma cannon
VTOL mode (AG3 ON)
- Pitch to ascend and descend, roll to turn, yaw to strafe
Specifications
General Characteristics
- Predecessor SR-71 Blackbird v05
- Successors 1 airplane(s) +7 bonus
- Created On Windows
- Wingspan 93.0ft (28.3m)
- Length 170.5ft (52.0m)
- Height 31.4ft (9.6m)
- Empty Weight N/A
- Loaded Weight 100,004lbs (45,361kg)
Performance
- Power/Weight Ratio 4.651
- Wing Loading 8.1lbs/ft2 (39.4kg/m2)
- Wing Area 12,400.0ft2 (1,152.0m2)
- Drag Points 55714
Parts
- Number of Parts 824
- Control Surfaces 9
- Performance Cost 2,963
cool
@SledDriver your very welcome
Thanks, @jeckogecko
this is stupidly good
@Starfox3206 Sure, expect one soon.
Let me rephrase that: Can you make a deadly Tank? @SledDriver
@Starfox3206 "Tank" and "nice" don't really go together :)
Can you make a Nice Tank? @SledDriver
The vehicle will be posted tomorrow. @SledDriver
Hey, I removed the project and upgraded the steering and shock absorbers, it is ready now, please try it, thanks, Pay very close Attention to the instructions! @SledDriver
@SledDriver I was able to get one off my old device, my favorite project so far, you can check it out on my profile if you want.
@Starfox3206 Good to know. Smart people always make backups :)
@SledDriver I think I might be able to upload my older projects through a backup, hopefully get done by tonight or tomorrow.
I'm glad you enjoyed this build, @808REKT
This thing is so hilarious, firing the main cannon can knock any of the ships in the game into the air and you can juggle it too
@ThatWeirdGuy Mmmm, isn't she.
@SledDriver Yeah, after playing around and looking at the plane, I could tell that it was more of an interpretation, but cool nonetheless!
@ThatWeirdGuy well, this isn't really a replica... And I've made replicas before. Congratulations on the new PC, it's one of the best investments you can make in yourself.
Finally making a replica? Also, long time no see! :) You may not remember me because I haven't been active for nearly 2 years lmao
Finally built a pc btw, so I can actually start building big stuff
@SoulDestroyer9 No problem. My fastest posted aircraft that still has good control response is this one. I have a build that has unlimited top speed (I tested it to over one million mph), but I've never posted it.
What’s your fastest aircraft, and thanks for making me a 100,000 hp engine a while back
Welcome back, @ChickenMcNuggets007
@SledDriver I'm back y'all!!!!!
@Prolex917 See the FAQ section on my profile.
Why does it have no landing gear?