For Speed Demons....
To see the rest of them, take your lunch to:

SR-71 aircraft on display

A SR-71 Blackbird on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.


Places to see a Blackbird on display include:

• Multiple variants:
  • National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio (an SR-71A, YF-12A and M-21/D-21 drone)
  • March Field Air Museum, Riverside, California (an SR-71A and a D-21 Drone)
• SR-71A variant:
  • Air Force Armament Museum, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida
  • Air Force Flight Test Center Museum, Edwards Air Force Base, California
  • Air Force Plant 42 Production Flight Test Installation, Palmdale, California
  • American Air Museum in Britain at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England (the only example displayed outside the US)
  • Barksdale Air Force Base, Bossier City, Louisiana
  • Beale Air Force Base, Marysville, California
  • Castle Air Museum, Atwater, California
  • Evergreen Aviation Museum, McMinnville, Oregon
  • Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas
  • Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas
  • March Field Air Museum, Riverside, California
  • Museum of Aviation, Warner Robins, Georgia
  • Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona
  • Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia
  • Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska
  • Virginia Aviation Museum in Richmond, Virginia
• SR-71B variant:
  • Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum, Kalamazoo, Michigan
• SR-71C variant:
  • Hill Air Force Base Museum, Ogden, Utah

You also might want to check the OXCART--A-12 CIA Plane:
List of A-12 OXCARTsSerial numberModelLocation or fate60-6924A-12Air Force Flight Test Center Museum, Blackbird Airpark, at Edwards Air Force Base, Palmdale, California. 606924 was the first A-12 to fly.60-6925A-12Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, parked on the deck of the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier, New York City60-6926A-12Lost, 24 May 196360-6927A-12California Science Center in Los Angeles, CA (Two-canopied trainer model, "Titanium Goose")60-6928A-12Lost, 5 January 196760-6929A-12Lost, 28 December 196760-6930A-12U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama60-6931A-12CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia[7]60-6932A-12Lost, 5 June 196860-6933A-12San Diego Aerospace Museum, Balboa Park, San Diego, California60-6937A-12Southern Museum of Flight, Birmingham, Alabama60-6938A-12Battleship Memorial Park (USS Alabama), Mobile, Alabama
60-6939 A-12 Lost, 9 July 1964



John P
FTroopChief

LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY!

 

The rarest of the rare::

[edit] M-21/D-21

Main article: Lockheed D-21/M-21

D-21B Drone mounted on M/D-21 Blackbird


One notable variant of the basic A-12 design was the M-21, used to carry and launch the D-21 drone, an unmanned, faster and higher-flying reconnaissance craft. The M-21 was an A-12 platform modified by replacing the single-seat aircraft's Q bay (which carried its main camera) with a second cockpit for a Launch Control Operator/Officer (LCO). When mated to the drone for operations, this A-12 variant was known as the M/D-21. The D-21 drone was completely autonomous; having been launched it would overfly the target, travel to a predetermined rendezvous point and eject its data package. The package would be recovered in midair by a C-130 Hercules and the drone would self-destruct.
The program to develop this system was canceled in 1966 after a drone collided with the mother ship at launch, destroying the M-21 and killing the LCO. Three successful test flights had been conducted under a different flight regime; the fourth test was in level flight, considered an operational likelihood. The shock wave of the M-21 retarded the flight of the drone, which crashed into the tailplane. The crew survived the midair collision but the LCO drowned when he landed in the ocean and his flight suit filled with water.[6]
The M/D-21 performed operational missions over China in 1970 and 1971.
The surviving M-21 is on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington with a drone. The D-21 was adapted to be carried on wings of the B-52 bomber.

What went up at Groom Lake, didn't necessarily come down at Grrom Lake (Area 51)

John P.

FTroopChief

LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY!!

 

I've visited the museum since coming out here to DC and it is really incredible. The collection of aircraft is really amazing, there's no place else in the world where an SR71 and a Concorde are sitting in the same room!

Thanks for sharing, the SR71 is an awesome piece of kit, a symbol of a bygone era where technology spending was first and foremost for the US. Can you believe that this plane was rocking the world 44 years ago.

 

Night Launch and mission
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiVd2Pmw0OA

MD-21 Launch and Mid-air narrated by Kelly Johnson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMyC2urCl_4

And the U Birds are still flying as TRs

John P
FTroopChief

 

The first time I saw an SR71 I guess I got a little too close.
The guard locked and loaded his M16, pointed it at me and then the meany yelled at me to back away!
Dang! All I wanted to do was get a look!

 

He didn't want you getting a sample of that Kickapoo Joy Juice it ran on.

John P
FTroopChief