I Saw the Blackbird Fly

Well, what the heck.  Let’s make it a Blackbird week!

It was 1997, more than nine years ago.  To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the USAF, the annual EAA Fly-in in Oshkosh, WI, invited all four “black jets”, U-2, SR-71, F-117, and B-2 (in the order of seniority) to the show.  So I went to the Fly-in twice that year, the first time to see the U-2 arrive and the second to see the other three do fly-by.

At the time, the USAF no longer flew the SR-71 but NASA still did.  It dispatched the SR-71B trainer.  According to the original plan, the Blackbird was to do a super-sonic pass over the crowd.  Although I had heard sonic booms many times in Taiwan, it was a rarity in the US.  After seeing the SR-71 do fly-by and a simulated midair refueling with the NKC-135, everybody was waiting patiently for the super-sonic shock.  We waited and waited.  But the Blackbird never returned.  Nobody told us why…

A few days later, I learned that the SR-71 had to be diverted to the Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee due to a fuel leak.  That is why it did not return for the super-sonic pass.  About a month later, when visited the 128th ARW based at Mitchell International Airport, LtCol. Bart told me that the leak was pretty bad and fuel splashed along the runway.  The SR-71 was forced to stay there for several days.

So I never experienced any sonic boom in the US.  But it does not matter.  After all, I saw the Blackbird fly!