That machine is a beautiful work of art. Thrilled you had the opportunity.
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Worked with a guy was on a base when one landed to refuel. Said it was a beautiful plane, but leaked fuel like a sieve. (verified by wiki as nessecary due to compression at high speeds that pushes the joints together-theyâd fail and blow out if made solid)
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It also needs to refuel after takeoff because of the leakage. The spacing in the titanium skin is also because of thermal expansion from atmospheric friction.
Seals tight at operating temperature.
The most highly engineered intake control of any gas turbine engine, the intake cone extends or retracts to optimize the dynamics of the shockwave that is generated at such high speed.
The original iteration was the A12 Blackbird, the next design SR 71, first flew in 1964, and still holds records.
Thatâs remarkable performance for a design that was 50 years old in 2014.
The âSledâ has never been intercepted, and missiles fired at it never find a target that was doing 2000 mph!
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Thank you @printolaser @wesleyjames and @kennethclapp. It is definitely one of my favorite planes.
You mentioned that the it has to be refueled after takeoff, however it is not really because it leaks so much, but more because the landing gear can not handle the weight of the plane with a full fuel load. This is why it must be refueled within 30 min of getting airborne.
Once again, thank you for the welcome.
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also fun fact the fuel is used as its hydraulicsâ system
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Took me a while to decide on what to do, but still like my old favorite Animal Muppet.
Like him cutting loose, his focus on woo-man (my case it is my wife that is whoa-man) and much of the time the wild things going around between my ears just brings me back to his frantic actions. 
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My dad worked in the Air Force and has seen them take off. I recall him telling me that it can take off from rolling down the runway to a nearly vertical climb with a very small radius on the transition. I could be mis-remembering though.
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Happy cake day!
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I didnât know that!
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If it runs out of fuel does it have to land on its belly?
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With a plane like that the crew âpunches outâ /ejects and hopes for the best. To the best of my knowledge we never lost a SR-71
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We never lost an SR71 to enemy fire, however if you look up âSR-71 crashâ on YouTube youâll find an unfortunate accident at altitude and full speed.
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First link lead to all blackbird loses, I had no idea we lost the majority of them over itâs career.
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Another interesting thing about the SR-71 the pilots have to wear a pressure suit do to the extreme forces it places on them plus they essentially wear diapers during flight
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I just found this photo of me as a child with two of my international-exchange sisters⌠note my hat.
I loved that hat.
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Nice 
I had a huge model I built as a kidâŚsadly no pictures and I suspect itâs long been tossed. Definitely one of the most amazing planes out there.
We used to see F117s fly by all the time up and down the Rio grande valley, but still not as cool as the SR 71
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Great pic and hat. Thanks for sharing. I made and flew a nice -71 rocket. Will have to see if I can find the slow motion video I did of the launch.
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Decided after 421 days to change my Avatar. Some folks have recently commented that my attitude needs adjusting. So have updated to the most recent picture I could find of me with a big smile. 
Sorry that Howdy Doody wasnât looking into the camera.
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Great pic! (or should I say pick?) 
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