Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990 TAG: 9003072077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHANTILLY LENGTH: Medium
But it soon will be, to the regret of some admirers.
"This is one of the first victims of the effort to scale back defense," Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said Tuesday after Blackbird No. 17972 marked its retirement by whizzing from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C, in record time of 68 minutes, 17 seconds - not counting time for takeoff and landing. It also set four other speed marks along the 2,404-mile route.
The Air Force is donating the plane to the Smithsonian Institution, which plans to display it here at the Washington Dulles International Airport wing of the National Air and Space Museum.
The full Blackbird fleet was officially retired two months ago.
Warner, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Blackbird is still unmatched as a technological wonder, but is being assigned to the junk heap because of a growing perception in the United States that military spending must be reduced as East-West tensions ease.
"I cannot honestly say this is a happy day for me," said Ben Rich, the Lockheed Aeronautical System Co. executive who helped design the black, dagger-shaped plane.
Rich said he had only one parting sentiment: "Bye-bye, Blackbird."
Congress, in agreeing last fall with the Air Force's decision to retire the twin-engine Blackbirds, said advances in technology enable satellites to do similar work more cheaply than the spy plane, which first entered service in 1964.
Doubts about the decision remain.
George Carver, an intelligence specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in a telephone interview that he doubted the wisdom of "giving up an asset that has been extremely useful" in providing intelligence data.
The Blackbird's coast-to-coast dash easily eclipsed the previous time record of 3 hours, 38 minutes, set in 1963 by a Boeing 707.
The spy plane took a running start, refueling over the Pacific Ocean at 60,000 feet before heading east from the California coastline and crossing its finish line near Salisbury, Md., said Malvern Gross, president of the National Aeronautic Association, which certifies aviation records.
The Blackbird then refueled before cruising in to Dulles Airport.
The flight also set three city-to-city speed records: 2,153.24 mph between Los Angeles and Washington; 2,242.48 mph between St. Louis and Cincinnati and 2,200.94 mph between Kansas City, Mo., and Washington. The pilot was Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding, and Lt. Col. J.T. Vida was the reconnaissance systems officer.
It was one of the few public displays of a Blackbird. And despite the rush to publicize this final flight, most details of the plane's design and capabilities are still top secret. The Air Force won't even say how many of the planes exist.
Maj. Suzanne Randle of the Strategic Air Command's headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., said nine Blackbirds are going to museums, three are being mothballed at Palmdale, Calif., and three will be used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for research. Randle said she could not say whether that accounted for all the planes.
The highflying Blackbird regularly flew missions over heavily defended North Vietnam and provided intelligence in many other regions, including the Middle East and China.
The plane can outrun the fastest fighters and has never been shot down. Built to withstand temperatures of more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit, its skin is a titanium alloy instead of the aluminum used on most airplanes. It can sustain a speed of Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, but its maximum speed is classified.
by CNB