How Was The Blackbirds Program Kept Secret? 

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Imagine being the bus driver and accidentally scraping a wide load truck. You ask what's in the box and they joke it's an alien spacecraft, then men with suits and dark shades step in and give you thousands of dollars to fix your bus and say to not file an insurance claim.

It's 2022, some 60 years later, and you're still digging up content on the blackbird that I've never heard of before! Great job!

The SR-71 and the Concorde are some of the most impressive feats of aviation engineering in the cold war era. What incredible machines, all developed with slide rules.

My grandfather helped design parts of the Blackbird. He helped with some of the electronics on board. My dad loves to tell the story of when he was in a car with my grandfather and there was a bad driver and my dad had said something like "It would be really cool if we could read their license plate from space" and my grandfather said something like "we already can" before he realized he had to shut up because he wasn't supposed to talk about the plane at the time as it was a government secret. Edit: I don’t know why everyone is so skeptical. I never claimed he made the whole plane or invented it or was the only reason the plane exists. He was an electrical engineer at a time when electrical engineering was huge, especially for the military. He helped design some of the electrical systems on the aircraft. Thousands of people helped create that plane, it wasn’t just one person who made the whole thing happen.

It's actually a myth that engineers couldn't get the Blackbird to not leak fuel. The engineers did develop a way to 100% stop leaks. The problem was the time it took to maintain it was longer than the required turn around time for the Blackbirds next mission. The Air Force just simply didn't have the time to do the required maintenance. Because of this the Air Force adopted acceptable drip rates before resealing the planes skin.

The irony of Titanium from the Soviet Union was, at the time, the Soviets themselves could not afford to use it in their top end aircraft - it was too valuable as a trade commodity to be sold to other nations. So their own aircraft would have things like strips of titanium to reinforce steel panels, rather than being fully titanium.

16:46 Thanks for the warning bro, I almost did that with my leftover JP-7 fuel.

Yes! Blackbird is one of the coolest aircrafts ever built together with XB-70 Valkyrie

The knowledge provided by the Blackbird family of aircraft is invaluable. NASA used theirs as a Mach 3+ research platform. At one point they put early GPS tech onboard and flew it at altitude and tested the instruments.

I spent a fair amount of time at Air Force Plant 42 outside of Palmdale CA back in the 90's while working on a U-2 program. The U-2 and SR-71 were housed in the same hanger. The path through the hanger was marked in yellow tape on the floor and we were not allowed to wander outside of the tape. The SR-71 would make test flights a couple of times a week. Everything would stop as everyone on the ground would watch it take off. Absolutely amazing. I have many memories of working on our equipment in the U-2 super pods while the bird was parked behind the hanger. The slightest breeze would cause the wings to flap about 3 feet up and down. Also got to sit in the U-2 cockpit. There was an SR-71 engine test stand about a mile down the road from our trailer. When it would fire up, the vibrations felt like an earthquake in the trailer. Watching the SR-71 land was even more fascinating. It would come in pretty fast, smoke would pour off the brakes and then the drag chutes would deploy. Took more runway to land then it did to take off. The U-2 would kind of float into the sky on take off and quickly disappear. The SR-71 took off like a rocket in a steep climb.

I personally think that the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is one of the coolest looking aircraft. I've actually seen it in a museum and it looks amazing.

My Grandpa was an engineer on the SR-71 project at skunk works, he has some of the coolest diagrams & pictures I've ever seen of the aircraft. As well as some of the greatest stories from working on it.

Even the tools had to be designed with special metals as regular tools would degrade the materials the plane was made of.

1:49 “Relatively small scale” *oh yea they built the hubble 💀

as scuffed as the end result was, MAN that is a lot of engineering. you can imagine an entire department just to develop, study, and test the fuel, let alone the stealth, aerodynamic, manufacturing, temperature cycling resilience, materials, GD&T, sourcing, CAD, safety, secrecy, politics, budgeting, pilot insurance, pilot training,... and so many i can't think of...

Fun fact: An A-12 is sitting outside the California Sience Center in Los Angeles, seeing it in-person was so cool, just knowing how fast and how historic it is.

My father was one of the CIA men at Groom Lake during the early 60's, when they were testing the A12s. I was a newborn baby at the time. I didn't know about this until about 10 years ago. Actually I knew he worked for the CIA, but not what he did until that time. Imagine finding out my own dad worked not only at A51, but also with my favorite airplane of all time. =) He has a lot of stories, such as being parked next to the runway one day when one of the planes crashed on landing right in front of him. One of the stories he told me was about the road-trips they took to transport the planes to A51. Just as was mentioned here, he told me that they got so tired of people asking what was in the giant boxes that they just started telling people, "Well... I shouldn't tell you this, but it's a crashed UFO we found". I'm 58 now and he's I think 78, and we still talk on the phone and the A12 frequently comes up. Next year he's going to fly up to visit with me for a while, and I plan to take him to the Seattle Flight Museum where he can see the M21 we have there - the only one in existence in the world. It will be interesting to see how he feels being in the presence of one of the very planes he once walked past or underneath on a daily basis, so many years ago, as a young man.

Technology from the 60's that's still mind boggling. Can't imagine what they're making in 2022 behind closed doors

I knew a mechanic who worked on the Blackbird. He said the Blackbird airframe was stress tested up to Mach 7, and was expected to fly at Mach 5. He also confirmed they needed tools made of special alloys to keep from compromising the titanium skin.

This plane was groundbreaking In every sense of the word. The materials, engines, tools, and auxiliary equipment all had to be designed with this bird and the feats it was capable of in mind. Even the _starter carts_ had to be designed. They took two buick V8 engines (for each cart), coupled them together through a gearbox, and used that to start the blackbird’s engines. They blew up so many engines that they exhausted the supply and had to switch to chevy engines! From nose to tail the blackbird is just _crazy_

Blackbird might be my favorite plane ever. How it was designed, built, the materials acquired, the famous Speed Check at the Navy’s expense, that photo with all the pilots in full garb like it was the cover for the best album in existence, amazing piece of engineering

When I was in high school I was in an Air Force ROTC, and we had the first pilot to ever test fly this aircraft come in to give us a speech. It was great listening to his stories and experiences with this aircraft

Thank you so much for the metric units on display! I'm not familiar with imperial units at all, so the inclusion really help me visualize!

I learned something today; not all planes are capable of gliding, the Blackbird had a glide ratio of a brick.

I saw the SR-71 fly at two different air shows both at Norton AFB. The first was 10/25/80, the second 11/08/81. The first show included two low passes with full power climbout, and and a few other low passes. The second show included one low pass with full power climbout a couple of lame flybys and an apology that they had run out of budget for anything more. Absolutely, the most thrilling thing I've seen at an airshow. I was invited to give tethered hot air balloon flights. We stopped everything while the SR71's were in the air not wanting to miss anything.

This is my favorite plane ever. One time I was in florida and accidentally drove down a road that was a one way to a Lockheed Martin factory. Security was on us when we were leaving. No joke there

I'm glad to see your still making regular length videos because this channel, and your voice are very entertaining and informative and I enjoy that there's always something that isn't what a person would normally think. I think there was only one video that I already knew the answer after being a fan of the channel for years. Y'all do a great job and make great content!

My favorite plane ever! All these decades later and it STILL looks like something from the future. And its performance is practically mythic.

my cousin was an engineer for the SR-71 project. Not sure what section he was apart of but seeing his house for the first time was like a museum. Such an awesome accomplishment for its time.

My Dad programmed the SR-71 flight simulators - with punchcards. [Edit: HOLY MOLY - I think that's him at 20:31 , in white!!!] No mouse, no keyboard - they didn't exist yet. (And he's intimidated by Windows 10! I said Dad, Dad - computers with mice should feel like a cakewalk!) The computers were so large, they didn't fit in a single room. They had to be air conditioned. Dad - today you don't even have to change the drip pans on computers! (He thinks that's marvelous.) He told me, the first simulators were on trains. So top-secret, they didn't have a central location that could be found out. Later, gets moved to Beale. Our family had dinner parties with pilots and crew. My God I'd give anything to remember what was said. Took it all for granted. Today, Dad is shy about talking about it, and is reluctant for me to interview him. Could ya'll do me a favor, and tell him he's wrong? That you'd like to see this? He doesn't even understand the love the community has for this plane.

Well done on this video! I have been a Blackbird fan all my life but I learned some new things about this beautiful jet from your video! Thanks!

The only thing you forgot to mention, was the LA to DC trip of the last USAF Blackbird, in 68 minutes and 17 seconds- breaking 4 flight time records, as it flew into retirement and to the National Air & Space Museum's Steven Udvar Hazy Center.

The air refueling while the planes are going operational minimum and maximum speeds is hilarious

We either have something today that will blow our mind or these guys were absolute geniuses.

The historical footage found for this video are breath-taking. Very well done !

I was wondering if I'd ever be able to see one of these flying again at an airshow, but after watching this and seeing how much preparation and maintenance it takes to fly one my hopes aren't anywhere as high as they were a few minutes ago. Edit: apparently they don't make the JP7 fuel anymore either, so having that produced solely for the occasional airshow is gonna be a pain in the ass too :(

My grandfather worked on this plane in the 50’s and was very excited to share everything he had done when it became declassified. His company made the repair and operation manuals for many Lockheed Martin aircrafts. He took secrets to the grave.

I got to see the SR-71 when I was eight. Our third-grade class took a field trip to Tucson. I spend the entire time at the air museum looking and walking around the blackbird. The engines and cockpit electronics where missing, but it was still awesome. None of my classmates seemed to know anything about it. One even got mad at me on the bus ride back and told me to stop talking about it. It is one of the very few memories I have of third grade.

I consider this the best and most detailed video on SR-71 with footage I haven't seen before.

One if the best vids on the Blackbird. Thank you.

I saw the SR-71 fly out of Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa in the daylight, spring of 1990. One of the most exciting things I've ever seen.

You might think the hard bit was machining titanium, but it's not what you think. The hard bit was actually everything

I’ve watched many many videos on the Blackbird project and the history and tech details of SR-71 aircraft. This one is THE BEST! I especially enjoyed seeing the brief segments of movie footage of Kelly Johnson. Thanks! And good luck.

‘It still operates on a small scale… making the Hubble telescope’

I just gotta say that this video and others are very well paced and organized. I actually enjoyed all of the segues to topics! For example, the fuel leaks leading to the panel gaps needed for the heating up of the aircraft!

Im about to see the SR-71C this weekend and am so excited, it’s been my favorite plane my whole childhood. Perfect time to get recommended this video

0:27 literally where my mind goes every time I hear the question “what’s in the box?“ 😅

Getting to see a Blackbird at my local airshows was a real treat, as a kid. Gorgeous bird. I knew nothing about it's capabilities, but still knew it was something special.

By far the most detailed SR-71 or Blackbird related video I've ever watched on RU-vid, I almost watched every of them and none of them is as detailed.

my great grandfather was a lead engineer in building the blackbird at some point in his life, he was a very interesting person

If a family saw an accident involving some secret Russian project, I'm sure that instead of $25,000 they would have had to go live in the gulag

I'll never not watch a documentary on the SR-71, no matter how many times I've seen all the information before 😂It is one of the most impressive aircraft every developed.

My grandfather, Robert Walker, was one of the head engineers that worked on the SR-71. He was always very quiet about it (he was a very humble guy). It’s fascinating learning more about the blackbird after his death. I wish he were still alive to talk about it.

My grandparents noth were SR-71's. The stories and photos they brought back from their flights were awesome.

There is one on display in Hutchison Kansas at the Cosmosphere. While the entire museum is worth a view, especially if combined with a visit to the salt mine, the Blackbird is in the lobby before you pay to enter. So if you just want to see a blackbird, you can, without charge.

The real question is: how do you refuel that truck on the road if it happens to need more? Of course it would be fueled before but WHAT IF

“There were a lot of things we couldn’t do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane. Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment. It occurred when Walt and I were flying our final training sortie. We needed 100 hours in the jet to complete our training and attain Mission Ready status. Somewhere over Colorado we had passed the century mark. We had made the turn in Arizona and the jet was performing flawlessly. My gauges were wired in the front seat and we were starting to feel pretty good about ourselves, not only because we would soon be flying real missions but because we had gained a great deal of confidence in the plane in the past ten months. Ripping across the barren deserts 80,000 feet below us, I could already see the coast of California from the Arizona border. I was, finally, after many humbling months of simulators and study, ahead of the jet. I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for Walter in the back seat. There he was, with no really good view of the incredible sights before us, tasked with monitoring four different radios. This was good practice for him for when we began flying real missions, when a priority transmission from headquarters could be vital. It had been difficult, too, for me to relinquish control of the radios, as during my entire flying career I had controlled my own transmissions. But it was part of the division of duties in this plane and I had adjusted to it. I still insisted on talking on the radio while we were on the ground, however. Walt was so good at many things, but he couldn’t match my expertise at sounding smooth on the radios, a skill that had been honed sharply with years in fighter squadrons where the slightest radio miscue was grounds for beheading. He understood that and allowed me that luxury. Just to get a sense of what Walt had to contend with, I pulled the radio toggle switches and monitored the frequencies along with him. The predominant radio chatter was from Los Angeles Center, far below us, controlling daily traffic in their sector. While they had us on their scope (albeit briefly), we were in uncontrolled airspace and normally would not talk to them unless we needed to descend into their airspace. We listened as the shaky voice of a lone Cessna pilot asked Center for a readout of his ground speed. Center replied: November Charlie 175, I’m showing you at ninety knots on the ground. Now the thing to understand about Center controllers, was that whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna, or to Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep, professional, tone that made one feel important. I referred to it as the “ HoustonCentervoice.” I have always felt that after years of seeing documentaries on this country’s space program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the Houstoncontrollers, that all other controllers since then wanted to sound like that… and that they basically did. And it didn’t matter what sector of the country we would be flying in, it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than sound bad on the radios. Just moments after the Cessna’s inquiry, a Twin Beech piped up on frequency, in a rather superior tone, asking for his groundspeed. Twin Beach, I have you at one hundred and twenty-five knots of ground speed. Boy, I thought, the Beechcraft really must think he is dazzling his Cessna brethren. Then out of the blue, a navy F-18 pilot out of NAS Lemoore came up on frequency. You knew right away it was a Navy jock because he sounded very cool on the radios. Center, Dusty 52 ground speed check Before Center could reply, I’m thinking to myself, hey, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in that million-dollar cockpit, so why is he asking Center for a readout? Then I got it, ol’ Dusty here is making sure that every bug smasher from Mount Whitney to the Mojave knows what true speed is. He’s the fastest dude in the valley today, and he just wants everyone to know how much fun he is having in his new Hornet. And the reply, always with that same, calm, voice, with more distinct alliteration than emotion: Dusty 52, Center, we have you at 620 on the ground. And I thought to myself, is this a ripe situation, or what? As my hand instinctively reached for the mic button, I had to remind myself that Walt was in control of the radios. Still, I thought, it must be done - in mere seconds we’ll be out of the sector and the opportunity will be lost. That Hornet must die, and die now. I thought about all of our Sim training and how important it was that we developed well as a crew and knew that to jump in on the radios now would destroy the integrity of all that we had worked toward becoming. I was torn. Somewhere, 13 miles above Arizona, there was a pilot screaming inside his space helmet. Then, I heard it. The click of the mic button from the back seat. That was the very moment that I knew Walter and I had become a crew. Very professionally, and with no emotion, Walter spoke: Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check? There was no hesitation, and the replay came as if was an everyday request. Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground. I think it was the forty-two knots that I liked the best, so accurate and proud was Center to deliver that information without hesitation, and you just knew he was smiling. But the precise point at which I knew that Walt and I were going to be really good friends for a long time was when he keyed the mic once again to say, in his most fighter-pilot-like voice: Ah, Center, much thanks, We’re showing closer to nineteen hundred on the money. For a moment Walter was a god. And we finally heard a little crack in the armor of the HoustonCentervoice, when L.A.came back with: Roger that Aspen, Your equipment is probably more accurate than ours. You boys have a good one. It all had lasted for just moments, but in that short, memorable sprint across the southwest, the Navy had been flamed, all mortal airplanes on freq were forced to bow before the King of Speed, and more importantly, Walter and I had crossed the threshold of being a crew. A fine day’s work. We never heard another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast. For just one day, it truly was fun being the fastest guys out there.”

Iconic bit of engineering. A subject of major fascination for me as a kid, along with the tornado, harrier and the vulcan. Manned flight at this level is such a phenomenal achievement, regardless of the machine’s true purpose.

This is an incredible video. The sheer amount of effort and insane detail put into the generated and recreated footage is mind boggling.

Would've asked for $7,000 if they were so quick with $3,500.

2:22 To think that Kojima used this exact model in MGS3 is amazing, I always though he just made up the jet with a drone (Snake's second infiltration)

I Absolutely Love These Videos and any Documentation I can find on THE SR71! I turned 65 this year and every year I become more nostalgic. Born in Torrance back in 1958 I can remember my father talking about this beautiful jet to my mother. In Spanish! 😂 We moved to Burbank later then to San Diego when I was 5 years old. Dad would come home on the weekends. He always brought me a Benjamin Franklin Half Dollar but, I remember one particular morning he said to me; "we're building a jet plane that will fly from Los Angeles to New York in about 2 hours. It stuck in my head because he was excited about having a part in welding it together! The sr71 Blackbird! I took my Benjamin coin and went outside to wait for the ice cream truck. 😇 The Rest is History! 😎

growing up during the 80s and 90s the blackbird was my favorite airplane.. so sleek and fast, it just looked tough and badass.. amazing design..

If you are ever near Blackbird park in California, go lay it a visit. There is a living legend who works there who has flown multiple sr-71 variants and even the test flight of the b-2.

Reminds me of the greatest copypasta ever made "There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact..."

I absolutely love your videos brotha, thank you for all the effort you put in.

It’s a badass plane when you dare an enemy to shoot at you just to collect data on the missile.

I really enjoy the visuals on your videos, historical footage is so much more interesting than an illustration, and they’re applicable to the topic discussed!

This is THE BEST blackbird documentary I have watched. Very enjoyable to watch and you cover all the information so well and in depth. Huge fan of this channel good work!! Maybe when I am employed again I can make donations to my favourite channels but right now I cannot afford it my broski.

3:48 "if youre new to War Thunder" dont even think about installing it, save yourself a lot of future hair loss

I love your longer videos like this. Your narration writing is excellent

The ultrasonic fusing of the window and aperture would make a fascinating episode of its own.

This is the best review of the Blackbird family I've seen. Nicely done!

I was at that Oct 9th, 1999 airshow. It was bittersweet being there for the last flight.

"please do not try this at *home* " Ah yes I have a SR-71 fuel at home

This documentary is absolutely fantastic. I cannot express how impressed I am with the curation of this channel.

My grandfather... well he's a cool man, while he did not worked with SR-71 himself. He was the driver on one of those trailers shipping blackbirds. Thought it's fine to share this since people's grandfather in the comments is surprising to have worked with SR-71. He's having a memory loss due to his age but he always had kept a portrait of him in the living room where he is shown smiling near the trailers he once drove. I didn't know what the cargo was, said he couldn't remember what's inside, just knew from the image that it is really a wide object in a seemingly weird shaped box. After watching this video I realized those were blackbirds! I wish I could show you the portrait in the comments.

Such an amazing aircraft designed on a slide rule. Imagine if Kelly Johnson would have had the technology we have now , back then? Still an unmatched marvel.

I like how the part of the CIA's secrecy method is "Shut up and take my money!"

I think this is my favorite RU-vid channel. Would love a behind the scenes for the effort, research, number of people, the channel history, and information, etc

My father was stationed in Nevada during the test flights. I remember him telling me stories when I was a kid about of watching it drop from the plane and then take off, then minutes later getting calls from San Diego that it landed safely.

Great video. The SR-71 Black Birds are my favorite planes. I am lucky to live in Washington state. Seattle is just a little bit north of Federal Way where I live and I have gotten to and can go to the Boeing Museum Of Flight when I can - the Museum has the sole surviving M21 / D21 pair also there is a cockpit that was recovered from a crashed SR-71 and you can sit in the cockpit. The Museum has a lot of aircraft and other items - The "Red Barn" Boeings original headquarters can be gone through. :)

I remember the story’s my grandfather told me when he worked on the SR-71, there is some crazy cool stuff.

I am fascinated by the SR-71. Even though it is more than 50 years old now, it is still just a complete marvel of engineering. The blackbird also is a step toward hypersonic flight.

20:35 =] =] =] gotta love the candor and humor.

Our founders great grandfather was part of designing the black bird. It truly was a amazing aircraft for its time and still is.

SR71 wasn't a misreading, the head of the usaf liked it better then rs71 and lobbied for the president to read sr71. But since it was a last moment change the press thought he made a mistake.

“The plane is the fuel tank” ☠️

Man, film was some crazy stuff. That’s over 380,000 “pixels” or where the grain makes it no longer zoom in able. And that’s in one direction, not a square. Thats insane resolution

To this day, this is in my opinion, the coolest looking, most literally awesome aircraft ever produced. It was so far beyond it’s time. Some say its too advanced and must have been reverse engineered from alien tech. I think that idea detracts from the mind-blowing work done by the ingeneers, scientists, materials researchers, test pilots, etc. It only took 60 years from first flight of the Wright brothers (thank god they weren’t the Wrong brothers)(yes I know it’s a bad dad joke), to the flight of this insane beast of a plane.

OMG That civillian footage at around 15:15 of the rare unstart to mach speeds was unbelievable!

Absolutely love going to see the one at the space and rocket center in Huntsville, I live like 2 hours away

Crazy enough. A few years ago I seen a big ass semi with a police escort through a small town near mine with a big ass box (not as big as that one) but covered up and had a few of them. Weird.

I don’t really know anything about planes. (Even after watching this video.) But I think I can definitively say that I have a favourite plane now. What a beautiful piece of machinery!

SR71 60+ years ago…..imagine what they have now and we won’t know for another 30 years

What would I give to see this angel do a low ass fly-by over my head.

This reminds me of one night out in Raglan, New Zealand I was at the beach drinking with my buddies and smoking some green stuff close to 1-2am. We were parked up (I know, so cool - not) listening to music when we saw these strange flashing lights across the road by the museum. They were there for a good while so eventually we decided to go and check it out. When we started heading toward them, they left their spot and drove past us with a HUUUUGE asf trailer and all we could see under the tarp covering it was big rubber looking tubes. Good few cars in front and behind leading it. Naturally we turned to follow it. They drove right up to the harbour and started putting this thing into the water and before they done anything, a lady came up to us and said 'you can't be here'. Clearly military or army of some kind. We talked about it being public land and she again very nicely said we had to leave, and then told us what they're doing is confidential. Anyway we agreed, and left, but instead of going home we parked by the museum where we'd seen them initially, turned off the lights and watched. A freaking hover boat. We then saw them toze the water up and speed away. I'll never ever forget that night lol.... A hover boat. I mean wow 😂

One of the two yf12 planes that crashed serial number 61-6934 suffered a fire while landing and destroyed her internal systems but the rear fuselage survived and became sr71c 60-7981 which is now at hill air force base.

imagine they'd put so much priority into the development of supersonic airliners