The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

The Whoa Nellie Deli! Always a good stop (unless there's a huge line).

 

Agreed! Like Aspendell!

 

Maybe not quite Owens Valley, but not too far either... anyone else make it to Edwards this weekend?







Edit... anyone know what that lower one even is?

 

Lockheed built that plane for Top Gun Maverick. It’s a fictional hypersonic plane named Darkstar. Supposedly there is a real hypersonic plane that Lockheed Skunkworks is testing. I guess we will know in 20 years when they reveal it’s been flying for 30 years.

edit: Popular Mechanics magazine has had articles on the alleged project for years.


@mk5 did it look like it could fly? Engines and all? Or did it look like a mock up prop?

 

It was so real looking I was genuinely confused for a while. If it weren't for those goofy windows (edit: and the skunk works on tail) I would have guessed it was one of the YF-23s. Never seen one of those in person.

Quite the easter egg parked next to an SR71 out there.



But an appropriate one, because here's how it felt to be at the airshow:



Anyway I put a bunch more pictures here.

 

I can’t believe I missed that airshow I just recently went to the capital airshow. I bet it was awesome to see all those planes I’ve never seen a SR 71 up close

edit: ok more pics from this past week

 

Edit: Looks like you had a pretty awesome week though.

Good news is that they're building a new museum for some of the historical aircraft up there, outside of the AFB gate, so the public can go any time. I've been wishing for a chance to get on base for quite some time, they have two of them behind the gates up there (one at Edwards one at Armstrong, or so I've read), but there were very few opportunities to do so, dropping to zero for the pandemic -- until the air show that is. Anyway the museum isn't done yet but they've got it framed out.

In any case there are plenty of SR71s and A12s floating around around in SoCal. Sadly not in a literal sense. But if you want to see one...

LA -- California Science Center (added bonus: space shuttle and other famous manned space vehicles)


Blackbird airpark in Palmdale (added bonus: Old SR71 pilots who will tell you stories about flying them)


The latter pair might be getting moved to an indoor museum, I forget what I read, but probably you should check before you go.

There's also one each at museums in San Diego (Aerospace) and Riverside (March AFB), don't have photos of those, and others in CA I haven't yet seen.

Plenty of other ones around the country too... I'm hoping to see all of them before I croak. Whenever I travel I'll check to see if there's one within reach of an economy rental car before the day's last flight home. Here are the ones I've seen:

Intrepid museum in NYC (added bonus: Aircraft carrier, submarine, Concorde, and lots more):



Pima air museum in Tucson (added bonus: insanely huge collection, plus constant A-10 traffic overhead):



Smithsonian in Washington DC [and @ Dulles annex] (added bonus: it's literally the Smithsonian):



US Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville AL (added bonus: Saturn-V rockets!):



Edit: I'm loving the added photos of other blackbirds, keep it up!

 

One year at the Reno Air Races, an SR-71 came down the centerline. OMG, that was impressive.

 

There's an SR-71 at Castle Air Museum (formerly Castle Air Force Base), which is located about halfway between Modesto and Fresno. I went a few years back with some friends on Memorial Day (Veteran's Day?), and they had the cockpit open so you could walk up and poke your head in. Very cool.

 

Thank you

 

I loved hearing the stories these pilots would tell. I wouldn't mind a copy of the SR-71 book Sled Driver but at $600, not sure.
It's amazing to think this aircraft was designed and built in the 60's and still capable today (tho not flying). Or that the U2 was designed and built in the 50's back when man and slide rule did the hard work of analysis.

 

Holy Hell, why is that so expensive!!?! I had the original edition once, might still have in a box somewhere. I think I picked it up in the 1990s. Probably in the National Air & Space Museum gift shop? Or maybe the USAF Museum in Dayton? Indeed, a really good book. Not $600 good, but an entertaining read. Suspect I probably donated it at some point during a move.

One of my minor life regrets was not taking up an invitation to go watch a SR-71 take-off from Dryden summer of 1993. Involved watching engine start in the hanger with the starter cart and everything. Would have had to miss a day of a summer research internship that I had just started... Ah, the foolish mistakes of youth...

Oh, and mk5 forgot to list this easy to access A-12 in a parking lot in the DC area:

​

 

I worked across the slough from NASA/Ames Research Center. For the longest time, most days at around 1PM, their research U2 would take off. I swear, there is nothing like seeing that. Except maybe to watch it land. Down the runway it would go, once positive rate of climb was established, it'd stand on end and up it would go. No idea--maybe 3-5 minutes from takeoff roll until you couldn't see it--there is a trail at one end of the runway that offered a better view but on days they launched, the gate was often closed.

 

the March Field Air museum in Riverside has an SR-71 as well.

 

We relocated to AZ recently and found ourselves living right in the flight pattern of Luke AFB. The city actually had us sign a noise waiver prior to moving in due to the constant low flights overhead. Apparently some people here cough...commies are offended by it, not us by any means. Our backyard has an auxiliary runway and the base itself is just a few miles to the south. I was speaking with an F35 pilot recently while in line at Costco and he told me that they recently hit a milestone of 100,000 logged flight hours that they were extremely proud of. We feel privileged to live here and to be able experience these on a daily basis. I do miss the eastern sierra's though...

 

We stopped by there when our kids were young, maybe 20 years ago, and the SR71 was the highlight. We sent their grandparents a snapshot of the kids by the plane and my father-in-law replied, “Oh, I worked on that plane”. He worked at United Technologies/Pratt & Whitney his whole career, so strictly speaking he worked on the engines. But our kids thought it was really cool. Their dad just worked on computers.

 

I live near SJC. Which makes NUQ just up the road. On alternate landing days, might get the odd 767 flying overhead. Not cool. Military aircraft, like fighters, don’t land at NUQ often but the AN-124 does ferry satellites from Lockheed now and then. That can be really loud. Worse than a C-17.

 

When we lived in Mtn View and the P3 Orions were flying in and out of Moffett Field multiple times a day, the noise got pretty old. On the other hand, I remember chaperoning my son’s pre-school class on a field trip to Moffett (6 five year olds in my lifted 80 Series) and we all got to go inside a P3. And now my son is in the Navy.

 

Nice one!

I'll make sure to stop by next time I'm in town on "official business."

 

Lived there during the time the Navy years as well--in the flight path.