Blackbird Questions, Anyone?

Jay

Ask Bill if one or more SR-71's were lost during the Shuttle explosion
after being launched in Florida.

Have been told by a mission controller this was true. Something like
the explosion took all the oxy out of the air and '71 flame out and
couldn't get restarted or something. This guy was on a console but not
a pilot.

Big John
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On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 01:38:56 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Bill Fox, project coordinator for the Lockheed Skunkworks (and the guy who
donated all the unbelievably cool stuff in our "Blackbird Suite") is going
to be visiting us again soon.

Bill actually ran Area 51 for a few years, and was instrumental in the
development and deployment of the SR-71 (and a whole slew of other stuff
that hasn't been declassified yet.) from Kelly Johnson's Lockheed
Skunkworks.

I've made a list of questions to ask him when he gets here, but if you have
any questions about the Blackbird, the U-2, or any other Lockheed Skunkworks
stuff, post 'em here and I'll ask him for ya!

Ask Bill if one or more SR-71's were lost during the Shuttle explosion
after being launched in Florida.

Sorry, Big John -- that'll have to wait for Bill's next visit. He's off to
Charles City, and then to the desert Southwest for the winter...

Haven't seen you here for a while... How're you doing?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay

Still in long recovery from heart surgery. Had/have Afib and they
burned the inside of upper chamber out with RF energy vs cutting with
a knife. May never recover ( Have fallen 5-6 times in past month-six
weeks just trying to walking around the house.

Also loss of feeling (dead nerves) in my fingers make typing a chore.

Have pretty much gone to the lurker stage.

First Cold, Cold, Cold snap of year and freeze last night. Nothing
like IA of course where I grew up and you know about.

And a very Merry Xmas to you and yours.

Older than mud-------Big John

I can remeber going to silent movies and when the first 'talkie' came
out.
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On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 14:09:24 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Ask Bill if one or more SR-71's were lost during the Shuttle explosion
after being launched in Florida.

Sorry, Big John -- that'll have to wait for Bill's next visit. He's off to
Charles City, and then to the desert Southwest for the winter...

Haven't seen you here for a while... How're you doing?

Still in long recovery from heart surgery. Had/have Afib and they
burned the inside of upper chamber out with RF energy vs cutting with
a knife. May never recover ( Have fallen 5-6 times in past month-six
weeks just trying to walking around the house.

Geez, take it easy! As you know, falling down has a way of reducing your
odds of getting back up. They say your balance is the last thing to come
back after major surgery...

Sounds like maybe you need to get up in a Decathlon for some "unusual
attitude recovery" practice... I'll bet we could rustle up a few volunteers
here to take you up?!

;-)

First Cold, Cold, Cold snap of year and freeze last night. Nothing
like IA of course where I grew up and you know about.

Yep -- got down to 6 above zero here yesterday, with stiff winds making if
feel much colder. Today started off cold, but a fresh wind out of the south
has it warmed all the way up to 30 degrees. Man, it feels like summer,
after yesterday! (We flew over to Dubuque for breakfast -- did 180 knots
up, and 102 knots back...)

And a very Merry Xmas to you and yours.

And to you, Big John. All of us here really appreciate your wisdom, good
humor, and wonderful stories.

Blue skies, my friend!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Wow, I'm still amazed that you got to talk to this guy. Imagine all the Art
Bell / Coast to Coast/ X-Files / Conspiracy theory / Shadow Government /
Aliens-at-Area 51 geeks out there who would peel their skin off to see this
fellow!

He's The Man in all those Sci Fi movies where the spooks run around Area 51,
or the sinister project director and his henchmen show up at some crashsite,
remove all the evidence and the witnesses too.

I wonder what it's like to go through life knowing that there's a whole
subset of America who doesn't even know about you and yet there are movies,
radio programs, websites, TV shows and books written in which you're
universally the Chief Spook.

-c