<story><title>Pilot explains how he Survived Blackbird Disintegration at Mach 3.2</title><url>https://theaviationgeekclub.com/sr-71-pilot-explains-how-he-survived-to-his-blackbird-disintegration-at-a-speed-of-mach-3-2/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>austinl</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d highly recommend the book &lt;i&gt;Skunk Works&lt;/i&gt; by Ben Rich. It&amp;#x27;s about the engineering team at Lockheed Martin that designed the Blackbird (and the U-2, and several other amazing planes), and describes many of the engineering challenges in detail.</text></item><item><author>mattlondon</author><text>I love hearing these stories about these little automatic backups and failsafes kicking-in and heroically doing their jobs in the case of unthinkable situations (e.g
 the flight suit emergency oxygen, automatic parachute etc here).  I get kinda goose pimples thinking about all the systems that were probably spasmodically firing off in that last second or two or flight (and perhaps in the split seconds after breakup if they had power still?), trying their damn best to valiantly do their final important tasks, even when doomed to fail.&lt;p&gt;Kudos to all the engineers involved.&lt;p&gt;Anyone got any other first-hand stories or links to similar stuff?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>inasio</author><text>My favorite part of the new Top Gun movie was the first 10-15 minutes. It features a very nice looking plane with a cool skunk logo [0]&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.lockheedmartin.com&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;dam&amp;#x2F;lockheed-martin&amp;#x2F;aero&amp;#x2F;photo&amp;#x2F;skunkworks&amp;#x2F;Homepage&amp;#x2F;classified3.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.lockheedmartin.com&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;dam&amp;#x2F;lockheed-martin&amp;#x2F;a...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Pilot explains how he Survived Blackbird Disintegration at Mach 3.2</title><url>https://theaviationgeekclub.com/sr-71-pilot-explains-how-he-survived-to-his-blackbird-disintegration-at-a-speed-of-mach-3-2/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>austinl</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d highly recommend the book &lt;i&gt;Skunk Works&lt;/i&gt; by Ben Rich. It&amp;#x27;s about the engineering team at Lockheed Martin that designed the Blackbird (and the U-2, and several other amazing planes), and describes many of the engineering challenges in detail.</text></item><item><author>mattlondon</author><text>I love hearing these stories about these little automatic backups and failsafes kicking-in and heroically doing their jobs in the case of unthinkable situations (e.g
 the flight suit emergency oxygen, automatic parachute etc here).  I get kinda goose pimples thinking about all the systems that were probably spasmodically firing off in that last second or two or flight (and perhaps in the split seconds after breakup if they had power still?), trying their damn best to valiantly do their final important tasks, even when doomed to fail.&lt;p&gt;Kudos to all the engineers involved.&lt;p&gt;Anyone got any other first-hand stories or links to similar stuff?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jeffdn</author><text>Such a fascinating read! I particularly enjoyed the part where they are testing the radar cross section of Have Blue, the initial design for the F-117. They had put it up on the test stand, but think the radar is malfunctioning, as they don&amp;#x27;t see any returns on the scope. Finally, they get a tiny return -- a bird had landed on the test object!</text></comment>