In the cockpit of the fastest plane in the world: Spy pilot tells his tale

He fondly recalls that at the time no one could keep up with the legendary plane, which has held the record for the fastest manned aircraft since 1976.

The Lockheed Blackbird SR-71 could fly at Mach 3.4, which is 2,588 mph, and at an altitude of 90,000 feet. It entered service in the United States Air Force in 1964 and was finally retired in 1998. Its speed and ability to fly at high altitudes made it practically invulnerable to weaponry of the time, and no Blackbird was ever lost through enemy action.

Colonel Graham flew the Blackbird SR-71 on missions during the Vietnam War and to spy on North Korean and Soviet facilities during the Cold War.

But for all his adventures, the 73-year-old Pennsylvania native, who still teaches at flight schools in Texas, retains a humility and unassuming manner which belie his daredevil career of 25 years in the USAF.

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Learning to fly was always in Col Graham’s blood. He began at an early age before serving as a combat pilot in Vietnam and moving on to fly the Blackbird. ‘My dad taught me how to fly when I was 16. He was a former US Navy pilot, and that’s where I got my love of flying,’ he said.

‘I always wanted to get into the air force and I joined in 1964. I flew the F4 Phantom in Vietnam for a year and a half – 210 combat missions in total. My follow-on assignment was in Okinawa, Japan, and that’s where the SR-71 was flying out of. I saw this black aircraft flying around, and I thought, I’ll try for that.

‘I flew the Blackbird from 1974 to 1981. After Vietnam we used our base in Okinawa to cover North Korea and used to fly missions down the middle of the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea to get images.

‘We also covered Vladivostok, where the Russians had their largest naval base in the Pacific, and at the very end of the Kamchatka Peninsula is a place called Petropavlovsk – we used to go and image it because the Russians had a nuclear testing facility and a nuclear sub pen there.’

Despite the high-risk nature of his missions, Col Graham said that the Blackbird’s exceptional capabilities and the excellent training programme gave air crews great confidence.

‘For my generation, there was probably not a missile the SR-71 couldn’t outrun, jam or dodge if necessary,’ he explained. ‘The missiles built by Russia and China were designed to shoot down fighters at 30,000 to 40,000 feet. At 80,000 feet, where the Blackbird operated, there’s no air, so the fins which turned the missiles did not work.

The Lockheed Blackbird SR-71

‘Often you could see the electronic indications that surface-to-air missiles were being fired at you, even though they weren’t because they could fake it. But you were trained real good – I don’t think any air crew would say they were scared.

‘The most memorable mission I flew on was when I was flying up to the Kamchatka Peninsula to image Petropavlovsk. At about 70,000 feet I looked down and saw a perfect storm and the distinct contrails of three enemy airplanes in a circular orbit.

‘They put their afterburners on to come up to get me while still at about 40,000 feet. The backseater, or navigator, has a special sight that looks directly beneath the SR-71, so I told him, “Turn on your view-sight, we’ve got some MiGs coming!”.

‘Then he said to me: “Rich, there goes number one, there’s number two and there’s number three”. He could take a snapshot of what he’d seen and we saw the happy snaps after the mission, which showed the MiGs just falling out of the sky on their way up to us. They just couldn’t get up to our altitude – the main defences for the Blackbird were speed and altitude.

‘Head-on was the best way for an enemy fighter to engage the Blackbird, because they were unable to tail-chase it. But if I’m at Mach 3 and he’s at Mach 2, the closure rate between us would be Mach 5. The fire control system of a MiG just couldn’t handle a closure at that speed. It just couldn’t compute it.’

As can be imagined, Col Graham went through an intensive training programme to become a Blackbird pilot. ‘The training took nine months and was very intense – just getting through the physical was hard enough,’ he said.

‘It’s not as hard as for an astronaut, but it’s higher than for a fighter pilot. During training, you met up with your navigator and that’s who you flew with for the rest of your career. In the SR-71, flying at 2,000 mph, you both have to know each other intimately. For every flight you had a physical, and if you or the navigator didn’t pass you both would be grounded and replaced with a back-up crew.

Former US Air Force Colonel Richard Graham

‘I wouldn’t call the SR-71 a difficult plane to fly – you could fly it through the autopilot. When the camera was working we had to have the auto-pilot on to get good smooth imagery.

‘But during missions, the skin temperature of the aircraft gets to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit, so we had to be very careful. The aircraft could bend very easily up there once it heated up.’

Col Graham said that the Blackbird SR-71 still had more to offer despite its retirement in 1998, and described the decision as premature.

He added: ‘The biggest problem we had was the SR-71 didn’t bring a lot of value to the USAF. It brought a lot of value to the intelligence agencies in Washington DC, that’s who we worked for. I always felt that this plane from day one should not have been put in the military. It should have been an intelligence community-owned plane.’

Looking back on his career, Col Graham said his most memorable period was as a fighter pilot in Vietnam. ‘The fondest memory for me was the camaraderie of flying combat missions in Vietnam. I say fond memories, but some of them were sad. A lot of good stuff happened and a lot of bad stuff happened.’

But he was quick to encourage anyone to pursue a career in the air force: ‘For kids today who need a direction or focus in life, the military is the place to go. It gives you a sense of self-esteem and self-worth like nowhere else.’

*Col Graham’s talk at the Pomme d’Or Hotel raised funds for the Royal Air Force Association (Jersey). It was presented by RAFA (Jersey) and the CI Group of Professional Engineers.

Islanders of a certain age will remember when Jersey was rattled twice daily by the sonic boom of the French Concorde arriving at or leaving from Paris.

While some of those on the ground disliked the noise of it, others delighted in the twice-daily reminder of the sleek supersonic aircraft overhead.

And on a clear day you could make out the distinctive delta-winged shape as she flew high over the Channel Islands towards her destination.

Jersey pilot Jeff Huson flew Concorde for more than eight years.

Mr Huson spoke affectionately of Concorde. ‘It was just amazing, with an awesome amount of power. It was nothing like a conventional airliner.’

He said he’d met an RAF fighter pilot on one occasion. ‘He flew in his jet at 60,000 feet wearing a flying suit and helmet, we did it in our shirtsleeves,’ he said.

‘The technology was so far ahead of its time. Concorde flew faster than the military aircraft that were around then.’

Concorde draws a crowd at Jersey Airport in 1987

As captain of the aircraft, Mr Huson met the great, the good – and the not-so-good. ‘I met Nixon, though he wasn’t president then, and Henry Kissinger, and a few film stars including Tom Cruise – and some Royals, including Princess Diana.’ Runway

And it was he who, on several occasions, among them the 50th anniversary of Jersey Airport, brought his aircraft home and flew, wheels down, just a few metres above the ground along the runway.

Despite years of flying life left, the fleet of supersonic airliners was grounded following the Paris crash in 2000 – not solely because of the crash but also because of events elsewhere – the 1973 oil crisis, the financial difficulties of many airlines, and environmental concerns. And when France pulled the plug in 2003, Britain followed because the company which built spare parts for the aircraft ceased to do so.

Concorde could fly again if the will – and sufficient money – were available, but it is unlikely.

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