Monday Links from the Gap Between Teams Meetings vol. DCCXXXVII

[DoctorStrangelove]

Rather sadly Major Brian Shul is no more.

Brian Shul collapsed right after giving his famous SR-71 presentation for an audience in Reno, NV on May 20th, 2023.

He was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead from cardiac arrest at the age of 75

Anyway, here's another of his stories: how SLOW can an SR-71 "fly":

As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question I’m most often asked is ‘How fast would that SR-71 fly?’ I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I attend. It’s an interesting question, given the aircraft’s proclivity for speed, but there really isn’t one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little more speed if you wanted it to. It was common to see 35 miles a minute.

Because we flew a programmed Mach number on most missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run out to any limits of temperature or speed.. Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own individual ‘high’ speed that he saw at some point on some mission. I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max power was in order. Let’s just say that the plane truly loved speed and effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadn’t previously seen.

So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, ‘What was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird?’ This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story that I had never shared before, and I relayed the following.

I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England, with my back-seater, Walt Watson; we were returning from a mission over Europe and the Iron Curtain when we received a radio transmission from home base. As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 fly-past. The air cadet commander there was a former Blackbird pilot, and thought it would be a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low approach. No problem, we were happy to do it. After a quick aerial refuelling over the North Sea, we proceeded to find the small airfield.

Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment in the back seat, and began to vector me toward the field. Descending to subsonic speeds, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in a slight haze. Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were close and that I should be able to see the field, but I saw nothing. Nothing but trees as far as I could see in the haze. We got a little lower, and I pulled the throttles back from 325 knots we were at. With the gear up, anything under 275 was just uncomfortable. Walt said we were practically over the field-yet; there was nothing in my windscreen. I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver in hopes of picking up anything that looked like a field. Meanwhile, below, the cadet commander had taken the cadets up on the catwalk of the tower in order to get a prime view of the fly-past. It was a quiet, still day with no wind and partial gray overcast. Walter continued to give me indications that the field should be below us but in the overcast and haze, I couldn’t see it. The longer we continued to peer out the window and circle, the slower we got. With our power back, the awaiting cadets heard nothing. I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me I better cross-check the gauges. As I noticed the airspeed indicator slide below 160 knots, my heart stopped and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed two throttles full forward. At this point we weren’t really flying, but were falling in a slight bank. Just at the moment that both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame (and what a joyous feeling that was) the aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the tower. Shattering the still quiet of that morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their face as the plane levelled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer than expected, maintaining what could only be described as some sort of ultimate knife-edge pass.

Quickly reaching the field boundary, we proceeded back to Mildenhall without incident. We didn’t say a word for those next 14 minutes. After landing, our commander greeted us, and we were both certain he was reaching for our wings. Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 fly-past he had ever seen, especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could only be described as breathtaking. He said that some of the cadet’s hats were blown off and the sight of the plan form of the plane in full afterburner dropping right in front of them was unbelievable. Walt and I both understood the concept of ‘breathtaking’ very well that morning and sheepishly replied that they were just excited to see our low approach.

As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight suits, we just sat there-we hadn’t spoken a word since ‘the pass.’ Finally, Walter looked at me and said, ‘One hundred fifty-six knots. What did you see?’ Trying to find my voice, I stammered, ‘One hundred fifty-two.’ We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt said, ‘Don’t ever do that to me again!’ And I never did.

A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officer’s club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 fly-past that he had seen one day. Of course, by now the story included kids falling off the tower and screaming as the heat of the jet singed their eyebrows. Noticing our HABU patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, he asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred. Walt just shook his head and said, ‘It was probably just a routine low approach; they’re pretty impressive in that plane.’

[DoctorStrangelove]

And this is Walter:

[Zigenare]

This guy used to fly the SR-71 and has some great stories, here's one of them

[quackhandle]

That's Warthogs off my pet buying list then.

qh

[northernladuk]

The TfL one was interesting. Some really clever tricks when dealing with the psychology of people in crowded spaces.

I remember being in my 20's doing softskills type courses with CSC. Being American they were hot on this type of thing at the time. Had a guy give us a talk about dealing with people and stakeholders. Always remember a little ditty about the problem with the new massive skyscrapers in Amurica and how to deal with the number of people trying to get to work in a couple of slow lifts. They'd already implemented different lifts for different groups of floors rather than going to each one but how did they pacify the impatient workers in a morning? Went round the room, couldn't work it out but it was fiendishly simple. Mirrors. The reason there are so many mirrors in and around lifts is people will happily people watch/look at themselves and therefore not focus on the speed of the lifts. Early research found a good proportion of people thought they'd sped the lifts up and felt much happier with the journey just because they had mirrors to detract from the trip. Genius.

[ladymuck]

It's a fascinating story - I didn't expect the Bletchley Park connection, but it makes perfect sense. I was tempted to start ordering some of the books in his reading list at the end until I realised that I've already got one of them, and its been sitting unread on the shelf for several years

Died at 34! That was a real shock to see at the end.

[Dactylion]

At the risk of "showing my age"

Who remembers the SR71 Blackbird in Top Trump cards?
(From 70's I guess. No doubt there are multiple re-issues & updates)

I think it was unbeatable for: Cruising/Max Height.
Possibly Thrust and Speed were up there as well, so to speak.

The Lockheed Galaxy was a big boy... Max Wingspan?

but I think the B52 could beat in on number of engines, given it's two-little-uns in each pod.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Back in Black. .

There was a better one with AC/DC but I can't find it these days.

[NickFitz]

Thanks for the Linear B link, took me right back a few years. I have little time for translating now, will be doing so once retired.

It's a fascinating story - I didn't expect the Bletchley Park connection, but it makes perfect sense. I was tempted to start ordering some of the books in his reading list at the end until I realised that I've already got one of them, and its been sitting unread on the shelf for several years

[Gibbon]

Thanks for the Linear B link, took me right back a few years. I have little time for translating now, will be doing so once retired.

[NickFitz]

The Internet may be full of American sports and Taylor Swift today, but luckily there's enough space left on there for other stuff too; like this:

• His Best Friend Was a 250-Pound Warthog. One Day, It Decided to Kill Him. - Nature, red in tooth and claw: ”By the age of thirty, a time when most people are just beginning to think about their mortality, Austin Riley had already conquered his fear of death. He’d come exceedingly close to dying on multiple occasions, including a few months before his first birthday, when doctors discovered a golf ball–size tumor growing inside his infant skull… So as he sat in a pool of his own blood on a beautiful October evening in 2022, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the morbid absurdity of his current predicament.”
• In Nome, Where the Muskoxen Roam … Controversially - More trouble with wildlife: ”During his decade as a musher, Worland, 36, had seen Nome’s muskoxen problems increase. He shared the dog lot with his wife and their friends, and about once a week, when muskoxen got too close, he took on the task of keeping the animals away… No one else witnessed what happened, but one of the animals charged him. Worland received a fatal laceration to his femoral artery, and by the time emergency responders arrived, he had bled out.”
• These fierce, tiny marsupials drop dead after lengthy sex fests – and sometimes become cannibals - ”Antechinuses are perhaps best known for exhibiting semelparity, or ‘suicidal reproduction’… Each year, all antechinus males drop dead at the end of a one to three week breeding season, poisoned by their own raging hormones.” At least they keep it in the family rather than getting us involved
• Scientists Find Optimal Balance of Data Storage and Time - ”Seventy years after the invention of a data structure called a hash table, theoreticians have found the most efficient possible configuration for it.” Somebody once asserted that the preponderance of hierarchical trees in Microsoft’s systems as compared to the extensive use of hash tables in Apple’s was a manifestation of Conway’s Law, reflecting the different management styles of the two companies
• The psychological tricks TfL uses to make London's tube feel faster - HT to ladymuck for this interesting look at how TfL deals with those annoying humans who insist on using its services: ”In 2016, in an effort to battle station congestion, staff at Holborn station in central London ran an experiment. Rather than follow the long-entrenched rule that tells Underground passengers to stand on the right side of the escalator, leaving the left for those in a rush to walk up or down, they asked commuters to stand on both sides… But there was a problem: nobody wanted to break tube etiquette.”
• The ‘Into the Wild’ Bus Was a Pilgrimage Site in the Wilderness. Can It Hold Up in a Museum? - ”The rusty coach where Chris McCandless spent his final days captured the imagination of people all over the world and inspired hundreds of seekers to make dangerous treks to reach it. Now a dedicated team of curators in Alaska have given it new life as a fascinating exhibit—one that tells the story not just of McCandless, but of modern Alaska.” I haven’t seen the film based on his story, but it sounds interesting
• SR-71 Engine Unstart at 83,000 Feet - ”Osterheld monitored his equipment as they neared their closest point to Murmansk. Just as he was recording that a different Soviet radar had begun following them, all hell broke loose. ‘The airplane yawed to the right so far and so fast, it felt like it was going sideways!’ said Osterheld. The SR-71’s right engine had just experienced an ‘intake unstart.’” There are a few interesting SR-71 Blackbird stories on this site, including this one about an engine causing havoc near Novaya Zemlya
• Cracking the Code of Linear B - The story of how Michael Ventris, his interest sparked by a chance encounter, decoded the ancient clay tablets of Knossos: ”When Michael Ventris was still a pupil at Stowe School he saw a display of Greek and Minoan art at Burlington House; and by the sort of accident that changes the path of one’s life, was given an impromptu tour by Sir Arthur Evans, who happened also to be visiting. After viewing some tablets, Ventris had to confirm something that he had heard: ‘Did you say the tablets haven’t been deciphered, Sir?’ The challenge was seductive.”
• Days Of The Year - HT to Halo Jones for this handy site which tells you what you should be celebrating each day: ”Get into the spirit of the day by celebrating, observing, learning and enjoying… The next 24 hours contain a myriad of delightful possibilities to explore!” Today is, among other things, National Clean Out Your Computer Day
• Here’s What Famous Historical Figures Would Look Like Today - Amazing what you can do with a phone and a few filters: ”Magdalena Vissagio decided she would try to see how famous historical figures would look if they lived in modern times. She uses mobile apps to create these edits, specifically FaceApp and AirBrush, and the results are quite impressive.” Pretty sure I’ve seen Alexander the Great hanging out in some of the many student bars round here
  
  

Happy invoicing!