Non-Google-Books versions:<p>Test pilot Bill Weaver's personal account <i>(exact same text)</i> -- <a href="http://www.barthworks.com/aviation/sr71breakup.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.barthworks.com/aviation/sr71breakup.htm</a><p>Very similar 3rd-person account -- <a href="http://www.thexhunters.com/xpeditions/sr-71a_952_accident.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.thexhunters.com/xpeditions/sr-71a_952_accident.ht...</a>
A little more mundane and uplifting SR-71 story about a ground speed check.<p><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/rec.aviation.stories/ueI6JKeEomo" rel="nofollow">https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/rec.avia...</a>
"As an outgrowth of Bill Weaver's inability to see out of his faceplate from the ice buildup, futre SR-71 ejection seats incorporated a battery pack that continued to keep the glass faceplate heated during the frigid descent."<p>The amount of engineering and refinement that goes into these safety systems really amazes me. They learn from everything in aviation and put it to good use.
Some other interesting moments of aeronautical derring-do:<p>Imagine piloting an unpowered aircraft with no wings which could best be described as a "flying bathtub" and by "flying" what is meant is "falling". This is the M2-F{1,2,3}, designed to test lifting body aerodynamics and unpowered landings, much of this research helped in the design of the shuttle orbiter. But in 1967 pilot Bruce Peterson was involved in a spectacular crash that was later used in the opening of the TV show The Six Million Dollar Man, he survived: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jvGJhJINlc" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jvGJhJINlc</a><p>Also consider the X-15. Unlike the SR-71 the X-15 didn't cruise around at high speeds it just accelerated to very high speeds using a rocket engine and then glided. These aircraft, dropped off the wing of a B-52, these aircraft would eventually travel up to nearly mach 7 and over 100 km altitude. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15</a><p>Also it's worth considering that the Space Ship One rocket powered sub-orbital space plane gets up to around mach 3 on ascent: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne</a><p>Or, consider the Apollo 10 spacecraft, which reentered the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of nearly 40,000 kph after returning from the moon (over ten times the highest recorded speed of the SR-71).
Amazing reading this. Especially his thought process. After he comes out of "blackout", he goes right to work running a checklist and taking inventory of his assets. The part about the seatbelts, in this context, is a priceless example of how to keep your cool. Sometimes you don't want to know or need to know everything.
I own a print copy of this book, it's good stuff.<p>I picked it up soon after reading Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed [1], an incredible book which recounts development of the U2, SR-71 and F-117A.<p>1: <a href="http://amzn.com/0316743003" rel="nofollow">http://amzn.com/0316743003</a>
He mentions that it was his "first ever parachute landing", but I can't imagine a SR-71 test pilot wouldn't have been trained in parachute landings. Any idea why?
This is interesting for so many reasons, very good book (both in stories and writing). The most useful bit probably when he explained why the suit inflated, exactly like the way Baumgartner's balloon inflated earlier today when it reached the upper atmosphere.
Here's a video of another high speed Blackbird breakup, from a D-21 drone release:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMyC2urCl_4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMyC2urCl_4</a><p>The debris just keeps on going because of the huge momentum and thin air at those speeds and altitudes.
If you like this sort of books, don't forget to check "X-15; extending the frontier of flight":
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/aero_x15_detail.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/aero_x15_detail.html</a>