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Comment by cyberferret | Hacker News Reader

That story is out of Brian Schul's book (he used to be an SR-71 pilot). I am lucky enough that years ago, a girl who had a crush on me bought me that book. Its out of print now, and I've seen copies on eBay for > $1000.

Next to Ben Rich's "Skunk Works", it is one of the best books on the SR-71 that I have ever read.

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> Its out of print now, and I've seen copies on eBay for > $1000.

For the rest of us there's this great talk from Brain Schul which covers this story and a few others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigZsFypdyI

That was amazing. Thanks for linking it!

What happened to the girl? Did you marry her? That was a good, thoughtful gift.

It's one of those "it's complicated" things. She had a boyfriend at the time etc., then she moved cities and we lost touch. Shame - she was a really good friend too, and we used to talk about planes and Formula 1 racing for hours.

You should try to get back in touch. Good friends are hard to find; hold on to them tightly.

Wow. $1000!! I own two copies because I thought I had lost mine and so bought a second for $10 or so. Then I found the first one.

For fun I check eBay every year or so. I've seen them on there anything from $50 sometimes, right up to $3600 I think was the highest I've ever seen. Average is around the $1000 usually. I think it depends on whether it is first edition or not, or signed by Brian at an airshow etc.

Hang on to your two - could be a better retirement plan than crypto currency! :D

EDIT: Here is one current listing ~USD$640 - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Sled-Driver-Flying-the-Worlds-Fa...

Would you be willing to lend one out to be scanned for the Internet Archive? I have no relation other than finding books to be digitized and paying for/coordinating the scanning.

I’m willing to provide insurance and proof of my identity to ensure your property is respected.

I have a scan. Email is rory at (either) domain in profile.

It only came out in 1991 though — does Internet Archive host books that aren't public domain?

I will be in touch.

> It only came out in 1991 though — does Internet Archive host books that aren't public domain?

Yes. https://openlibrary.org/

PDFs are pretty easy to find, it's only the physical book which is rare.

How does one go about doing this? I have access to some obscure technical books that really should be scanned and archived, but don't know anything about the field...

https://archive.org/scanning

http://blog.archive.org/donation-faqs/

I have temporarily added contact info to my HN profile. Please get in touch if you would like me to help facilitate the shipping, scanning, and return of your book donation.

I have it on my Amazon wishlist. It's going for close to $500 right now.

Please suggest some more books on SR 71 BlackBird & SkunkWorks

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