SR-71 pilot, photographer and storyteller Brian Shul dies at 75 | Hacker News Reader

SR-71 pilot, photographer and storyteller Brian Shul dies at 75

newatlas.com

169 pointsclouddrover50 comments

ObKingofSpeed: https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Stories/sr-71-blac...

I absolutely love the wry, tongue-in-cheek, laconic writing style. As a fan of the SR, you almost know what's coming, and you know you're enjoying the ride till the mic drops.

Never gets old.

As soon I saw the article I wondered “maybe this was the guy that wrote that amazing SR-71 speed check story”

RIP, what a life, what a character!

Check out his book “Sled Driver” as that story comes from there and is only a single amazing story out of many from that book.

alas, it's been OOP for a long time, and copies are seriously expensive.

I don't know if this is justifiable but I've always considered that story a significant piece of web heritage as much as anything else. It's from a book that sold few enough copies that it's $400 on Amazon right now, as a measure, but it's a beloved piece of folklore that's been exclusively spread by people lovingly repeating it to each-other in conversation threads for the past 20 years.

I'm struggling to come up with any other examples that have lasted as long that are as beloved.

RIP

The book was $1000+ on eBay for quite some time, there was a bootleg very-poor-quality PDF that was passed around for a long time.

He came to Hiller Aviation Museum to speak a few years ago, so I had to go. Turns out they had reprinted the book so it was only $150 or $200 or something, and I jumped at the chance to get a copy and get it autographed.

Growing up nothing captured my imagination as much as the SR 71. Not rockets and astronauts, not fast cars, not other fighters or experimental aircraft (thanks, Dumpy Pocket book of aircraft and flight), not cool warships, not nuclear submarines... nothing. To be sure, they were all awe-inspiring, insanely cool machines that kid-me would nerd out on. I knew all the stats. But the SR was on its own pedestal in my head, apart from everything else. I can't explain why, but it was like that. Now-me continues to be as awe-struck, but for other reasons; having read/understood something of the engineering and project management and operational work that went into making and flying that never-before-was, never-will-be work of art.

(edit: better words)

I feel ya!

Did you grow up in the US? If so, did you ever watch the show “wings” on the discovery channel? It used to be part of my after school lineup, right along with shows like saved by the bell. I used to argue with friends in the schoolyard about which jet was the best, between Migs, Sukhois, and the NATO jets.

I miss that show. My first website (on tripod) was even about the SR-71 and the F-117.

"Wings"! It stirred faded memories. Our family got cable in the early 1990s in India. Discovery and National Geographic were staples. Quite possibly---though I can neither confirm nor deny---that is how I got proper wind of the Black Bird. I just saw that YouTube has the episode... and, looks like it features Brian Shul.

The Discovery channel was truly amazing in the 90s. So was TLC. They used to show actual surgeries on TLC and explain what they were doing. And the History channel too was great.

They all had tons of great shows. I have a tough time seeing all the reality and alien conspiracy theory nonsense on there these days.

Yes! And "Wings of the Red Star" narrated by Peter Ustinov.

My friends had posters of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, etc., and I had the SR-71 and space Shuttle on my wall.

An Ustinov documentary? Now I'm listening! His musical documentaries left such an impression on me. Ustinov was a raconteur like no other.

The SR-71 has a special place in so many hearts. I don't know why but I always imagined the SR-71 as a pretty large plane. I saw one IRL finally a few years ago at a museum in Tucson AZ and was surprised how small it was. It looked about the size of an F-15.

Size of the F-15 is 19.43m, size of SR-71 is 32.74 m. I'd say it is pretty big difference and 32+ meters does not seem small.

When I was a kid, my uncle (a construction contractor) worked on a contract for a few months at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California, where SR-71s were based, and one day he took me along. I got to see the actual planes on the runway from behind a chain-link fence, warming up for takeoff. It's one of the my memorable experiences - the planes are huge, the engines are loud, the jet fuel was steaming off the tarmac, it felt like being in a sci-fi film. I can still see it like it was yesterday.

That was a few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and I was sure we were all going to get nuked.

Watching fighter aircraft take off in close quarters is quite the experience. The SR-71 must have been epic.

This one time, I was in a civilian aircraft, on a shared military/civilian airport. It was nearing twilight. Our cute little Airbus A320 was nosing about and stopped alongside a Sukhoi 30-MKI (the squadron is based there). Now this bird is no pipsqueak. In that light, in that surprise moment, it oozed menace on the tarmac. Then the pilot started letting loose, and a needle-point blue dart jetted out from the afterburners. It felt like the aircraft doubled in length. The roar in our cabin was deafening. The sonic vibration in my body curdled my blood. And then off it went. I almost sprained my neck tracking it. Crazy angle of attack when the pilot nosed up. That was quite the experience.

(edit: typo)

Lohegaon?

I too had a very similar experience there. The jet of blue from the afterburners is truly a sight to behold!

On a different note, the Sukhois would routinely trigger car alarms in the building where I worked, whenever they flew past :)

Yes :)

Tangentially related question: I've always wondered why afterburners on more modern Soviet/Russian engines seem to glow blue, while European or American jets seem to have a more orangey glow. Anyone here know why?

My understanding is that afterburner flame color mostly comes down to temperature. American jets have blue afterburners, too, at lower power levels, it turns orange towards the upper limit. Maybe Russian jets typically have the maximum dialed down, or that's just the limit of the particular design. I know that it is (or was, at least, 30 years ago) pretty common in the US for Air National Guard fighters to have stops installed when they're training, and not on alert status. IIRC they were typically capped at zone 1 (out of 5 available)[0]. Barely visible at all.

[0] That's 30 year old memories right there, take with a heaping spoonful of salt. I used to know a fighter pilot in Portland flying F-15s and learned a lot about their operations. But memory fades...

Just a week ago, I finished reading "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed", what an incredible book about the SR-71 and other edge cutting planes, not only from the engineering and pioneer perspective, it also shows the perspective of some of the pilots and how risky and difficult their missions were.

Completely worth the read.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/101438

It's been a while, but very good book. Loved the "Have Blue" (F-117 precursor) testing.

Model on a pole. Tech not getting any radar return and thought it fell off the pole. Bird lands on the model, and they get a return...

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-behind-the-photo-o...

On of my favorite stories of Brian Shul is “What was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird?”

If you have 5 min, it's well worth reading

https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Stories/sr-71-blac...

When he describes the appearance of the plane in the flyby, don't forget in your mind to picture 2 long trails of fire with Mach diamonds. It was a hazy day at full throttle after all!

A small part of me, and I suspect of many people, yearns for the insanity of such major power competition, as it leads to the funding of new, outrageous projects. Without it, all we get is boring, sensible, long-term investment. Where is my 21st-century SR-71?

Noticed all this hubbub about AI yet?

webb?

By the double "B" I assume that you mean James and not World Wide? In my opinion, both qualify.

> Where is my 21st-century SR-71?

Flying during night time only from Groom Lake, most likely.

Reusable spacecraft IMO. Starship hopefully soon.

China's quantum-encrypted communication network. The US probably has one, too, but the Chinese publication rate on the subject for the last decade or so has been remarkable.

I don't know much about him apart from him being an amazing story teller. I've listened to this story told by him about 25 times. I hope y'all enjoy it too. It's called the LA speed check story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg73GKm7GgI

That's such a great story. He reads it like a David Saderis monologue, always brings a smile to my face.

It reminds me of the US airmen stationed near where we lived when I was growing up in the UK.

EDIT: From one of the other linked stories:

> I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England...

OK that definitely brings a smile to my face. :D

Enjoyed that!

I finally made my pilgrimage to see the Blackbird at the Smithsonian yesterday, the legendary story being the thing that first enamoured me with that incredible plane.

The timing makes the trip all the more heavy.

If anyone gets the chance I'd highly recommend visiting. Free entry and the amount of history packed into that hanger is truly surreal.

Seconded! The SR-71 is at the (newer, bigger) Udvar-Hazy center. The original location in Washington was showing its age last time I was there but also has some amazing, one-of-a-kind, artifacts.

Take some time out of your day and watch this presentation[1]. Regardless if you have any interest in the SR-71 or not.

I’m not a particularly sentimental person but hearing the following from Shul has stuck with me and feels like an appropriate reminder for today.

> Life is short and it’s uncertain. It’s not one or the other it’s both. And because it is you can’t possibly miss the gift that each day is.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hFJMs15sVSY

This just makes me jealous that I don't have as amazing a job as flying fighter jets or military test pilot, honestly.

If you like SR-71 nerdery, clear your calendar for a few hours to read these:

https://authors.library.caltech.edu/105515/

"As flight testing increased to the higher Mach numbers, new problems arose. One, which today may be considered simple with our modern computer techniques, concerned the remote gearbox. The gearbox mounts started to exhibit heavy wear and cracks, and the long drive shaft between the engine and the gearbox started to show twisting and heavy spline wear. After much slide-ruling, we finally decided that the location of the gearbox relative to the engine was unknown during high Mach number transients. We resorted to the simple test of putting styluses on the engine and mounting a scratch plate on the gearbox. We found, to our astonishment, that the gearbox moved about 4 inches relative to the engine. This was much more than the shaft between the engine and the gearbox could take. The problem was solved by providing a new shaft containing a double universal joint."

My physics teacher in high school was a former SR-71 pilot and loved to tell brief stories of what is was like to fly over the Soviet Union in an SR-71.

Most of his stories very short and usually ended in "I can't tell you any more than that because it's classified". I could tell that there was so much he wanted to tell, but couldn't.

I saw his name mentioned in an article about an SR-71 that had to make an emergency landing in Norway, so I bet he'd have some really interesting things to say if it weren't mostly classified.

He died just having finished a passionate speech about the SR-71. What a legend he was. RIP, Brian, you'll be greatly missed.

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/sr-71-pilot-brian-shul-famou...

Reading this thread, I've picked up two new places to see one, and I've visited two already (Tucson and Seattle).

A great, great man.

There is a list of Blackbirds on display over at https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/locations.php

btw, in Seattle I wanted to buy a Blackbird t-shirt. The closest they had was a Lockheed shirt, with Blackbird on the sleeve.

I'm sure there must be one out there somewhere.

I saw the one in Seattle and I was surprised at how small it was. I was envisioning it being quite a large aircraft.

If anyone is in Cali and wants to see the blackbird, there’s one at March Air force base in SoCal.

Rest in peace. A life well lived, it would seem.

He'll always be an inspiration for many people, myself included.

His SR-71 tales are a cornerstone of internet culture and aviation history, may he rest in peace and our sharing of his tales continue into eternity.

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