Thanks Bro, I'm elderly and my computer skills ain't stellar.

What year if you don't mind me asking? I think my grandfather may have been a crew chief on those planes but he didn't talk about it at all. He took that top secret stuff real seriously after 23 years of service.

I was over there in 1977 and yes, if you don't take that top secret stuff serious you will likely wind up in Ft. Leavenworth for an extended period (unless you're Hillary Clinton). Although the Habu has been retired doesn't mean everything about it has been declassified.

We had one declare an emergency and land at Carswell. He called in over Alaska and landed 30 minutes later and taxied directly into a hanger. If you had a line badge you could see it up close. It uses Jp-7 fuel so they had to send a special tanker to refuel it.

That's an awesome story. Great that LA Center got a kick out of it too.

The plane parked behind the SR-71's in the photo is a U-2. Although not supersonic it was a unique piece of work also. Glide ratio of 23:1 it could lose power and glide half way across Texas before touching ground.

Back when they had a free air shuttle from Ellington in South Houston to IAH on the North side, AND free parking, WITH security....

I'd travel out of there mostly for the free parking. Back then I saw BOTH the SR 71 and the U 2 off and on at Ellington Field. Both were painted in NASA white and blue, not the stealth black you see in most pics. I've seen both, and a host of other aircraft, over my fish farm, practicing, I suppose.

That free shuttle, which was in a small plane itself and got you through security easily) is long gone and I have to drive up to North Houston and pay outrageously to park when I fly nowadays. I miss it, but still see all manner of flying things above my farm in Danbury.

Back in 1989 to 1998 I worked at the Maintenance Depot at Kelly AFB before the Brack shut it down and moved the workload to Georgia, and B-52's to Oklahoma.
We had to have security clearance to work on the B-52's because of installing the cruise missile mods. They are an incredible aircraft and as mentioned the crew is set in pretty tight quarters.
There is a SR-71 on static display on the parade ground at the AF training facility or Joint Base Lackland as they call it now.
I watched it circle the field and make it's final landing when it arrived.
Pretty awesome aircraft I won't forget.
Brought back memories, thanks for posting!

TA-I, F-8, F-86, C-47, F-101, T-38, F-104, F-4, F-14, F-105, T-39, B-52, B-747, U-2, SR-71. that's all that I can ID. The two civilian aircraft look like a starship and a DH-7 but I don't know civilian aircraft that well. Then there are three military ones I don't know, one of which is on the far right. I have no idea what the might be.

777 pretty sure that is a mockup of the space plane, nasa. this is a pic of it ready for launch, that back booster drops for glide back to earth.

Do you remember about what year that was Bob?

Not completely sure but I don't think there has ever been a SR-71 painted white. I know for a fact they didn't allow pencils anywhere around them. If you made a pencil mark on them they would crack in that spot when they got up to speed. A good friend of mine was an instrument man working on them. I think the same is true with the U-2. My son in law worked on U-2 fuel systems and said he never heard of a white one.

Looks pretty white to me.

I believe this is an A-12....predecessor of the SR-71.

NASA flew 2 of them in white paint scheme between 1991 & 1997.