March 6, 1990 – The final flight of the Lockheed SR- 71 Blackbird, marking its first retirement. During the Cold War, the United States was desperate to get timely, accurate intelligence on the Soviet Union. After years of flying the Lockheed U-2, the Russians were catching up to the high-flying soarer, and the downing of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in 1960 meant that the U-2 was vulnerable. A new aircraft was needed to continue the spying missions. But the search for a replacement had already begun in 1957, as Lockheed and the Central Intelligence Agency began work on anaircraft that could fly higher and faster than the U-2. Lockheed also experimented with technologies to reduce the aircraft’ s radar signature, the precursor to what we know as Stealth technology today. The result of those studies led to the singleseat A-12, which first flew in 1962. The A-12 was followed by the SR-71, which increased the fuel and sensors load and added a second crew member to handle the reconnaissance work. While the A-12 was lighter and faster, and could outperform the SR- 71, the SR-71 was a more capable reconnaissance aircraft. Powered by 2 Pratt & Whitney J58-1 continuous bleed afterburning turbojets, the Blackbird was capable of Mach 3.3 at 80,000 feet.
It could not be shot down by the surface-to-air missiles of the day, and was faster than any Russian fighter at the time. As a result, no SR-71 was ever lost to enemy fire. In addition to its reconnaissance work, the Blackbird was also a record setter. It holds numerous world records over a recognized course( such as a flight from New York to London) and, in 1976, the Blackbird set the records for altitude in horizontal flight and speed over a straight course by flying at 85,068.997 feet at an average of 2,193.167 mph. It also set the record for speed over a closed course( departing and returning to the same location), flying 1000 km at an average speed of 2,092.294 mph. Inevitably, government budget restraints forced the end of the Blackbird’ s mission, even though it was continuing to provide excellent reconnaissance information. For the Blackbird’ s final flight, pilot Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and reconnaissance systems officer Lt. Col. Joseph Vida flew from Palmdale, California to Washington Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia. Along the way, and true to form for the untouchable SR-71, Yielding and Vida set a record time for the flight from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, making the trip in 1 hour, 4 minutes, 20 seconds, with an average speed of 2,124 mph. The SR-71A, serial number 61-17972, was donated to the Smithsonian Institution and now resides in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’ s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. On September 28, 1994, Congress voted to restart the Blackbird program, but its second life lasted only 5 brief years before it was retired for good in 1999.
A plane crash claims the life of country music singer Patsy Cline. Following a benefit concert in Kansas City, Kansas, Cline was unable to leave following the show because the local airport was fogged in, and she passed on a an offer of a car ride to Nashville, opting to fly out the next day. On the day of the crash, she boarded a Piper PA- 24 Comanche( N-7000P, not the aircraft illustrated) for the flight to Nashville, and after stopping for fuel in Dyersburg, Tennessee, the pilot chose to continue