SR-71
Michael Jensen
Lyle exhaled slowly and closed his eyes, taking a moment of calm silence to prepare
himself for the roller coaster that awaited him. He was held in place by countless straps and
harnesses, all clinging to him with a desperate death grip on his insignificant life. ‘My life does
seem insignificant,’ he thought, “when embracing the speeds, I’m was about travel”. One slip,
one mishap, ONE single tile out of alignment; and he’d become an incendiary bomb reeling towards the earth. When flying the fastest, highest flying plane in the world, one couldn’t be too
careful. Of course, even though they were flying over enemy he didn’t worry about being shot
down. If they were fired upon, all they have to do is punch the throttle and out run the enemy.
Lyle opened his eyes as his navigator settled in to the cockpit and began the process
of strapping himself down. Lyle began the process of checks and double checks necessary to
begin the start up. An army of dials stood at attention in front of him, they would provide him
with information about everything from airspeed, to the temperature of the exterior of the
plane as it became searing hot from friction. Finally, it was time.
From behind them, Lyle heard the engines start, they climbed to a scream and then a
roar before finally they began to move. Slowly at first, Lyle edged the plane forward, then he
let loose the throttle and felt the familiar thrill as g-forces crushed him against his seat. He
pulled the controls back and they left earth behind. A few minutes later they were cruising at
Mach 3.5 and nearly ninety thousand feet. Lyle took a brief moment to be grateful to the team
that designed his pressurized suit, it was all that was keeping his blood from boiling. But up
here… up here they were un-touchable.
A few hours later, Lyle closed his eyes for a brief moment and prepared himself to land
the Sr-71 Blackbird.