The Warlord Wednesday: Back to the Beginning OR How I ripped off Edgar Rice Burroughs without having his creative talent. Or how I cashed in on the Conan craze and had nerve to show him getting shot in my cheesy comic book. Or how ripped off Mack Bolan without having any knowledge of firearms,SR 17 spyplanes and so on.

The Warlord Wednesday: Back to the Beginning

OR How I ripped off Edgar Rice Burroughs without having his creative talent.

Or how I cashed in on the Conan craze and had nerve to show him getting shot in my cheesy comic book.

Or how ripped off Mack Bolan without having any knowledge of firearms,SR 17 spyplanes and so on.

The next installment of Warlord Wednesday will be delayed on account of work. While you wait, why don't you check out my very first post almost exactly 4 years ago.

"Land of Fear"
1st Issue Special #8 (November 1975)
Written and Illustrated by Mike Grell

Synopsis: Colonel Travis Morgan, USAF, is forced to ditch his plane after taking fire during a spy mission over the Soviet Union.For some reason,never explained was missing backseat pilot,found in many SR 17 missions.Instead,we find Travis Morgan keeps an Automag,just Mack Bolan used in the Executioner series published then by Pinnacle Books. The pistols were costly to produce and ammunition was never readily available, leading to the demise of the Auto Mag Corporation by 1982. The pistol's reputation and looks have made it popular in cinema and novels and several versions are listed as "Curios and Relics" by the BATFE.

Wonders,did Colonel Travis Morgan kill him,so could store the pistol and ten boxes of ammo,so can crashland and fight off the Russian Army.Two,SR17’s fly high and faster than other jets.No Russian made jet could get close enough to shoot Morgan down.Would did he do,fill the jet full of gold and that’s it’s flying so low and slow,so the Russians could shoot him down?

Some facts,fanboys.After you read this,you might find Colonel Travis Morgan’s first story a bit impossible-even if you add in lots of ‘’it can,if it wants to’’ and your father says so.

The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" was an advanced, long-range, 3+ strategic  It was developed as a black projectfrom the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft in the 1960s by Lockheed and its Skunk Works division. Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was responsible for many of the design's innovative concepts. During reconnaissance missions, the SR-71 operated at high speeds and altitudes to allow it to outrace threats. If a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate and outfly the missile.^[2]

The SR-71 served with the U.S. Air Force from 1964 to 1998. A total of 32 aircraft were built; 12 were lost in accidents, but none lost to enemy action.^[3][4] The SR-71 has been given several nicknames, including Blackbird and Habu.^[5] Since 1976, it has held the world record for the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft, a record previously held by the YF-12.

Contents

  [hide] 

·        1 Development

o   1.1 Background

o   1.2 SR-71

·        2 Design

o   2.1 Airframe

o   2.2 Stealth and threat avoidance

o   2.3 Chines

o   2.4 Air inlets

o   2.5 Engines

o   2.6 Fuel

o   2.7 Aerial Refueling

o   2.8 Astro-Inertial Navigation System

o   2.9 Sensors and payloads

o   2.10 Life support

·        3 Operational history

o   3.1 Initial retirement

o   3.2 Reactivation

o   3.3 Final retirement

o   3.4 SR-71 timeline

o   3.5 Records

o   3.6 Successor

·        4 Variants

·        5 Accidents and aircraft disposition

·        6 Specifications (SR-71A)

·        7 See also

·        8 References

o   8.1 Footnotes

o   8.2 Citations

o   8.3 Bibliography

·        9 External links

Development[edit]

Background[edit]

Lockheed's previous reconnaissance aircraft was the relatively slow U-2, designed for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The 1960 downing of Francis Gary Powers's U-2 underscored the aircraft's vulnerability and the need for faster reconnaissance aircraft. The CIA turned again to Kelly Johnson and Lockheed's Skunk Works, who developed the A-12^[9] and would go on to build upon its design concepts for the SR-71.

The A-12 first flew at Groom Lake (Area 51), Nevada, on 25 April 1962. Thirteen were built; two variants were also developed, including three YF-12A interceptor prototypes, and two M-21 drone carrier variants. The aircraft was meant to be powered by the Pratt & Whitney J58 engine, but development ran over schedule, and it was equipped instead with the less powerful Pratt & Whitney J75. The J58s were retrofitted as they became available, and became the standard powerplant for all subsequent aircraft in the series (A-12, YF-12, M-21) as well as the SR-71. The A-12 flew missions over Vietnam and North Korea before its retirement in 1968. The program's cancellation was announced on 28 December 1966,^[10] due both to budget concerns^[11] and because of the forthcoming SR-71.

SR-71[edit]

A-12 production on what would later become the Blackbird assembly line at Skunk Works

The SR-71 designator is a continuation of the pre-1962 bomber series; the last aircraft built using the series was the XB-70 Valkyrie; however, a bomber variant of the Blackbird was briefly given the B-71 designator, which was retained when the type was changed to SR-71.^[12]

During the later period of its testing, the B-70 was proposed for a reconnaissance/strike role, with an RS-70 designation. When it was clear that the A-12 performance potential was much greater, the Air Force ordered a variant of the A-12 in December 1962.^[13] Originally named R-12^{[N 1]} by Lockheed, the Air Force version was longer and heavier than the A-12, with a longer fuselage to hold more fuel, two seats in the cockpit, and reshaped chines. Reconnaissance equipment included signals intelligence sensors, a side-looking radar and a photo camera.^[13] The CIA's A-12 was a better photo reconnaissance platform than the Air Force's R-12, since the A-12 flew somewhat higher and faster,^[11] and with only one pilot it had room to carry a superior camera^[11] and more instruments.^[14]

During the 1964 campaign, Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater repeatedly criticized President Lyndon B. Johnson and his administration for falling behind the Soviet Union in developing new weapons. Johnson decided to counter this criticism by revealing the existence of the YF-12A Air Force interceptor, which also served as cover for the still-secret A-12,^[15] and the Air Force reconnaissance model since July 1964. Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay preferred the SR (Strategic Reconnaissance) designation and wanted the RS-71 to be named SR-71. Before the July speech, LeMay lobbied to modify Johnson's speech to read SR-71 instead of RS-71. The media transcript given to the press at the time still had the earlier RS-71 designation in places, creating the story that the president had misread the aircraft's designation.^{[16][N 2]}

In 1968, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara canceled the F-12 interceptor program; the specialized tooling used to manufacture both the YF-12 and the SR-71 was also ordered destroyed.^[17] Production of the SR-71 totaled 32 aircraft with 29 SR-71As, 2 SR-71Bs, and the single SR-71C.^[18]

Design[edit]

The flight instrumentation of the SR-71

The SR-71 was designed for flight at over Mach 3 with a flight crew of two in tandem cockpits, with the pilot in the forward cockpit and the Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO) monitoring the surveillance systems and equipment from the rear cockpit.^[19] The SR-71 was designed to minimize its radar cross-section, an early attempt at stealth design.^[20] Finished aircraft were painted a dark blue, almost black, to increase the emission of internal heat and to act as camouflage against the night sky. The dark color led to the aircraft's call sign "Blackbird".

Airframe[edit]

On most aircraft, use of titanium was limited by the costs involved in procurement and manufacture. It was generally used only in components exposed to the highest temperatures, such as exhaust fairings and the leading edges of wings. On the SR-71, titanium was used for 85% of the structure, with much of the rest polymer composite materials.^[21] To control costs, Lockheed used a more easily worked alloy of titanium which softened at a lower temperature.^{[N 3]}

The challenges posed by the SR-71 led Lockheed to develop entirely new fabrication methods to enable its manufacture, and have since been used in the manufacture of many other aircraft. Welding the titanium requires distilled water, as the chlorine present in tap water is corrosive; commonplace cadmium-plated tools could not be used as they also caused corrosion.^[22] Metallurgical contamination was another problem; at one point 80% of the delivered titanium for manufacture was rejected on these grounds.^[23][24]

A Lockheed M-21 with D-21 drone on top

The high temperatures generated during flight required special design and operating techniques. For example, major portions of the skin of the inboard wings were corrugated, not smooth. (Aerodynamicists initially opposed the concept and accused the design engineers of trying to make a Mach 3 variant of the 1920s-eraFord Trimotor, known for its corrugated aluminum skin.^[25]) The heat of flight would have caused a smooth skin to split or curl, but the corrugated skin could expand vertically and horizontally. The corrugation also increased longitudinal strength. Similarly, the fuselage panels were manufactured to fit only loosely on the ground. Proper alignment was achieved only when the airframe heated up and expanded several inches. Because of this, and the lack of a fuel sealing system that could handle the thermal expansion of the airframe at extreme temperatures, the aircraft would leak JP-7 jet fuel on the runway. At the beginning of each mission, the aircraft would make a short sprint after takeoff to warm up the airframe, then refuel before heading off to its destination.

Cooling was carried out by cycling fuel behind the titanium surfaces in the chines. On landing, the canopy temperature was over 300 °C (572 °F).^[25] The red stripes on some SR-71s were to prevent maintenance workers from damaging the skin.

Stealth and threat avoidance[edit]

Water vapor is condensed by the low-pressure vortices generated by the chines outboard of each engine inlet.

The first operational aircraft designed around a stealthy shape and materials, the SR-71 had several features designed to reduce its radar signature. The SR-71 had a radar cross section (RCS) of around 10 square meters.^[26] Drawing on the first studies in radar stealth technology, which indicated that a shape with flattened, tapering sides would reflect most radar energy away from the radar beams' place of origin, engineers added chines and canted the vertical control surfaces inward. Special radar-absorbing materials were incorporated into sawtooth-shaped sections of the aircraft's skin. Cesium-based substances were added to the fuel to somewhat reduce the visibility of the exhaust plumes to radar, although the large and hot exhaust stream produced at speed remained quite apparent. For all this effort, Kelly Johnson later conceded that Soviet radar technology advanced faster than the stealth technology employed against it.^[27]

The SR-71 carried electronic countermeasures, but its greatest protection was its high speed and cruising altitude that made it almost invulnerable to the weapons of its day. Merely accelerating would typically be enough to evade a surface-to-airmissile,^[2] and the plane was faster than the Soviet Union's principal interceptor, the MiG-25.^[28] During its service life, no SR-71 was shot down.^[3]

Chines[edit]

Head-on view of an A-12 on the deck of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum

The SR-71 featured chines, a pair of sharp edges leading aft from either side of the nose along the fuselage. These were not a feature on the early A-3 design; Dr. Frank Rodgers of the Scientific Engineering Institute, a CIA front organization, had discovered that a cross-section of a sphere had a greatly reduced radar reflection, and adapted a cylindrical-shaped fuselage by stretching out the sides of the fuselage.^[29] After the advisory panel provisionally selected Convair's FISH design over the A-3 on the basis of RCS, Lockheed adopted chines for its A-4 through A-6 designs.^[30]

Aerodynamicists discovered that the chines generated powerful vortices and created additional lift, leading to unexpected aerodynamic performance improvements.^[31] The angle of incidence of the delta wings could then be reduced for greater stability and less drag at high speeds; more weight, such as fuel, could be carried to increase range. Landing speeds were also reduced, since the chines' vortices created turbulent flow over the wings at high angles of attack, making it harder for the wings to stall. High-alpha turns were limited by the capability of the engine inlets to ingest air, possibly resulting inflameout.^[32] Pilots were thus warned not to pull more than 3 g and to avoid high angles of attack. The chines also acted like the leading-edge extensions that increase the agility of modern fighters such as the F-5, F-16, F/A-18, MiG-29 and Su-27. The addition of chines also enabled the removal of the planned canard foreplanes.^{[N 4][33][34]}

Air inlets[edit]

Operation of the air inlets and air flow patterns through the J58

The air inlets allowed the SR-71 to cruise at over Mach 3.2 while keeping airflow into the engines at the initial subsonic speeds. At the front of each inlet, a pointed, movable cone called a "spike" was locked in its full forward position on the ground and during subsonic flight. When the aircraft accelerated past Mach 1.6, an internaljackscrew withdrew the spike up to 26 inches (66 cm) inwards,^[35] directed by an analog air inlet computer that took into account pitot-static, pitch, roll, yaw, and angle of attack. Moving the spike tip drew the shock wave riding on it closer to the inlet cowling until it touched just slightly inside the cowling lip. This position reflected the spike shock-wave repeatedly between the spike centerbody and the inlet inner cowl sides, and minimized shock-wave spillage, which caused turbulence over the outer nacelle and wing. This maintained shock pressures while slowing the air to form a Mach 1 shock wave in front of the engine compressor.^[36]

The backside of this "normal" shock wave is subsonic air for ingestion into the engine compressor. This capture of the Mach 1 shock wave within the inlet is called "Starting the Inlet". Tremendous pressures would be built up inside the inlet and in front of the compressor face. Bleed tubes and bypass doors were designed into the inlet and engine nacelles to handle some of this pressure and to position the final shock to allow the inlet to remain "started". Air compressed by the inlet/shockwave interaction was diverted directly into the afterburner to be mixed and burned. This configuration is essentially a ramjet and provides up to 70% of the aircraft's thrust at higher Mach numbers.^[.] Ben Rich, who designed the inlets at Skunk Works, often referred to the engine compressors as "pumps to keep the inlets alive"; he sized the inlets for Mach 3.2 cruise, the aircraft's most efficient speed.^[25] The additional thrust refers to the reduction of engine power required to compress the airflow; the SR-71 was more fuel-efficient at higher speeds, in terms of pounds burned per nautical mile traveled. During one mission, SR-71 pilot Brian Shul flew faster than usual for some time to avoid multiple interception attempts; afterwards, it was discovered that this had reduced fuel consumption.^[37]

In the early years of operation, the analog computers would not always keep up with rapidly changing flight environmental inputs. If internal pressures became too great and the spike was incorrectly positioned, the shock wave would suddenly blow out the front of the inlet, called an "Inlet Unstart." During an unstart, air flow through the engine compressor immediately stopped, thrust dropped, and exhaust gas temperatures rose. The remaining engine's asymmetrical thrust would cause the aircraft to yaw violently to one side. SAS, autopilot, and manual control inputs would fight the yawing, but often the extreme off-angle would reduce airflow in the opposite engine and stimulate "sympathetic stalls". This generated a rapid counter-yawing, often coupled with loud "banging" noises, and a rough ride during which crews' helmets would sometimes strike their cockpit canopies.^[38] One response to a single unstart was unstarting both inlets to prevent yawing, then restarting them both.^[39] Lockheed later installed an electronic control to detect unstart conditions and perform this reset action without pilot intervention.^[40] Beginning in 1980, the analog inlet control system was replaced by a digital system, which reduced unstart instances.^[41]

Engines[edit]

SR-71 Blackbird engine on display at theBattleship Memorial Park

The SR-71's Pratt & Whitney J58-P4 engine was a considerable innovation of the era; the engine could produce a static thrust of 32,500 lbf (145 kN).^[42] The J58 was most efficient around Mach 3.2,^[43] the Blackbird's typical cruising speed. A unique hybrid, the engine can be thought of as a turbojet inside a ramjet. At lower speeds, the turbojet provided most of the compression and most of the energy from fuel combustion. At higher speeds, the turbojet largely ceased to provide thrust; instead, air was compressed by the shock cones and fuel burned in the afterburner.^[42]

In detail, air was initially compressed (and thus also heated) by the shock cones, which generated shock waves that slowed the air down to subsonic speeds relative to the engine. The air then passed through four compressor stages and was split by movable vanes: some of the air entered the compressor fans ("core-flow" air), while the rest of the air went straight to the afterburner (via six bypass tubes). The air traveling through the turbojet was further compressed (and further heated), and then fuel was added to it in the combustion chamber: it then reached the maximum temperature anywhere in the Blackbird, just low enough to keep the turbine blades from softening. After passing through the turbine (and thus being cooled somewhat), the core-flow air went through the afterburner and met with any bypass air.^[.]

Around Mach 3, the increased heating from the shock cone compression, plus the heating from the compressor fans, was enough to get the core air to high temperatures, and little fuel could be added in the combustion chamber without melting the turbine blades. This meant the whole compressor-combustor-turbine set-up in the core of the engine provided less power, and the Blackbird flew predominantly on air bypassed straight to the afterburners, forming a large ramjet effect.^[25][44][45]The maximum speed was limited by the specific maximum temperature for the compressor inlet of 800 °F (427 °C). 1990s studies of inlets of this type indicated that newer technology could allow for inlet speeds with a lower limit of Mach 6.^[46]

AG330 start cart, Hill Aerospace Museum

Originally, the Blackbird's engines started up with the assistance of an external engine referred to as a "start cart". The cart included two Buick Wildcat V8 engines positioned underneath the aircraft. The two engines powered a single, vertical driveshaft connecting to a single J58 engine. Once one engine was started, the cart was wheeled to the other side of the aircraft to start the other engine. The operation was deafening. Later, big-block Chevrolet engines were used. Eventually, a quieter, pneumatic start system was developed for use at Blackbird main operating bases, but the start carts remained to support recovery team Blackbird starts at diversion landing sites not equipped to start J-58 engines.^[47]

Fuel[edit]

Several exotic fuels were investigated for the Blackbird. Development began on a coal slurry powerplant, but Johnson determined that the coal particles damaged important engine components.^[25] Research was conducted on a liquid hydrogenpowerplant, but the tanks for storing cryogenic hydrogen were not of a suitable size or shape.^[25] In practice, the Blackbird would burn somewhat conventional JP-7 which was difficult to light. To start the engines, triethylborane (TEB), which ignites on contact with air, was injected to produce temperatures high enough to ignite the JP-7. The TEB produced a characteristic green flame, which could often be seen during engine ignition.^[37]

Aerial Refueling[edit]

The SR-71 required in-flight refueling to replenish the fuel expended on take-off and during long duration missions. To accomplish this, specialized KC-135Q tankers were required to refuel the SR-71. The Q-model tanker had a modified high-speed boom, which would allow refueling of the Blackbird at nearly the tanker's maximum airspeed, with minimum flutter. The Q-model also had a separate fuel system, which kept the tanker's fuel (either JP-4 or later JP-8) isolated from the JP-7 needed by the SR-71. During its operational life, the SR-71 had dedicated KC-135Qs and aircrews on alert, ready to launch within minutes to refuel a Blackbird. Some of these alert birds were located on the east coast (Pease AFB, Loring AFB, Plattsburgh AFB etc.); on the west coast; at Hickam AFB, Hawaii; RAF Mildenhall, England; and Guam. Some of the original KC-135Q aircraft are still serving on active-duty in the U. S. Air Force inventory as the KC-135T; a new designation given after the aircraft have been upgraded/re-engined to the KC-135R standard by installation of more powerful and fuel-efficient CFM-56 engines and upgraded avionics. They can be identified by the two single-point refueling panels located in the left (JP-4 or JP-8) and right (JP-7) wheel wells, instead of only a single panel in the left wheel well. The KC-135Q/T aircraft also had several hundred pounds of ballast in the nose compartment to maintain weight and balance.

Astro-Inertial Navigation System[edit]

The USAF sought a precision navigation system for maintaining route accuracy and target tracking at very high speeds, superior to the inertial navigation systems used by the preceding U-2 and A-12.^[.] Nortronics, Northrop's electronics development division, had developed an astro-inertial navigation system (ANS), which could correct navigation errors with celestial observations, for the SM-62 Snark missile, and a separate system for the ill-fated AGM-48 Skybolt missile, the latter of which was adapted for the SR-71.^[48][.]

Before each takeoff, a primary alignment brought the ANS's inertial components to a high degree of accuracy. Once in flight, the ANS, which sat behind the Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO)'s position, tracked stars through a circular window of quartz glass set in the upper fuselage.^[37] Its "blue light" source star tracker, which could see stars during both day and night, would continuously track a variety of stars as the aircraft's changing position brought them into view. The system's digital computer ephemeris contained data on 56 (later 61) stars.^[49] The ANS could supply altitude and position to flight controls and other systems, including the Mission Data Recorder, Auto-Nav steering to preset destination points, automatic pointing and control of cameras and sensors, and optical or SLR sighting of fix points loaded into the ANS before takeoff.^[50] Former pilot Richard Graham told an interviewer at the Frontiers of Flight Museum that the navigation system was good enough to limit drift to 1,000 feet off the direction of travel at Mach 3.^[51]

The original B-1A Offensive Avionics Request For Proposal (RFP) required the installation and integration of an NAS-14 system, but cost-cutting changes later deleted it from the B-1. Some U-2Rs did receive the NAS-21 system, but newer inertial and GPS systems replaced them.

Sensors and payloads[edit]

The SR-71 Defensive System B

The SR-71 originally included optical/infrared imagery systems; side-looking airborne radar (SLAR); electronic intelligence (ELINT) gathering systems; defensive systems for countering missile and airborne fighters; and recorders for SLAR, ELINT and maintenance data.^[.] The SR-71 carried a Fairchild tracking camera and an HRB Singer infrared camera, both of which ran during the entire mission for route documentation, to respond to any accusations of overflight.^[.]

Because the SR-71 carried an observer behind the pilot, it could not use the A-12's principal sensor, a single large-focal-length optical camera that sat in the "Q-Bay" behind the cockpit. Instead, camera systems could be located either in the wing chines or the aircraft's interchangeable nose. Wide-area imaging was provided by two of Itek's Operational Objective Cameras (OOCs), which provided stereo imagery across the width of the flight track, or an Itek Optical Bar Camera (OBC), which gave continuous horizon-to horizon coverage. A closer view of the target area was given by the HYCON Technical Objective Camera (TEOC), that could be directed up to 45 degrees left or right of the centerline.^[52] Initially, the TEOCs could not match the resolution of the A-12's larger camera, but rapid improvements in both the camera and film improved this performance.^[52][53]

Side-looking radar, built by Goodyear Aerospace, could be carried in the removable nose. In later life, the radar was replaced by Loral's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System (ASARS-1). Both the first SLR and ASARS-1 were ground-mapping imaging systems, collecting data either in fixed swaths left or right of centerline or from a spot location for higher resolution.^[52] ELINT-gathering systems, called the Electro Magnetic Reconnaissance System (EMR), built by AIL could be carried in the chine bays to analyse electronic signal fields being passed through, and were pre-programmed to identify items of interest.^[52][54]

Over its operational life, the Blackbird carried various electronic countermeasures, including warning and active electronic systems built by several ECM companies and called Systems A, A2, A2C, B, C, C2, E, G, H and M. On a given mission, an aircraft would carry several of these frequency/purpose payloads to meet the expected threats.^[.] After landing, recording systems and gathered information from the SLR and ELINT systems, and the Maintenance Data Recorder (MDR) were subjected to post-flight ground analysis. In the later years of its operational life, a data-link system could send ASARS-1 and ELINT data from about 2,000 nmi (3,700 km) of track coverage to a suitably equipped ground station.^[.]

Life support[edit]

SR-71 pilot in full flight suit

Flying at 80,000 ft (24,000 m) meant that crews could not use standard masks, which could not provide enough oxygen above 43,000 ft (13,000 m). Specialized protective pressurized suits were produced by the David Clark Company for the A-12,YF-12, M-21 and SR-71. Furthermore, an emergency ejection at Mach 3.2 would subject crews to an instant heat rise of about 450 °F (230 °C); thus, during a high altitude ejection scenario, an onboard oxygen supply would keep the suit pressurized during the descent.^[.]

The cockpit could be pressurized to an altitude of 10,000 ft (3,000 m) or 26,000 ft (7,900 m) during flight.^[55] The cabin needed a heavy-duty cooling system, for cruising at Mach 3.2 would heat the aircraft's external surface well beyond 500 °F (260 °C)^[56] and the inside of the windshield to 250 °F (120 °C). An air conditioner used a heat exchanger to dump heat from the cockpit into the fuel prior to combustion.^[.]

Operational history[edit]

An SR-71 refueling from a KC-135Q Stratotanker during a flight in 1983

The first flight of an SR-71 took place on 22 December 1964, at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.^[57] The SR-71 reportedly reached a top speed of Mach 3.4 during flight testing.^{[58][verification needed]} The first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to the 4200th (later, 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California, in January 1966.^[59]

SR-71s first arrived at the 9th SRW's Operating Location (OL-8) at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa on 8 March 1968.^[60] These deployments were code named "Glowing Heat", while the program as a whole was code named "Senior Crown". Reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam were code named "Giant Scale". On 21 March 1968, Major (later General)Jerome F. O'Malley and Major Edward D. Payne flew the first operational SR-71 sortie in SR-71 serial number 61-7976 from Kadena AB, Okinawa.^[60] During its career, this aircraft (976) accumulated 2,981 flying hours and flew 942 total sorties (more than any other SR-71), including 257 operational missions, from Beale AFB; Palmdale, California; Kadena Air Base,Okinawa, Japan; and RAF Mildenhall, UK. The aircraft was flown to the National Museum of the United States Air Force nearDayton, Ohio in March 1990.

From the beginning of the Blackbird's reconnaissance missions over enemy territory (North Vietnam, Laos, etc.) in 1968, the SR-71s averaged approximately one sortie a week for nearly two years. By 1970, the SR-71s were averaging two sorties per week, and by 1972, they were flying nearly one sortie every day. Two SR-71s were lost during these missions, one in 1970 and the second aircraft in 1972, both due to mechanical malfunctions.^[61][62]

Early project Habu logo

While deployed in Okinawa, the SR-71s and their aircrew members gained the nickname Habu (as did the A-12s preceding them) after apit viper indigenous to Japan, which the Okinawans thought the plane resembled.^[5]

Swedish Air Force fighter pilots, using the predictable patterns of SR-71 routine flights over the Baltic Sea, managed to lock their radar on the SR-71 on numerous occasions. Despite heavy jamming from the SR-71, target illumination was maintained by feeding target location from ground-based radars to the fire-control computer in the JA 37 Viggen interceptor.^[63] The most common site for the lock-on to occur was the thin stretch of international airspace between Öland and Gotland that the SR-71 used on the return flight.^[64][65][66]

Operational highlights for the entire Blackbird family (YF-12, A-12, and SR-71) as of about 1990 included:^[67]

·        3,551 Mission Sorties Flown

·        17,300 Total Sorties Flown

·        11,008 Mission Flight Hours

·        53,490 Total Flight Hours

·        2,752 hours Mach 3 Time (Missions)

·        11,675 hours Mach 3 Time (Total)

Only one crew member, Jim Zwayer, a Lockheed flight-test reconnaissance and navigation systems specialist, was killed in a flight accident.^[68] The rest of the crew members ejected safely or evacuated their aircraft on the ground.

Travis Morgan also did not wear this space suite outfit.

 Expecting to come down in the arctic,but his dial is spinning crazy,so Travis Morgan flies along the artic course.Of course he's surprised to find himself in a lush jungle.Why that’s because David Innes and Abner Perry did in ‘’At the Earths Core.’’       

Finding a woman,Tara, in combat with a dinosaur he rushes to her aid. No sooner have they overcome that danger, then they are captured by soldiers and taken to the city of Thera. Morgan quickly earns the enmity of the high priest, Deimos, though use of his pistol convinces the rest of the Theran court that he's a god. While guests of the Theran king, Morgan pieces together the remarkable truth of his situation--he's in the hollow earth! Wow,unless he read Edgar Rice Burrough,as Mike Grell did,why would he come to that conclusion?For all he knew,his SR17 hit a space warp,like in the Twilight Zone and he landed in the Hyborean Age.

Ultimately, treachery by Deimos leads Morgan and Tara to flee Thera.

Things to Notice: 

• The story begins on a specific date: June 16, 1969. Though time is strange in Skartaris, stories will often give reference to the passage of "real time" on earth--something very different from most comic series. This also dates Morgan, allowing us, as more information is given, to construct a timeline of his life.
• Morgan has a .38 special in this issue and only 12 rounds of ammo, all of which he uses here.
• The women of Thera seem go in for the colorful, raccoon-patch, eye shadow which is also styled by some female members of the disco-era Legion of Super-Heroes, Marionette of the Micronauts, and Dazzzler, among others.

Where It Comes From:
The portrayal of the hollow earth in both fiction and purported fact has a rich history going back to Sir Edmund Haley (of comet fame) and possibly before. The primary inspiration for Grell’s version seems to be Pellucidar, a savage land debuting in At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs, serialized (as “The Inner World”) over 4 issues in All-Story beginning on April 4, 1914. A novel version was published in 1922, and in 1976 there was a move adaptation with Doug McClure, Peter Cushing, and bond-girl-to-be Caroline Munro.

In the introduction to the collection Savage Empire (1991), Grell cites the Burroughs influence on Warlord and calls the Pellucidar series "the best of the [Earth's core] genre."  In a later interview, he seems to downplay this influence, emphasizing instead Jules Vernes' Journey to the Center of the Earth, andThe Smokey God by Willis George Emerson.  Certainly a case could be made for the primacy of these works in Skartaris' conception.  Verne's work has prehistoric survivors in his underground world, while Emerson's novel has a central sun (the titular Smokey God).Grell,picked one of Burrough’s less successful series and then employed a wacky misunderstanding of time in Pellucidar and realitivety.

Still, Burroughs' work has those similarities to Skartaris, too.  It also shares one feature not found in any other "hollow earth" fiction with which I'm aware: time is strange there.  The odd timelessness of Skartaris is also found in Pellucidar--despite neither ever giving a good explanation as to why things should be that way.Though assumes time in Pellucidar, just isn’t recorded, because of their eternal sun-a ball of gas, at the center of earth’s core. Of course one, wonder why Pellucidarians would other means to record the passage of time, not involving the lack of a day and night cycle. The ball of gas, being the hollow earth’s inner sun, was more than likely outdated in Edgar Rice Burroughs day and defunct by the time Mike Grell created the Warlord. Somehow, it seems as we know, planets like our Earth needs a solid core, to have enough mass to spin on it’s axis and maintain our atmosphere.

An interesting parallel to Burroughs, though probably not a direct reference, is this issue's title.  Burroughs' sixth novel of Pellucidar is called Land of Terror.

One thing clearly does come from Verne, and that's the name of The Warlord's hollow world.  In Journey to the Center of the Earth, "Scartaris" is a mountain whose shadow marks the entrance to the center of the earth in the crater of Snæfellsjökull.

The dinosaur gracing the cover and appearing in the issue is identified as a deinonychus, which is a species related to the velociraptor family.  Unlike its depiction in this issue, deinonychus apparently had feathers.

The character of Travis Morgan got his first name from Grell's nephew, and his surname from the privateer and rum bottle spokes-model, Henry Morgan.  Morgan got the facial hair that Grell himself had at the time, and also Grell's experiences in the air force.Actually,Travis Morgan resembled Green Arrow far too much

Grell has said that the appearance of Tara was inspired by Raquel Welch. Funny,Rachels never been that skinny. Presumably he was thinking of her in One Million Years B.C.  The name "Tara" was a popular one in the United States in the 70s, probably due to the enduring popularity of the film version of Gone With The Wind.  In this context, the name Tara derives from the Hill of Tara in Ireland. The hill is also known as Teamhair na Rí (“The Hill of Kings”) because of its association with ancient kingship rituals. Tara also means "shining" in Sanskrit and is the name of a Hindu goddess.

Grell tells us he got "Deimos" from the name of Mars' smaller moon, the larger being Phobos.  These names derive from Greek mythology where Deimos ("dread") and Phobos ("fear") are sons of Ares.  Again, the title of the issue seems to have unintended connections.

The name of the city where Deimos is high priest, Thera, is also Greek in origin.  Thera is part of what is now the Santorini Archipelago and the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history.  This eruption, some 3600 years ago, led to the decline of Minoan civilization, and popular theory holds that this event may be the ultimate source of the Atlantis legend.

ps.by the way,the real Colonel Travis Morgan sent this picture.He's living under an assumed names name as Oliver Queen