Skunk Works Mailing List
Re: Edwards AFB
Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 01:43:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mary Shafer
Subject: Re: Edwards AFB
On Fri, 3 Sep 1999, David Allison wrote:
> > > Hey guys, today I was in Edwards AFB and saw the F-22 Raptor 01
> > > taxing to her hangar, and next to the hangar was a SR-71 with the two
> > > vertical stabilizer removed! Anyone know which SR-71 was and what was
> > > doing there?
> >
> > The SR-71 was probably 968, the next SR they were about to restore
> > to flight status when Clinton killed the program. It was towed over to
> > where the USAF ones were kept in order to get it out of the way. I sus-
> > pect eventually USAF will try and destroy it.
> Actually they've taken the high road and given all 4 flyable SR's to NASA,
> and the other 2 are going to museums. I'd rather see all 6 go to NASA,
> but as long as they don't melt them down and make golf clubs out of them,
> I count it as a win for our side. More details on 968's fate here:
>
> http://www.richmond.com/StyleWeekly/output.cfm?ID=3389
But we already had two of them (which we were flying until very
recently) and were expecting to get the third (which we'd kept in
flyable storage and returned to them to speed up the reactivation) back
anyway, as these were the three they'd given us in 1990. The only "new"
one is the first A that they'd taken from Plant 42 and gotten back
flyable. The airframe without the rudders or rudder pintles is the
_second_ warehoused A, which is one of the two that they're going to
give away.
Let's try the arithmetic again. Dryden gets 3, 2 As and 1 B, and the
USAF puts 3 As in a warehouse in Palmdale. Dryden keeps two (1 A and 1
B) flying and returns a flyable (but only cold, not hot) A to the USAF,
ferrying it to Plant 42. These are still the three given to Dryden.
The USAF has Lockheed get that returned A hot-flyable (our hot gig was
broken, so we couldn't) and also pull one of the three warehoused A out
and make it flyable, Now we're up to four flyable airplanes, three
Dryden's, one USAF, with two at Dryden and two at Palmdale. They fly
the two flyable As back to Edwards and tug another warehoused A to
Edwards. Now we're up to five, four flyable (two Dryden's, two USAF,
but one of these two is really Dryden's) and one unflyable (USAF). The
sixth is still in the warehouse in Palmdale, unflyable. Dryden keeps
the two that have never left, gets the A that we'd kept in flyable
storage back, and gets the only flyable USAF A. The two unflyable
USAF As are given away.
Of the three USAF warehoused airplanes, only one was rehabilitated. A
second one was supposed to be, but got caught in the cancellation. A
third one wasn't supposed to be, and in fact wasn't.
The USAF isn't "giving" Dryden any four airplanes because we already had
three of them to begin with. They're returning one and giving us
another. No more.
Mary Shafer DoD #0362 KotFR shafer@ursa-major.spdcc.com
"Some days it don't come easy/And some days it don't come hard
Some days it don't come at all/And these are the days that never end...."
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Created: Sat Sep 4 02:38:19 EDT 1999