SR-71 Blackbird Pilot Presentation Webinar

Please join us for a SR-71 Blackbird Pilot Presentation webinar on Tuesday, April 6, 2021 from 12pm to 1pm presented by Colonel (ret) Richard Graham.  Please register for the event at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6405691385269670671.  After registering, you will receive an email confirmation with information about joining the webinar.  Feel free to share this event with people outside of our organization.

The world’s fastest and highest flying aircraft was conceived as early as 1958 by the renowned aircraft engineer, Kelly Johnson. The gigantic leap in technology he and his engineers had to overcome at the Lockheed “Skunk Works” was phenomenal. Built in total secrecy, the first Blackbird flew on April 26, 1962. The Blackbird’s only purpose was to gather highly classified intelligence on hostile countries around the world. Flying at Mach 3+ speeds and cruising at over 85,000 feet, the SR-71 could survey over 100,000 square miles every hour, gathering millions of bits of intelligence. When cruising at over 2,200 mph, with skin friction temperatures reaching 600 degrees F., the SR-71 performed at its very best.

This presentation links the world of engineering with aviation and gives the audience a much deeper appreciation of just how far “outside the box” Kelly Johnson had to think.  The Q&A session at the end of this program gives the audience an opportunity to ask questions about the once highly classified program.

About our speaker:

Colonel (ret) Richard Graham has written five books on the SR-71 Blackbird program. A veteran of 15 years of assignments within the SR-71 community, he is uniquely qualified to tell the SR-71 story. Colonel Graham was the 1999 recipient of the University of Nebraska’s William F. Shea Award for his distinguished contribution to aviation. In 2005, the Blackbird Association awarded him the Kelly Johnson trophy, a lifetime achievement award for his work to perpetuate, foster and improve the SR-71. In 2013 he received the Congressional Veterans Commendation Award from Congressman Sam Johnson. He was a Distinguished Lecturer for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He serves on the Leadership Council at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas and on the International Advisory Board of Directors at the Flight of the Phoenix Aviation Museum in Gilmer, Texas. He was awarded the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award from the FAA for over 50 years of safe flying.