{"id":1747,"date":"2012-04-23T16:48:21","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T23:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=1747"},"modified":"2012-04-23T22:39:49","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T05:39:49","slug":"blackbird-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/2012\/04\/23\/blackbird-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackbird Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While visiting Blackbird Air Park in Palmdale, California with a friend last week, we had the great pleasure of talking with Bill Flanagan (Major, Air Force Logistics Command, retired). Mr. Flanagan, Chairman of the Flight Test Historical Foundation,\u00a0flew as crewman on the SR-71. He treated us to many fascinating facts, stories and a detailed hands-on demonstration of the SR-71&#8217;s cockpit.<\/p>\n<p>It was quite extraordinary to see and touch this rare and wonderful aircraft, which once was so secret that even most US Congressmen and Senators had no idea of its existence.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a picture of Mr. Flanagan (left) taken while he was on active duty.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1748\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Thomas_Vida.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1748\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1748\" title=\"SR-71 Crew\" src=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Thomas_Vida-400x283.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"283\" srcset=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Thomas_Vida-400x283.jpg 400w, http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Thomas_Vida.jpg 633w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1748\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bill Flanagan, BC Thomas, JT Vida, Tom Tilden. Click to enlarge. Image source.<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wvi.com\/~sr71webmaster\/crews002.html\" target=\"_blank\">Image source<\/a>)<\/p>\n<div id=\"apf_post_footer\">\n<h4>Related Articles:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"apf_footer\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=3449\">A Space Poster With Mysterious Origins<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"apf_footer\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=3445\">Coat And Hat Stands<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"apf_footer\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=3442\">Cover of LIFE Magazine, 1941<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"apf_footer\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=3428\">Did Rocket Pioneer Robert Goddard Ever Work On Mount Wilson?<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"apf_footer\"><a href=\"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=3422\">Christmas At Hollywood And Vine<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While visiting Blackbird Air Park in Palmdale, California with a friend last week, we had the great pleasure of talking with Bill Flanagan (Major, Air Force Logistics Command, retired). Mr. Flanagan, Chairman  of the Flight Test  Historical Foundation, flew as crewman on the SR-71 and treated us to many fascinating facts, stories and a detailed demonstration of the SR-71&#8217;s cockpit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1747"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1760,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747\/revisions\/1760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}