File A121-R-61-7967SR-71AArticle 2018

61-7967

SR-71A · Article 2018
On displayBarksdale AFB, Bossier City, Louisiana

Barksdale Global Power Museum (formerly 8th Air Force Museum)
Barksdale AFB, Bossier City, Louisiana, USA · 32.51, -93.68

SR-71A 61-7967 on the ground at the International Air Tattoo, RAF Fairford, England, on 22 July 1989.
SR-71A 61-7967 on the ground at the International Air Tattoo, RAF Fairford, England, on 22 July 1989.Andrew Thomas (Flickr) · 1989-07-22 · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Source

Record

61-7967
2018
SR-71A
2,765.5
3 August 1966
Preserved, on display
Barksdale Global Power Museum (formerly 8th Air Force Museum), Barksdale AFB, Bossier City, Louisiana, USA

Career

  • Reactivated 1995: first flight after refurbishment 28 August 1995
  • Flown by NASA crews in support of the USAF reactivation program
  • Last Blackbird moved to a museum (left Edwards November 2003)

Fate

One of the two SR-71As reactivated for the USAF in 1995 (Det 2, Edwards AFB); after the program ended in 1998 it went into storage at Edwards and was placed on display at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, on 17 December 2003.

In the chronology

28 Sep 1994Congress funds SR-71 reactivation SENIOR CROWN
Congress directed the Air Force, which had not asked for it, to return SR-71s to service. The Carpenter timeline records a 28 September 1994 vote allocating $100 million to reactivate three SR-71s; two SR-71As, 61-7967 and 61-7971, were returned to flight.
28 Aug 1995Second reactivated SR-71, 61-7967, flies SENIOR CROWN
61-7967 flew for the first time after refurbishment by Lockheed Martin, but needed nine functional check flights and did not pass its high-speed check until 12 January 1996. Both reactivated aircraft moved to Det 2 at Edwards AFB on 30 January and 1 February 1996.
10 Oct 1997Final Air Force SR-71 flight SENIOR CROWN
Maj. Bert Garrison and Capt. Domingo Ochotorena flew 61-7967 on a 4.1 hour sortie from Edwards AFB that turned out to be the last SR-71 flight in Air Force service.
27 Mar 2003Last stored SR-71s head to museums Legacy
NASA announced that SR-71B 61-7956 (NASA 831) would go to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo in Michigan. During 2003 the reactivated SR-71As also left Edwards: 61-7971 to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in Oregon and 61-7967 to the Eighth Air Force Museum at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.

Where the record disagrees

Baugher (and warbirdregistry, which copies it) wrongly describes 7967 as NASA-assigned and in flyable storage 1992 to 2002; NASA FS-030 and habu.org show it was a 1995 to 1998 USAF Det 2 aircraft. Coordinates are the museum site (Wikipedia infobox, cross-checked against OpenStreetMap).

Sources

  1. SR-71 Online (sr-71.org), via Internet Archive. SR-71A #61-7967 gallery page (archived copy). Open · In the register
  2. Habu.org. 61-7967 (Blackbird Photo Archive). Archived copy · In the register
  3. Habu.org. 61-7967 (Blackbird Photo Archive). Archived copy · In the register
  4. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. NASA Facts FS-2008-6-030-DFRC: SR-71 Blackbird. Open · Archived · In the register
  5. The SR-71 Blackbird (thesr71blackbird.com). SR-71A Blackbird #17967 / #2018. Open · Archived · In the register
  6. SR-71 Online (sr-71.org), via Internet Archive. SR-71 Locations (archived copy, lists serial / Lockheed article number and fate). Open · In the register