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Blackbird Rising

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Blackbird Rising
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The Blackbird... If you want to know how the SR-71 came about, and who did what to whom, you need to read this book. The Blackbird, the nickname given to the SR-71, was forged from 1950s and 60s components merged with aerodynamics and structural metallurgy from the cutting edge. An aircraft with capabilities like no other, capabilities unequaled even today.

The authors lived with these machines and their technology for ten years. Blackbird Rising chronicles political and technical events that molded the SR-71. The story follows airframe and engine, as well as pressure suit and sensor technology, from concepts to operational aircraft delivery at Beale Air Force Base, California. The book explains the sensors and how they evolved. It describes feeder programs leading to major aircraft components as delivered in 1968. The authors explain the SR-71 flight test program and other events at Edwards AFB. This story highlights individuals and their unique contributions. It is peppered with personal experiences, as everyone added their special talents to create the Blackbird's aviation legend.

Today SR-71s inhabit museums but they still beckon us to the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Blackbirds consumed our lives then and still capture our hearts today. Join the authors and relive air-breathing aviation history.

Co-author Donn Byrnes

DONN A. BYRNES, the son of a career U.S. Army doctor and his wife, was born on 29 May 1931. After many moves about this country, a short stay in Hawaii, and attendance in eighteen different schools, Donn graduated from Edison High School, San Antonio, Texas, in 1949. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1951 at age nineteen after three and a half semesters of pre-med at the University of Texas.

Progressing from PFC aircraft mechanic to Aviation Cadet and Air Force pilot, he flew F-84s and F-86Ds in the U.S., Japan, and Guam. In 1958 he and his family returned to the U.S. to attend an Air Force Institute of Technology-sponsored program in electrical engineering at the University of Texas, Austin.

Returning with BSEE in hand to Wright Field, Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio, in 1962, he negotiated an assignment to Project 665A (Reconnaissance/Strike). Unknowingly he had hit upon one of the seed programs for the SR-71 sensors. It was as sensor and systems integration engineer at Wright Field that Donn met Ken Hurley and, in early 1964, was briefed into the SR-71 program.

Absorbed by the Blackbird development effort, Captain Byrnes was transferred to Edwards AFB, California in July 1964, where he became the SR-71 Sensor Test Engineer and Flight Test Engineer. He left Edwards in 1968 to become Base Commander at Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Returning to the U.S. in 1969 he was reassigned to the SR-71 Program, and almost immediately transferred to the F-15 Program, where he was Airframe Projects Manager, Deputy Chief Engineer and, finally, Director of Projects. In 1975 Donn left the F-15 System Program Office (SPO) and assumed the job of Director of Engineering at the Air Force Contract Management Division, Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Colonel Byrnes retired in November 1978 after accumulating more than 3,200 pilot hours, most of which was single engine jet time.

Returning to engineering, he worked for DynCorp, Raytheon, BDM, and other technical services companies until 1987, when he and his oldest daughter, Kathleen, formed an engineering consulting and database management company.

Since 1977 Donn and his wife Sparks have made their home on a small patch of desert mesa near Los Lunas, New Mexico.

Co-author Ken Hurley

KENNETH D. HURLEY was born on 9 August 1925 in Bells, Tennessee. His family lived variously in Memphis and Bells during his early years. Ken graduated from South Side High School in Memphis in 1943 where he was commander of his Reserve Officer Training Corps unit. He entered the service soon after graduation, as did most of the young men of the day. He applied for and was accepted by the U.S. Army Aviation Cadet program prior to high school graduation. Ken graduated as a Second Lieutenant Aerial Navigator in December, 1944.

Assigned to B-29s, he flew 25 missions from the island of Guam against the Empire of Japan. Ken's twentieth birthday arrived the day after he completed his 22nd mission. He earned a Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and various combat ribbons with battle stars.

After returning from World War II, Ken graduated in 1949 from what is now known as the University of Memphis with a B.E. in mathematics and physics. During college, he married Jeanne Elizabeth Hilton from Nashville and then reentered the Air Force after earning his degree. In 1952, at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, he graduated with an M.S. equivalent in automatic controls engineering. Immediately sent to Korea, he spent a year flying B-26 bombers. Upon return he worked in research and development, including the B-70 System Program Office and SR-71 System Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB.

When the SR-71 was ready to fly, Ken was sent to Edwards AFB as Chief Systems Engineer, and crewmember. He became Chief Engineer and then Deputy Test Director for the SR-71/YF-12 Test Force. He was the first Air Force Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO) in the SR-71 and accumulated approximately 200 hours' test time in the SR-71, earning a second Distinguished Flying Cross, the Legion of Merit, and the Air Force Commendation Medal.

In 1968 Lt.Col. Hurley retired from the Air Force, with an accumulated total of 3,500 combat and non-combat flying hours. He went to work for the Boeing Company, Seattle, Washington, eventually retiring as Chief, Engineering Operations for the 747/767 Programs.

Update: Ken Hurley died of bone cancer on July 13, 2000. His wife Jeanne died shortly thereafter.