On The Edge Of Night

This piece was inspired by a passage from former SR-71 pilot Major Brian Shul's book "Sled Driver". In it he describes a night flight......

"One moonless night, while flying a routine training mission over the Pacific, I wondered what the sky would look like from 84,000 feet if the cockpit lighting were dark. While heading home on a straight course, I slowly turned down all of the lighting, reducing the glare and revealing the night sky. Within seconds, I turned the lights back up, fearful that the jet would know and somehow punish me. But my desire to see the sky overruled my caution, I dimmed the lighting again. To my amazement, I saw a bright light outside my window. As my eyes adjusted to the view, I realized that the brilliance was the broad expanse of the Milky Way, now a gleaming stripe across the sky. Where dark spaces in the sky had usually existed, there were now dense clusters of sparkling stars Shooting stars flashed across the canvas every few seconds. It was like a fireworks display with no sound. I knew I had to get my eyes back on the instruments, and reluctantly I brought my attention back inside. To my surprise, with the cockpit lighting still off, I could see every gauge, lit by starlight."

The SR-71 Blackbird still remains one of the most incredible airplanes to ever fly. Designed to fly at speeds well in excess of 2,000 MPH and at altitudes over 80,000 feet, the Blackbird was untouchable. Almost 4,000 missiles were launched at her by hostile forces in an attempt to bring her down - none did. The Blackbird defeated every one.