Updated on: 8 March 2004
Posted on: 26 June 2001

Final SR-71 Flights

With the closing of the SR-71 program in 1990, some SRs where flown to museums through out the
US.
An insignia company, A.I.R. made-up and sold patches commemorating these seven flights.
They've done a nice job on them, you'll notice that they include the Pilot and RSO,the tail number
of the aircraft flown and the date of the flight

Notes on these patches:
The March 6, 1990 Record flight of 972, with Ed Yeilding and J. T. Vida, actually left from Palmdale, CA,
not Beale AFB, CA. The Dulles and Lackland flight where done on the same day!
Also, A.I.R. didn't originally do one for the Beale to March flight, though they corrected this in 1994|
Sadly these are out of production, and the patches are not available!


As a sidebar to these patches, Here is a photo of the crew that received 976 at Dayton, and prepared it for display at the USAF Museum

The gang at Wright-Pat in 1990. We had just delivered 976 to the Wright-Pat AF museum, and here she sits with the maintenance crew in a
prepping hanger before she is towed into her final resting place.

Back row from left to right: MSgt Chris Bennett (Crewchief), SSgt Frank Gill (Com/Nav), TSgt Mike Hogan (Airframe Repair),
SSgt Jeff Thompkins (Crewchief), SSgt George Laforce (Crewchief), MSgt Smith (Engines).

Front row from left to right: CMSgt Milton Applehof (Maint Super), Capt Shappel (Maint Officer), MSgt Steve Koren (Supervisor).
(Photo via Chris Bennett)

   

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