SPECIAL SR-71 Blackbird 20x16-inch 'Super Skater' Flown Titanium Relic Display

Special one-of-a-kind Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird large titanium skin relic display made by Ron Cole, pairing this very interesting piece of SR-71 'Super Skater' with his original artwork of this aircraft in this 20x16-inch wall-hanging framed display on matte canvas - signed & numbered one of one.

The SR-71 Blackbird entered service with the United States Air Force in 1964 and began development in 1958. It remains the fastest aircraft ever built. Over 90% of the SR-71 was made of titanium, a rare material at that time. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was tasked to obtain titanium from the world’s most plentiful source - the Soviet Union, the country which the SR-71 was being built to spy on. Through shell companies, the CIA purchased material through Third World countries and shipped the raw ore to the United States for processing and SR-71 production.

ABOVE: Collection of photos depicting various unique part numbers, construction details, and inspection stamps on the titanium parts from our collection - all unique to the SR-71 Blackbird, including the very special Advanced Development Projects (ADP) stamp that was only used by the Lockheed 'Skunkworks' assembly plant. 

This aircraft was lost on 17 June 1970 following a re-fueling collision with a KC-135Q (59-1474) tanker. Lt. Col. Buddy L. Brown and his RSO Maj. Mortimer J. Jarvis both ejected and survived the crash. The KC-135 made it back to Beale AFB, California with a damaged refueling boom and aft fuselage. Super Skater crashed into the desert. These pieces were recovered from the crash site in June 2013 by Zane Harwell, from whom these parts were directly obtained. The vast majority of the aircraft was removed from the site by the government in 1970, but these few pieces of wreckage remained.  

One-of-a-kind signed and numbered 1 of 1.