One-of-a-Kind SR-71 Blackbird Flown Titanium Relic Acrylic Desk Display 001

Special One-of-a-Kind SR-71 Blackbird Flown Titanium Acrylic Relic Display by Ron Cole

One of the very best and well-marked pieces of flown titanium from SR-71 Blackbird 'Super Skater' serial number 61-7970 (history below) we've ever offered, built by Ron Cole into this free-standing acrylic display with Ron's original artwork of this aircraft and its full history. Signed and numbered one of one. 

This piece of titanium includes the snap fastener attached to this aircraft's fillet panel that covered the joint between the fuselage and wing. These panels were pressed in place and snapped into another mechanism - almost like a snap-tight model kit - that allowed these panels to move, expand and contract, with the heating and cooling of the aircraft in flight. Well-marked with very rare and distinctive Advanced Development Programs (ADP) Skunkworks stamp.

NO DISCOUNT CODES, PLEASE

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.

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.  

NO DISCOUNT CODES, PLEASE