On April 14, 1986, the United States launched Operation El Dorado Canyon, a series of airstrikes against Libya in retaliation for the bombing of a Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. military personnel. The operation involved a strike group of 18 U.S. Air Force F-111s, supported by various U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps aircraft. Two days later, on April 16, an SR-71 Blackbird, piloted by Major Brian Shul with RSO Major Walter Watson, entered Libyan airspace at a blistering 2,125 mph to conduct a bomb damage assessment.
As they were approaching the end of their mission, the crew began to receive launch indications from Libyan SAM sites. Shul would later recount the harrowing experience in his book “Sled Driver,” describing in detail the incredible performance of the SR-71 that let them outrun the missiles and return safely to RAF Mildenhall.
“In April 1986, after an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi’s terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and take photos recording the damage our F-111s had inflicted,” Shul wrote. He told how they crossed into Libyan airspace and started receiving signals of missile launches. Shul quickly jammed on the throttle, wagering their lives on the plane’s performance to outrun those missiles.
The SR-71 was specifically designed to cruise at “Mach 3+,” equating to speeds of more than 2,200 miles per hour at altitudes of up to 85,000 feet. Tim Yarrow, an Electrical Engineer at Lockheed’s Skunk Works from 1974 to 1994, related that while the Blackbird’s officially published cruise speed was Mach 3.2, it could go much faster. Yarrow cited Shul’s mission over Libya as proof of the SR-71’s highest speeds, during which Shul pushed the aircraft to Mach 3.5 to avoid the missiles.
He described inhuman scenes as they made their final turn over the Libyan desert. “Walter told me he was getting missile launch signals,” Shul recalled. “I hit the afterburners and ran a quick calculation in my head of the time it would take for the weapons-most probably SA-2 and SA-4 surface-to-air missiles capable of Mach 5-to reach our altitude.” The SR-71 performed flawlessly, and they completed their mission and evaded the missiles.
The Pratt & Whitney J58 engines of the SR-71 ran more like ramjets at high speed, gulping over 100,000 cubic feet of air per second. The spikes extended 26 inches into the nacelles; all engine inlet doors were closed except for the main inlet and the exhaust, reaching the “ram effect” at Mach 3.2 and above. This was advanced technology for the 1950s, which helped to operate the SR-71 well above its official specifications.
As they made their final turn and headed back towards the Mediterranean, Shul took note of the incredible speed they had attained. “The plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit. It was the fastest we would ever fly,” he wrote. The SR-71 was designed for speed and altitude, which let Shul and his pilot outrun the missiles to return to base in safety.
The SR-71 Blackbird is an eternal tribute to the ingenuity and engineering acumen of Lockheed’s Skunk Works. Because it could outrun any missile, photographing key installations in hostile territory made it throughout its operational life an extremely valuable U.S. Air Force asset.