9404 East Marginal Way South
Seattle, Washington 98108
Phone (206) 764-5700
The Cockpits exhibit in the Museum's Great Gallery invites visitors to climb into the cockpit of a real SR-71A Blackbird reconnaissance plane or a full-scale mock-up of an F/A-18L Hornet fighter. To the best of our knowledge, the Museum of Flight is the only place where the public can manipulate the controls of a Blackbird, the fastest, highest-flying jet ever built. The Cockpits exhibit provides a two-minute overview of the instrument panels, distinctive engine sounds, and a photo opportunity for anyone who has ever dreamed of piloting these historic aircraft.
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's SR-71A Blackbird was designed as a Mach 3 successor to the U-2 spy plane and used by the U.S. Air Force and NASA. The Blackbird holds the speed record for a jet airplane at more than 2,100 mph. It also has the record for level flight at the highest altitude, more than 85,000 feet, or 16 miles above Earth. The Museum's Blackbird cockpit, from aircraft serial number 64-17977, was built in 1964.
The Boeing Company F/A-18 Hornet is a frontline fighter and attack-bomber currently in use by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and many foreign nations. The exhibit's cockpit is a mock-up made by Northrop Corporation to demonstrate a proposed version of the Hornet to its customers in 1979.
The Blackbird is powered by two J58 Pratt & Whitney engines - These engines were specially designed and built just for the SR-71, and are the biggest most powerful aircraft engines in the world. Powerful enough to run 45 locomotives, or the world's largest ocean liners. These engines are so powerful that no other aircraft today are capable of using them, so they sit in warehouses on some military base. The special oil used in the J58 Pratt & Whitney engines is solid at room temperature. The special fuel that was used to fly the SR-71 was once placed in a bucket and a match thrown in, the fuel put out the match because it had such an extremely high flash point.
The SR-71 Blackbird is the fastest aircraft in the world to take off under its own power. The Blackbird family of aircraft can cruise at speeds of more than Mach 3 and fly over 85,000 feet (25,500 m) in altitude. Conceived over 40 years ago, Blackbirds remain the fastest and highest flying air-breathing production aircraft ever built. The SR-71 holds all of the official land, airspeed and altitude records worldwide. The SR-71 has been officially out of service since 1999 and still the Blackbird's official airspeed and altitude remain classified to this day! The SR-71s speed is listed as up to mach 3.5 (2,200 mph) and altitudes of over 85,000 feet. You can be sure of one thing, there will never be another BLACKBIRD or any other aircraft capable of achiving what the SR-71 could do!
