Amazing Giant Scale RC SR-71 Blackbird (Scratch-Built)

The weekend before last, I took a short trip out to Florida to witness the 30th Annual Top Gun Scale Competition. There were some absolutely incredible airplanes out there and I took over 100 gigs worth of media in the process (over 2 days). So, first in my coverage of the event is Lance Campbell's scratch built SR-71 and it was incredible! This was my favorite model from the event and the airplane looked real in the air as it flew overhead. Lance even had the interior hatch signed by all of the full scale Sled Drivers as well as a piece of the full scale titanium from one of the airplanes in his documentation. The model is 1/8 scale making it over 160" long with an 80+" wingspan. Lance finished a well deserved first in the Master's category.

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[lancecampbell]

Thanks for the comments and kind remarks. The bird is actually mine, and after seeing several insightful comments and questions below, thoughts I’d answer a few of them. By the way, great job shooting the video… always a difficult task, and nice work on the editing too!

The plane is 1/8th scale, and weighs 86 lbs on takeoff with 72 lbs of total thrust. It carries 2.6 gallons of jet fuel, and will burn 2 gallons of that in 8 minutes of flying. It’s a scratch built project that took 9.5 years from start to the first public flight. The first pass in the video, which was a high speed pass was doing right around 170 mph. The next gear down pass, which is supposed to be the slow pass is around 100 mph. Normally, I fly the plane at full size airports, and use 1200-1500 feet of runway. The location of the competition here, is a 730 foot runway, plus trees and powerlines to contend with 1000 feet from the ends of the runway. I had done a practice flight the Tuesday before, and had a friend down by the power lines, on a cell phone, and I learned that I was skimming over them by just 20 feet, a quarter of a mile away… very narrow margin. So on this flight, I was a bit over cautious, and clearing them by too much, and a bit ‘high and hot’ on the touch and go, and landing. The proper approach for this plane, at this site, is to be skimming the trees, 20-30 feet above them, then try to gauge the point you’re clear, and dropping on in… a technique that is a bit hard on the nerves. You just can’t just drop the nose too aggressively…it just picks speed back up again. The plane by design has no flaps or speed brakes to slow it up. It was built to do one thing… go fast and do it in a straight line.

The challenge for the contest, was that many of the maneuvers were needing large swings in the throttle, and on a widely separated twin, if the engines are not dead on together, it can have a large impact. (By the way, the afterburner lighting has no bearing to the engine thrust, although I do have the AB lights separated a bit, as real birds seldom have the AB’s kick in exactly the same.) As an example, on the touch-n-go, once the wheels are down, I need to go to up to 50% throttle and hold it for 3 seconds, then slowly advance it, so they stay in sycn. Makes for a challenge of patience, when the runway is clipping by quickly. It is gyro stabilized in yaw and roll. One thing to bear in mind, I’m normally flying it at the higher speed ranges, and the competitive elements here have slower speeds.. slow pass, touch-n-go, overshoot, coupled with 15-20 mph dead crosswinds, with trees all over, and skimming out over them frequently, with the wind and turbulence over their tops.

Someone made a remark on the pilot size…. You’re not wrong, but for such a big bird, the cockpit is very close quarters on the full size. I found these great pilots with the correct David Clark suits and all, and had to make them work, even if they are a little big. Cockpits are tedious enough to do, and the thought of having to hand make the spacesuits, was too much for me holding onto my marbles.

If you’ve curious to see the full depth of the project, just google for “Lance’s Jet Page”. The plane fly’s great, and I’m thrilled how the project has turned out.

Lastly, I’m asked all the time about the cost… my standard reply: “I’ve never answered that for fear of it getting back to my wife…”

[meridian]

Edit: This was a quote from Brian Shul

“As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question I’m most often asked is ‘How fast would that SR-71 fly?’ I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I attend. It’s an interesting question, given the aircraft’s proclivity for speed, but there really isn’t one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little more speed if you wanted it to. It was common to see 35 miles a minute.

Because we flew a programmed Mach number on most missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run out to any limits of temperature or speed.. Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own individual ‘high’ speed that he saw at some point on some mission. I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max power was in order. Let’s just say that the plane truly loved speed and effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadn’t previously seen.

So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, ‘What was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird?’ This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story that I had never shared before, and I relayed the following.

I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England, with my back-seater, Walt Watson; we were returning from a mission over Europe and the Iron Curtain when we received a radio transmission from home base. As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 fly-past. The air cadet commander there was a former Blackbird pilot, and thought it would be a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low approach. No problem, we were happy to do it. After a quick aerial refuelling over the North Sea, we proceeded to find the small airfield.

Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment in the back seat, and began to vector me toward the field. Descending to subsonic speeds, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in a slight haze. Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were close and that I should be able to see the field, but I saw nothing. Nothing but trees as far as I could see in the haze. We got a little lower, and I pulled the throttles back from 325 knots we were at. With the gear up, anything under 275 was just uncomfortable. Walt said we were practically over the field-yet; there was nothing in my windscreen. I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver in hopes of picking up anything that looked like a field. Meanwhile, below, the cadet commander had taken the cadets up on the catwalk of the tower in order to get a prime view of the fly-past. It was a quiet, still day with no wind and partial gray overcast. Walter continued to give me indications that the field should be below us but in the overcast and haze, I couldn’t see it. The longer we continued to peer out the window and circle, the slower we got. With our power back, the awaiting cadets heard nothing. I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me I better cross-check the gauges. As I noticed the airspeed indicator slide below 160 knots, my heart stopped and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed two throttles full forward. At this point we weren’t really flying, but were falling in a slight bank. Just at the moment that both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame (and what a joyous feeling that was) the aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the tower. Shattering the still quiet of that morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their face as the plane levelled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer than expected, maintaining what could only be described as some sort of ultimate knife-edge pass.

Quickly reaching the field boundary, we proceeded back to Mildenhall without incident. We didn’t say a word for those next 14 minutes. After landing, our commander greeted us, and we were both certain he was reaching for our wings. Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 fly-past he had ever seen, especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could only be described as breathtaking. He said that some of the cadet’s hats were blown off and the sight of the plan form of the plane in full afterburner dropping right in front of them was unbelievable. Walt and I both understood the concept of ‘breathtaking’ very well that morning and sheepishly replied that they were just excited to see our low approach.

As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight suits, we just sat there-we hadn’t spoken a word since ‘the pass.’ Finally, Walter looked at me and said, ‘One hundred fifty-six knots. What did you see?’ Trying to find my voice, I stammered, ‘One hundred fifty-two.’ We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt said, ‘Don’t ever do that to me again!’ And I never did.

A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officer’s club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 fly-past that he had seen one day. Of course, by now the story included kids falling off the tower and screaming as the heat of the jet singed their eyebrows. Noticing our HABU patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, he asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred. Walt just shook his head and said, ‘It was probably just a routine low approach; they’re pretty impressive in that plane.’

Impressive indeed.”

[jbbarbeau]

I served in the Marine Corps from 1983 to 1986. My first deployment was in Okinawa Japan on MCAS FutenmaA. Close to this location is Kadema Air Force base during which the SR-71 was still active. Seeing your model fly looked and even sounded like the real thing. This is my favorite RC model I've ever seen. Thank you for sharing this amazing piece of artistry.

[christopherfranklin]

As someone who hasn't made models since childhood I can only express my admiration for the skill, ingenuity and patience that must have gone into creating this beauty.

[gispel]

My uncle Fred from Germany, helped design the Blackbird in the 1960s when he worked at Lockheed in Southern California. They had Kelly Johnson to dinner several times. I was just a little kid but remember that.

[spink]

That’s an aircraft you don’t see modeled much, and this one is the best I’ve seen online, very true to scale. A 9 year labor, wow....just gorgeous! Excellent flight in those breezy crosswinds! Like to see more of this particular bird!

[rudolphguarnacci]

What i mean to say is that this model can stand alone without flying. The fact that it flies, and flies so realistically (and the sound) is what makes the whole package amazingly unique. I'm a fan of the SR-71 as well.

[MarkWladika]

You have to remember the flight envelope that the plane was designed for, it's a near miracle that it can be done at all as an RC. Kudos to the builder/pilot.

[lastchance]

I was 60th AMS out of Travis back around 1980. Did a couple TDY in Okinawa to support C5A's. At dusk, we would sit next to the runway in Kadena sipping rice beer and watching the Blackbirds do touch n goes not 20 feet away. When they reared back and hit afterburner, they seemed to just float for a second or two at 45° or so before screaming strait into the purple sky. The engines roared like no other aircraft and the ground rumbled enough to knock over your beer! We never got tired of watching those monsters. The baddest aircraft that ever existed by far. I was always jealous of the team supporting that program. This model RC absolutely nails it. Amazing work!

[simonthomas]

Used to see these flying from the bases when I was a kid in East Anglia. Unmistakable silhouette. Glad they were on our side!

[ricardomurillo]

The parachute at the end was the cherry on the cake. Beautiful plane.

[thomasmcewen]

When I worked at Lockheed I flew over Palmdale and looked down out of the cockpit and there was a SR 71 landing below me, it was one of the best memories of my life. What a beautiful aircraft the SR 71 was. I be too scared to fly RC on such an a work of art. Hats off to you, me I would crash your work.

[dynjarren]

This is a 1/8 scale model and still looks fast enough to break Mach speed!
Incredible flying skill and great model! Congratulations!

[darylloth]

Just visited the Museum of Flight in Seattle and saw the M-21 Blackbird and sat in the cockpit of the SR-71. What a thrill for this 62 year-old kid! This giant scale SR-71 is fantastic!
The Blackbird has been my favorite plane since I was a young lad. It made a few passes at the Canadian National Exhibition Airshow in what must have been the late 70s or perhaps '80 or '81. I've never been so excited to see that beautiful and elegant shape and it brought back the thrill watching this video.
I highly encourage the enthusiasts to visit the Museum of Flight and see these marvels in person. It was an experience to sit in the cockpit of a real SR-71 and tap the titanium and see how the engineers put these masterpieces together. One of the greatest achievements in the history of aviation. My hat is off to the brilliant engineers who brought this all together.
And of course kudos to the builder of this giant scale flying model. Well done!

[offroad]

If any of you you ever get a chance to go to a Top Gun event DO IT! Into RC or not the flying talent and build talent is truly remarkable! Lance Campbell that a masterpiece you built.

[thomasschoon]

Can't make up my mind which is most impressive, the skill to build it so realistically and with all the operating features such as opening canopies and retractable gear, the skills to fly it, or the patience and desire to build it so well! Masterful job sir, congratulations!

[martinn]

I'm not sure what's more impressive - the model or being able to fly it and more importantly bring it home again.

[jamesmacleod]

Incredible model . They used to have it (the real one) do passes at the CNE Air Show in Toronto. It was quite a sight especially on a low slow pass so you could see how big it was.

[MichaelScarbroughcat]

This is the coolest model plane ever. What a feat, the sounds, speed of the fastest airplane ever built. Thank you for sharing.

[MosheFeder]

The Blackbird has long been my favorite plane. I can't say enough about how impressed I am by this astonishing model. Lance Campbell is obviously a craftsman of genius with the patience and dedication of a Buddhist monk. I wish him many more years of happy modeling. Thanks to him and to the poster for the video.