James Knott wrote:
Incidenatally, it should have been called the RS-71, but President Lyndon Johnson goofed, calling it the SR-71 and no one wanted to correct him. So all the designers had to go back and rename all their blue
I was too young to remember that stuff first hand but you got me curious enough to look up on my own. I am certainly familiar with the SR-71 but this was the first time I ever heard the story of the RS-71 switch. I found some interesting links suggesting the above is not correct. http://www.designation-systems.net/usmilav/nonstandard-mds.html#_MDS_SR71 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR-71 The USAF <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAF> had planned to redesignate the R-12 aircraft as the RS-71 (Reconnaissance-Strike) as the succsessor to the RS-70 Valkyrie <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-70_Valkyrie>, which had two test Valkyrie's flying at Edwards AFB, California. However, then USAF Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_LeMay> preferred the SR designation and wanted the RS-70 to be named SR-70. Before the Blackbird was to be announced by Lyndon B. Johnson <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson> on February 29 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_29>, 1964 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_in_aviation>, LeMay lobbied to modify Johnson's speech to also read SR-71 instead of RS-71. The media transcript given to the press at the time still had the earlier RS-71 designation in places, creating the myth that the president had misread the plane's designation. Damon Register