‘The greatest day of my life’: What it was like to fly the Blackbird
The day my wife, Diane, flew the Blackbirds first blackbird, it was a day I would never forget.
I remember feeling so alone, so alone and, yes, so happy.
I didn’t know where to start, so I started thinking about what the future held.
“We’re all going to have a new kind of life,” Diane said, and it didn’t seem right that I couldn’t live it.
I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
I wasn’t a big bird, but I was a very good pilot.
When I landed at Langley, I found out there were people who had flown the aircraft.
So I started getting letters from people who loved the aircraft and knew it would be a fun experience.
I was invited to fly, too.
My family was impressed, and they invited me to join them for a trip to the White House in 1975, and we flew in the Blackwing.
My wife loved it, and I had no idea what to expect.
I had never been inside the Blackwings’ wings, so it was fun for me to be able to see them firsthand.
But my time on the Blackhawk was short.
On my first night back, I noticed the aircraft was parked outside my hotel.
It was a surprise, because I had booked a suite with a view of the White Houses grounds.
I immediately asked my flight attendant if I could get a seat, but she said no.
Then I asked again if I should take a seat.
She said yes, but not in the front.
That was it.
“I was pretty nervous,” Diane recalls.
“My heart sank.
I thought, ‘This is my dream, to be on the first black bird.’
But I knew we were going to take it very seriously.”
I was relieved to know I was going to do the job I loved.
The flight attendant, meanwhile, was a real professional, but as soon as I walked into the cabin, I knew something special was going on.
The Blackbirds had wingspan of about 14 feet and a weight of about 300 pounds.
They were painted with a white-and-black-striped design that said “The Blackbird” and “Blackbird Aircraft.”
Diane recalls the crew of the Blackhawks, including the pilots, were all white and all American.
“That was our identity,” she says.
I think that’s what drew people to us.
I just don’t know if that’s the way people would think of me now, but we had a very different feeling than most people I knew back in the States.
I felt like we had the freedom to be who we were.
The White House tour I had arranged with the pilot of the plane was a great way to see the aircraft in the flesh, but it wasn’t easy.
After a short flight, the Blackheads first flight back, Diane took off from Langley in her Blackbird, and she took off in her own Blackbird.
The next day, we were greeted by our hosts at the White and Blackhouses.
The family we had been invited to the first Blackbird flight was there, too, and the reception was cordial.
As the days passed, we flew more and more, and soon we were flying over Washington, D.C., the city that would be the home of the U.S. Capitol.
Diane’s Blackbird became the first flight in a tradition that has continued to this day.
In 1973, the White house, and many other buildings in Washington, were decorated with the aircraft’s wings.
As time went on, the aircraft became more and better known.
But the aircraft had a darker side.
Diane says, “We did a lot of things that we weren’t supposed to do.”
One of them was to let people in the plane who had never flown before.
The crew was warned not to let anyone into the aircraft, even though they were invited.
The aircraft was never fully inspected, and when we flew it, we made sure the plane had the correct fuel tanks and electrical systems.
That meant we could only fly for about an hour at a time.
The plane was also not equipped with GPS and radio.
As it turned out, the flight crew also had a history of having a lot on their plate.
The Boeing company in its heyday used the BlackBird to train pilots for the Army Air Corps, which was a part of the military’s Cold War program.
The pilots who trained the Black Birds were called Blackbirds.
The idea of flying an aircraft from a military base, with no GPS or radio, to the home base of a president was a little nerve-wracking.
But at the time, it made a lot more sense.
The military had a new aircraft, and some of its pilots wanted to fly it.
So, as the years passed, the piloting career of the pilot in the pilot’s seat became an increasingly important part of what was happening in the
The day my wife, Diane, flew the Blackbirds first blackbird, it was a day I would never forget.I remember feeling…
