Amazing Giant Scale RC SR-71 Blackbird (Scratch-Built)
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- Опубликовано: 14 май 2018
- 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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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…”
Lance, thanks so much for chiming in, that helps greatly! I've pinned this comment to the top, so it'll show up as the first comment for anyone watching the vid on RUclips. Fantastic build and flying with this airplane and congratulations on the well deserved win! It was great meeting you at the event.
very nice sir, very nice.
dare you to put a pro go camera in the cockpit. LOL.
9.5 years for a bird like that? .. Did you execute this project all by yourself?
Lance Campbell just wonderful, this is technicalart.
Congrats. Based on the books by Richard Graham and others, you've made an authentic model of the SR-71, complete with it's flight characteristics, adverse yaw and all. Maximum load was +1.5G, and turns at speed were limited to 45 degrees of bank. One "hand-flown" attempt at a turn at speed resulted ATC in AZ telling the crew they were leaving the state. The SR-71 accidentally overflew Mexico! If the aircraft is redesigned for a load limit of +3G, the aircraft can do >45 degree turns at speed. I wonder what the radar cross section is. ;)
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.”
Hey Phatwila! T h i s is a story. You made my day ... :-)
Phatwila,
Thanks for sharing that.....OUTSTANDING STORY about a unique experience.
Wow! That was just the cherry on top! Thank you sir!
A wonderful story indeed. Proud to have you guys on our team.
You sir are my Hero!!!!
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.
I like this
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!
Agreed, this was the best looking and flying SR-71 model I've seen to date. Just an amazing bird to behold!
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.
Thanks for watching and thank you for your service!
The parachute at the end was the cherry on the cake. Beautiful plane.
This is a 1/8 scale model and still looks fast enough to break Mach speed!
Incredible flying skill and great model! Congratulations!
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.
Thumb up fantastic Rc SR-71
Thanks for watching! :)
Looks and sounds great! Beautiful!
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!
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.
Absolutely true. As a design, it doesn't lend itself well for model flying, but this one flew fantastic! This was the best flying SR-71 model I've seen, but it was also the largest by far.
Being larger helps, but it's still amazing.
No it's not, it's just physics. Nothing miraculous or impossible about it.
@@KandiKlover Yes it is, it is just physics.
What do you guys mean? I don't get it.
I'm not sure what's more impressive - the model or being able to fly it and more importantly bring it home again.
Agreed. The aerodynamics on a scale version of such an extreme design must be very daunting to fly... I'm impressed that it's controllable at all.
+50 point for the awesome pilot figures... though I think they're not quite proper scale. :D
Lol outdated out of touch americans. So pathetic third world country. People fly faster RC jets than this in Hong Kong.
@@KandiKlover The SR-71 has been given several nicknames, including "Blackbird" and "Habu". Since 1976, it has held the world record for the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft.Hmm not bad for us outdated out of touch americans. So pathetic third world country.
@stoeger 2 d
Sooar rokit
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.
Yeah, Top Gun is a great event which really showcases some incredible scale building and flying. I had hoped to get back out there again this year, but wasn't able to make that happen. :(
Wow that was FANTASTIC! Gorgeous plane, afterburner effect, sound, piloting and filming. Bravo!!!
Incredible! I don't want to think about the hundred or thousands of hours he must have toiled on that plane. It's a labor of love, and he nailed it!
Pomdimus Maximus beautiful plane not sure how long to build but 100s of thousands of hours no nothing takes that long you would be dead of old age just saying no big deal
Allen re-read his comment: he said "hundreds OR thousands" of hours, not hundreds of thousands..
August issue of AMA magazine says it took 9 years.
9 years.
I would bet you he lives in the garage, and his wife is pissed off!
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!
Thanks for watching!
Beautiful RC aircraft! Thank you!
Absolutely gorgeous build. Bravo.
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.
The sound these larger RC planes make is amazing. Once you get away from the small ones, the engine/flight
sounds are identical to the real thing.....only at a different scale.
I agree with you. The engine size and installation plays a big part of that.
This is impressive! I'm an armchair RC guy. I don't have the skill or money to do RC, but I love watching videos of other people's toys.
Brilliant Lance. Beyond impressive. Well done
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.
I lived about 20 mi.nw of Beale A.F.B. until I was 20 only the black bird twice in flight.And never forgotten it.
I was out jetskiing one summer day and i had an a10 fly over me then went inverted sure it isnt a black bird but i love all jets just the same...
@@tacticalbuttsex4669 ,
The A-10 is my #2 favorite Military Aircraft, I'm praying as well as thousands of Boots on the ground are that the A-10 isn't retired anytime soon.
Awesome!!! Great job!
Fantastic build , and great flying.
What a beautiful piece! My dad worked on the Habu during Vietnam and has told me bits here and there throughout my life. The most recent one I’m reminded of when I saw you go into the grass when an SR was coming in to land and the brakes burned up and it went off in the grass bending the gear up and belly sliding for a bit. He saw the smoke and ran over to see what was going on as he was to be changing the film from the mission. He then watched as there were bulldozers brought in and they buried the poor thing right there at the end of the runway. To his knowledge it’s still there today pushin up daisies. It’s amazing to realize that a plane of that caliber was so expensive to repair from an incident like that and the only course of action was to dig a hole and hide it there. The paneling and landing gear were just that hard to get right after a crash. Best wishes to you and your amazing plane and may your wife never find out how much it cost to build! Haha! I salute you.
I thought if the plane was totalled, they could try to recycle the metal.
@@davidho2977,
The CIA paid some big bucks to Russia for the Titanium.
"It was so realistic the soviet union tried to intercept it"
...and failed. :D
Love it :)
intecepted it because it doesnt fly as fast a a real blackbird
Up untill about a decade ago nothing could catch it at it's cruising altitude.
Yeah I think I saw a Snowbird fly by..they were protecting the cargo
It’s beautiful. You are a true master of your craft. Amazing. Love the engine sound on low passes.
gotta love these large scale jets.....especially the two biggest involvements in recreating an iconic aircraft like the sr-71....the builder....and the pilot.
BEAUTIFUL!!!
OMG........ watching those approaches I was nervous about it. But with the chute deployment you did a fantastic job!!!!!! GREAT flight all in all. Thanks for sharing this. It is inspirational to me. Well done!!!!!!
One seriously tough job landing that beauty..... mad props(no pun) serious congrats and much thanks for the time and skill to build and show...... superior skills!!!!
This beautiful plane, a living legend of what was the cold war, I remember seeing it in 1971, as a child and I will never forget a beautiful plane
That is an absolutely gorgeous build from scratch
Fabulous! Excellent piloting too with that tricky approach and short runway.
That’s both a work of art and science! Kudos to the builder and owner!
Wow, Lance Campbell that is an incredible job of building and flying. The SR-71 has always been my favorite aircraft and watching some of that video I can imagine myself watching the real thing. The touch and go really surprised me. Fantastic jobs all round.
That is literally awesome.
Out Standing!
WOW. I'm so jealous. Amazing craftsmanship.
This is the coolest model plane ever. What a feat, the sounds, speed of the fastest airplane ever built. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
That's so cool! I applaud Mr. Campbell's efforts! Amazing!
Very Impressive BUILD and GREAT FLYING!!!!
One of the coolest things I have ever seen!! Great job
Awesome beyond words!
Nothing short of amazing!
Speechless!!! That is some incredible work...both the model and the ability to fly it so skillfully!!
Incredible, just incredible. The only thing wrong is it can't go supersonic! Fabulous detail. Thanks for sharing.
Right?! Thanks for watching!
That is a truly beautiful flying model.
What a wonderful reproduction of the most beautiful and exciting plane in the world! Such a great job of construction and flying in difficult circumstances.
Well done, Lance Campbell!
My favorite jet growing up in the 80's. Great model, and near perfect attention to detail!
Great Pilot. I love the SR-71. Very cool.
Wow! What a beauty!! Amazing detail and accuracy. 🤩
Hands down freakin awesome! Very well done.
What can you say about perfection. Fantastic SR71.
I am astounded. The modeling and the flying were superb.
Thats a true piece of flying art. Amazing build !
Perfectly built and flies like an original.
Absolutely awesome!!!!!
I agree! Thanks for watching!
This made my day!
Captivating & impressive machine build and control of flight.
The Blackbird - Most beautiful aircraft in history!
#truestory
Awesome job Lance! When I was about 13 years old, my Father took me and a buddy to Beale Air Force Base in CA (near where we lived). My Father knew the commander of the base and we were treated to not only an introduction to an SR-71 crew AS they got suited up for a flight, but we also saw that thing take off. I'll never, ever forget what my Father did for me that day and my conversation with those pilots has stayed with me all these years. When that bird came out of the hanger, and just...kept...coming, I finally realize how big that plane was.
I remember the pilots telling us that, at speed, if they wanted to do a 180 degree turn, they would have to start at San Francisco for example and would be at the apex of the turn over Reno, Nevada, some 190 miles away! They also told us of the flight where they saw the Sunrise twice (I later read that story as well in a magazine article)...Flying to the East coast, seeing the sunrise, then flying back to Beale, landing, and seeing the Sun rise again.
What memories your video brought back...Thank you my friend.
Impressive jet, great flight 👍👍
Thanks for watching!
DIGITAL RC to
the SR-71Blackbird was at least 30 years before it's time. Amazing RC!
DIGITAL RC hujjjnnnn
DIGITAL RC flight love impressive cool jet fly down happy...
Beautiful job!
I was 18 years old when I got to Beale AFB CA and I wrenched on 972 from 82' to 86'.
I will never forget the silhouette or the sound of her afterburners.
awesome!
Fantastic build. And great piloting.
I was so surprised that this thing flew , awesome dude
I was part of the SR-71 maintenance crew back in the early seventies. Great model right down to the chute.
Just fantastic looks just like the real thing glad to see all you guys are having a great time and enjoying life that's what it is all about I could watch this all day long
That SR71 blackbird most cost a lot of money to make and build all that lovely details on the aircraft you have my big respect and the other rc planes there to
Thankyou.for this video and thanks RUclips have a great time guys peace
I was in the USAF and did see these take off / disappear into the clouds immediately! I saw them in the early 70's
Flying operationally. So yes, I appreciate the workmanship of this RC plane!
Awesome!!
Even now, to look at this airplane it looks ahead of its time.
Very impressed...superb flight show....even the parachute deploy on landing...10/10....
One of my favorites of all time!👍🇺🇸
Wow! Truly exceptional! Great job!
Oh so stunning!
The folks at Skunk Works would be proud!!
Maybe if they see this they'll show ya the SR-72 and you can get a jump on building the bigger brother.
Fantastic work!
WOW. I love to build but I'm terrified to fly. My stuff is basic, how you build something so amazing then just throw it up there is beyond me. Respect! Looks amasing, amasing skills flying the Blackbird. Mind blowing.
The detail and attention to detail showed in the flight characteristics. Good Job!
Unbelievable. You couldn't have chosen a more beautiful aircraft.
I love seeing the air plane's shadow fall over the trees on the inbound approaches. E.
It's reminiscent to when they landed the airplane for the last time in Dayton for the USAF museum as they had to come low over some trees on the approach.
Beautiful model !
Outstanding!
Fascinating build!
What a great plane the SR 71 was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You did it justice! Looked like you had a engine out after you did that touch and go.
Thanks for watching!
WOW!!! I worked on AWACS in Okinawa and the first aircraft I saw when I got there was one of these banking around to land. I was amazed and had never seen one. I thought it was out of Buck Rodgers or ??? Amazing job !!! Well done !!!
Btw, Nice touch with the afterburners. I watched one in Japan for about 15-20 mins. at night once, could only see the afterburners...
Awesome! Love the parachute
Totally and completely badass to say the very least. Just awesome!
Great tribute to an even greater airplane.
Never seen anything thing like this so cool
my favourite rc plane! Awesome!
That is beyond COOL!!!
Impressive. The landing was beautiful.
Conditions were tough at the event too, agreed he'd did a fantastic job!
@@Thercgeek b.v
B
Wasn't that the person flying it saying "stop stop stop stop slow down" at the end? Seems like there was some problem trying to land it.
Incredible
Awesome job Lance !
That was GREAT!!!!!
Now you need a scale KC 10 tanker to do mid air fueling.
That's a big awesome bird man. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching!
Rivets are detailed... wonderful!
Beautiful!