In this programme I’m going to share with you the story of the most remarkable plane ever.

One pilot described this experience during a flight. It was just him and his Reconnaissance Systems Officer. The plane carried a crew of only two. It was a

moonless night. They were flying at just over 25.5 kilometres altitude. Your average commercial airliner flies at about 3 kilometres. The pilot wondered

what the sky would look like if he turned off the lighting on his instrument panel. He was amazed to see a bright light outside from his window. It took a few

moments for his eyes to adjust. What he was looking at was a gleaming thin stripe – the Milky Way. Clusters of sparkling stars. Shooting stars flashed

across the visible sky every few seconds like a heavenly kind of fire works display. He looked down at his instrument panel again. He didn’t need artificial

illumination. It was illuminated by the powerful celestial glow outside.

Despite the fact that he was flying at nearly 3,200 kilometres per hour, the stars of the Milky Way looked to him as if they were standing still. He was humbled in the presence of God Almighty. He was seeing, like only a handful of us will ever see, the living proof of Psalm 19 – “The heavens declare the glory of God”.

And all of this from a plane that had had its design start in the 1950s by a man who had created the legendary P-38 Lockheed Lightning twin tailed World War II fighter, the F104 Starfighter and the U-2 spy plane – Kelly Johnson. The name of the plane. Well for now you’re going to have to guess.

Tag words:

Blackbird SR-71; Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; President Reagan; F-111 Fighter Bombers; Brian Shul; Gary Powers; U-2; Safronov; Order of the Red Banner; Mikhail Gorbachev; Pratt & Whitney J58 engines; BF Goodrich; US Air Force; F-18 Hornet; P-38 Lockheed Lightning; Kelly Johnson; F-5; SR-72;

Son of Blackbird;

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