SR-71 takeoff from Midway Island. 1969
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- čas přidán 26. 09. 2023
- In 1969 an SR-71 was flying over the Pacific Ocean when it lost a generator in flight.
The plane landed on Midway Island and got a small painted addition added to it.
This is what I've pieced together from browsing the internet so I'm not sure how true it is.
The stabilization was done in Davinci Resolve and Photoshop's generative fill was used to fill in the extended background that the video didn't pan over.
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Transcript:
The SR-71 Blackbird number 974 had one of the most colorful histories among all the Blackbirds and was generally well-regarded by its crew. In 1969, the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing on Midway Island due to a generator failure, resulting in an unexpected artistic addition. During its four-day stay on the island due to adverse weather and tanker scheduling, the SR-71 crew crossed paths with a Navy officer and his wife. She happened to be an artist and was invited to the aircraft's ramp, where she spent approximately four hours painting Gooney birds on both of the aircraft's landing gear doors.
When the time came for the plane to take off, it had to be backed up all the way to the very edge of the short runway. Unfortunately, the painted Gooney birds didn't withstand the intense heat generated as the aircraft went supersonic, reaching temperatures of around 600°F, causing the paint to gradually burn off. Subsequently, when the aircraft returned to Kadena, it underwent a repaint using materials that could endure the extreme heat, ensuring the artwork would last.
Extra Info from my perspective:
I'm a huge fan of all aircraft, but especially military aircraft.
A week or two ago, while scrolling through Reddit, I stumbled upon a post showcasing previously unreleased footage from the late 1960s. It captured one of, if not the only instance of the time an SR-71 landed on Midway Island in the Pacific. The original footage was incredibly shaky since lenses back then weren't stabilized and film cameras didn't keep each frame of film in the exact same spot.
Realizing how cool this footage was, I reached out to the Redditor who posted the video and managed to obtain a copy in its original quality. I spent around three hours to stabilize the footage and also recreated a background to convert some shots into a widescreen frame. To provide more insight into what was going on, I did a little research as to why the plane landed on Midway. I then used AI to add a voiceover to the video, offering additional context to the cool story.
Sources on the plane being at midway:
/ dug_up_some_awesome_fo...
www.sr71.us/srrandom.htm
/ 1692903501171421315
www.britmodeller.com/forums/i... - Hudba
61974 was a crew favorite and the last lost to an engine failure in Philippine coastal waters. It was laid to rest at the bottom of the Marianas trench. The deepest known part of all the worlds oceans. I have a Titanium ring that I made from one of her ejector nozzle parts.
Was that the number of this plane? I remember hearing something about one of the SR-71's sinking to the bottom of the ocean when researching the story behind this aircraft but I don't remember a ton from it. That's so cool you've got a piece of history from one of those planes! Any other stories you want to share? I'll pin you're comment for a while if you share another story and you can include you're website in it. Looks like you make some neat stuff.
Good job whoever stabilized that footage.
Thanks! Took about 3 hours to stabilize it.
The shot of the SR-71 taking off on the runway took a while since the plane kept getting obscured by the foreground. I think I put like 5 separate instances of the planner tracker in Resolve on that shot.
@@OceanLlamaMedia Nice job. Appreciate the work and effort that went into it.
Nice souvenir from Midway.
Cool story and video. Awesome aircraft as well.
Thanks! Pretty amazing someone just had this footage in a drawer for like 50 years and then their relative got it and upload the scan to reddit.
Who knows what other treasurers are out there.
Cool video! I really enjoy seeing actual real, raw footage that was filmed with a vcr camcorder. Sure, 4k video is neat, but this footage is the real deal. Nice job on the stabilization! Thanks for sharing :)
a camcorder... haha. that's film.
@@asciibaron Yup, sure is. I still have and use my Hitachi from the early 90's and my Sony handi-cam's from the late 90's that use the little cassette tape.
@@applejacks971 Yeah, I assume it the original footage was 8mm or maybe 16mm. Here's how the original transfer looked.
www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/16l9u43/dug_up_some_awesome_footage_my_grandfather_took/
I was super excited to see this previously unreleased footage and reached out to the poster to see if it was alright to post the video....they said yes, so I spent 5 or 6 hours stabilizing it.
It's understandable that this generation doesn't know that much about actual chemical developed film motion photography, much like not knowing how a rotary dial telephone functions.
Also. The movie industry still uses film which needs chemical processing in various movie productions. The film after chemical development is then digitally scanned so as to transfer for movie theater presentation, or DVD sales.
Film is still used in some movies or certain scenes because of the visual ambience that only film can re-create. Digital can be to sterile in being to precise in image re-creation.
Nice video.
Amazing technology before computers.
Computers existed and were used to design the SR-71.
I don't recall the length of Midway's runways (long time ago) but having flow into them many times and having seen Habu take off a few times, I'm a little surprised it was enough. Hopefully V1 comes before abort, because I'm sure there is no margin.
That would have been so neat to see one of the planes fly in real life. Also never knew the SR-71 had the nickname Habu. How did you get the opportunity to see them fly?
@@OceanLlamaMedia
I was deployed to Kadena AFB in Okinawa in 81 & 83, and the SR-71 operated out of there. It taxied past our hangar often and took off in clear view of us. Habu is the local name for a long skinny black venomous snake, so naturally that is what the locals called the plane, and the servicemen quickly adopted the name.
@mikearmstrong8483
No requirement for V1 since it’s a military aircraft. You punch out if you can’t fly or stop.
Not much runway length for an abort. Must lighten the load, drain the tanks for launch and keep a "Q" model tanker ready for aerial refuel.
Yeah supposedly it was stuck there for longer than it needed to be while waiting on a tanker. Would be awesome to actually hear from the pilots or anyone that was around when that event took place.
Well.
They said, that very few people seen this plane on a flight.
I must say that I'm from the lucky ones.
1976 ,
On a low flight, above my village
Daylight
Cyprus
So cool! Always like hearing stories about people who got to see this stuff in real life.
Interesting that you had do use an AI version of David Attenborough for the narration.
Had me fooled her at all David's voice, leading me initially do believe that it was gonna be some kind of joke video.
I could have used anyone's voice, I think he's got a great voice for documentary work...possibly because I just associate his voice with that work because I've seen so much of it.
Was playing around with AI and seeing how far I could push things.