MR-21 Blackbird

(Should be titled M-21). Taken yesterday at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. The only one of its kind in existence.

what came first - the sr-71 or this?

SR-71 was first. The M-21 has a drone mounted on the top and a second seat for the launch officer for the drone. The only other M-21 was hit by the drone during testing, causing both to crash, killing the launch officer, and ending the M-21 program. After that, the drones were launched from B-52s.

lol i saw that when I went too... also have a picture of it.

the sr 71 is a sexy plane but that is brillant the drone fits in perfectly

Interesting bird. Looks like a nice museum, very well lit in that room with all the glass.

Considering the size the room and the backlighting-well done. I'd like to shoot there without all the people, but that's almost impossible.

Jake

The museum is absolutely packed right now because of the DaVinci exhibit. We waited nearly twenty minutes between entering the building and when we were actually able to make it to the counter to pay for admission.

This shot was taken sitting on the floor, with the lens between the rungs of the railing. I would have loved to have been able to move just a hair to my right, but the position of the posts didn't allow that.

As you've all noticed, this is a very well lit area. The image you see here is a composite of a double processed RAW file. The plane does not have the typical paint job -- the one that generally appears as almost a flat-black. It's apparently one of two that have more of an unfinished, polished titanium look. It makes it look great, but makes it even more difficult to photo.

if you want to get rid of the people or make them less obvious i like to select their general area and motion blur them in photshop, makes it look like a long exposure.

Not as striking as yours but this is a panorama I did of the same aircraft. Great museum!

It is a lovely plane and both are excellent photos.
As a matter of interest it was to be called the RS-71 but the USAF Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay prefered the designation SR and so it was changed.

nice shot ...there is one at a outside air meuseam abot 60 miles from here .

Awesome pictures of a fine aircraft. I believe the M-21 was a modified A-12. I have a video of the crash of the other M-21 and drone. I worked the SR-71 program while in the Air Force, so I had the priviledge of being involved with the Blackbirds, both the SR-71 and the U-2. That yellow cart under the right wing has 2 Buick 455cid engines in it, which were used to start the SR-71 when at a remote location. I still can't believe that the SR-71 was retired. But that was the politics at the time. The aircraft was still very useful. Nothing else can do what it could. Here is a web site that has the status of all the remaining Blackbirds. Tells some history of the aircraft.

http://www.blackbirds.​net/sr71/srloc.html

tiefelj wrote in post #2462609
Considering the size the room and the backlighting-well done. I'd like to shoot there without all the people, but that's almost impossible.

Jake

one way to get around that, leave a camera on a tripod for say, an hour and no people will be in the picture.

same thing happened in the 1930s when some guy wanted to get a picture of Union Station (I believe) with no people.... impossible but he left the shutter open for like 24 hours and no one was in it.

bet that was hell of a fight to get that in on finals and the flame out must of been inpressive for all but the people in the plane