Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: Pilot's Flight Operating Instructions

Ein zwar durch bloßes Abfotografieren des Originals etwas schwer zu lesendes Buch. Inhaltlich aber sehr sehr informativ, alle Besonderheiten der SR -71 - natürlich auf Englisch - sehr gut erläutert,Skizzen allerdings sehr schlecht abkopiert und teilweise nicht richtig zu entziffern.Wer im Luftfahrtenglisch fit ist, liest solange, bis ihm von der leider etwas zu klein geratenen Schrift die Augen brennen.Sehr interessant und empfehlenswert!

I liked the book a lot, however I was a USAF pilot but never flew this aircraft.

Let's be frank. This is not a book the average reader would enjoy - no romance, no mystery, no intrigue. However, if you have an intense interest in one of the most enigmatic airplanes ever built, then this may be for you. The SR-71 Flight Manual is available on line and the online copy has the same content as the book but there the comparison ends. Let's use my situation to explain why. I am in the process of building a full-sized replica of an SR-71 Blackbird and I need all of the information I can get! I usually need such info adjacent to, or inside the aircraft which is difficult with a laptop or note book. I also need quick access to different chapters/pages, difficult online but easy with the book (provided you use those technologically advanced devices - bookmarks!) You could download and print the whole manual but even using reprocessed squid ink and recycled toilet paper won't approach the low cost of this manual. There you have it, a low cost, convenient and informative package, plus you may even decipher some of the myriad of acronyms loved so much by aviation corporations and services.

As the other reviewer stated, this is only a partial manual! I got the full manual through an Inter Library Loan which had a lot more information in it and was about 3 times as thick.Also, the abridged manual can be found online for free: [...]I would suggest not spending the money on this particular version.

This is the real deal, but regrettably it's a scan of a poor quality printed copy (perhaps exactly as it was declassified). Some of the diagrams and illustrations are completely unreadable thus extremely disappointing. Reading the 'ragged' body text is also tiring on the eyes. For the price, I was hoping for a higher quality rendering.