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Comment by fnord77 | Hacker News Reader

I find these stories hard to believe. An expensive top secret spy plane that is hard to fly, requires boatloads of fuel and maintenance allowed to make a detour for a joy ride flyby?

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As a (recent) former military pilot, I think your intuition is generally correct for the modern era. Our planned routes and maneuvers and flight conditions were all annotated on a formal risk assessment which had to be briefed and approved by the appropriate command authority before we completed any other steps of the pre-flight routine. And crews did not deviate from that plan. Getting briefed and approved for something very different over the radio while in-flight, especially with sketchy weather conditions, probably would not happen. With that said, I've read several books about military aviation in the Vietnam era, and I compiled a long list of things that would "never happen" today. The difference shows up in the number of fatal mishaps over the years. The US Army lost more helicopters in Vietnam than it has today in its entire fleet.

Turns out pilots and the whole chain is still full of humans who at times like “cool” stuff.

This is true. You also can't discount advocating for your product. If you want funding you have to show it off at times. Per the original argument the demonstration teams wouldn't exist. They serve no military purpose if you forget about recruiting and promotion.

if he crashed or damaged that plane, lots of people would lose their jobs.

sounds like he was at the knife's edge of the stall speed.

Johnson publicly announced the SR-71 in 1964, so the plane wasn’t top secret at the time (in the mid 1970s).

New York Times story about the announcement: https://archive.md/oFO9J

Just one of the more minor ways the military-industrial complex is able to waste stupefying amounts of money.

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