Blackbird., Pilot / Controller dialogue Options

[Fast Jet]

SR-71 Blackbird was crossing the control-zone of London Control. Evidently the controller didn't know the service ceiling of this aircraft is around 30,000 metres (yes metres, not feet!). There are so many variations on this item that the original event has evidently become part of aviation folklore or joke-lore.
Pilot: "Radar, Good Day, Airforce Blackbird, request FL 600(!)"
Controller (amused): "Sir, if you can reach, you are cleared FL 600"
Pilot: "US Air Force Blackbird, leaving FL 800, decending Level 600..."

courtesy of youtube.

[KevinM880]

Can you post the link? I couldn't find the vid.

Edit: Haha, found some really good ones at this website:
http://www.re-quest.net/humor/airline-humor/

[AirRabbit]

SR-71 Blackbird was crossing the control-zone of London Control. Evidently the controller didn't know the service ceiling of this aircraft is around 30,000 metres (yes metres, not feet!). There are so many variations on this item that the original event has evidently become part of aviation folklore or joke-lore.
Pilot: "Radar, Good Day, Airforce Blackbird, request FL 600(!)"
Controller (amused): "Sir, if you can reach, you are cleared FL 600"
Pilot: "US Air Force Blackbird, leaving FL 800, decending Level 600..."

courtesy of youtube.

I think someone is trying to "pull someone's leg." The US military (all branches) operates using assigned "call signs" not airplane types - so there just wouldn't be a recorded radio transmission from "Airforce Blackbird."

[ChillSpiller]

I think someone is trying to "pull someone's leg." The US military (all branches) operates using assigned "call signs" not airplane types - so there just wouldn't be a recorded radio transmission from "Airforce Blackbird."

Never the less the story has been around for quite a while and I have heard it at various occasions. After all also the military jets can be guided by general ATC - which in fact is the safest option in congested airspace. Now FL800 surely isn't congested but I could imagine that someone was up for a laugh while having a boring flight.
Unfortunately I never found any info on this matter.

[bernoulli]

Never the less the story has been around for quite a while and I have heard it at various occasions. After all also the military jets can be guided by general ATC - which in fact is the safest option in congested airspace. Now FL800 surely isn't congested but I could imagine that someone was up for a laugh while having a boring flight.
Unfortunately I never found any info on this matter.

After reading "Sled Driver", seems that the word "boring" wasn't a word in the dictionary with the always potential unstart, or compressor stall at those speeds and altitudes. They were violent.

[ChillSpiller]

Hmm, never read that book. Guess I'll have a look into it. Maybe boring was the wrong word for someone being one out of a handfull of pilots who ever flew that thing. But although that altitude and speed does need special alertness, what's a job without some fun?

[AirRabbit]

...and I've heard the stories also ... it just seems to me that Air Traffic Controllers are pretty savy folks - and there aren't too many aircraft that have ever operated at or above FL600 - in fact, because of the characteristics of the atmosphere, the technical clearance would be "VFR on Top, FL600 or above." As I understand it, because they would be VFR on Top – they would be relieved from having to request a specific altitude – much as a Cessna-152 pilot flying VFR from “A” to “B” at 5500 feet is not obligated to request an altitude change to 7500 feet. Of course it is a very real probability that if the SR was on a non-classified mission, the flight crew would more-than-likely let ATC know when they were changing altitudes. I also believe that any air traffic control communication with an aircraft passing through that controller's sector would have information on the altitude/clearance and would/should recognize that, even if because of security purposes the Blackbird had turned off his either his transponder all together or just the altitude reporting aspect of it (often referred to as "strangling the parrot”) the controller should have noticed the clearance altitude – and know that only the SR, the now-out-of-service XB-70, the U2, and the Concorde are VERY likely the only airplanes that would have received such a clearance – and, therefore, the controller would not be so “cavalier” with his clearances…

[Fast Jet]

I think it was just a joke off youTube.