MovieChat Forums > Space Cowboys (2000) Discussion > Hawk an SR-71 Blackbird pilot?

Hawk an SR-71 Blackbird pilot?

posted 14 years ago by KrammitTheFrog
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In one scene Hawkins implies that he had flown Blackbirds (Through his knowledge of them, not directly of course). I doubt that he ever could of flown an SR-71 because the selection process for the pilots was a year long, and most of it was devoted to keeping cowboy pilots like Hawk from ever flying them. They only wanted highly technical astronaut types at the controls. In the shuttle simulator Hawk refuses to let the computer tell him how to fly. He's a 'fly by the seat of your pants', cowboy pilot. He does so admirably, but probably never would of been allowed to fly a Blackbird.

[–] Lincbond442 14 years ago

He did more than imply, he says this was his bird, or something to that effect. He then goes into a description of how it leaks fuel on the ground but once it gets up to speed, how it seals up and unleashes it true performance. That scene was shot at the March Field Air Museum near Riverside, CA. Been there many times and have several pictures of this plane. Wish I could have been there when this scene was shot.

"Who knows, Mr. Gilbert, what a limit really is." Lincoln Bond, "Toward The Unknown", 1956

[–] Etherdave 11 years ago

If the fictitious Hawk had flown in the X-2 program (as is shown in the film), and survived, he would have been singularly qualified for the experimental test programs of the A-12/YF-12, precursor to the SR-71. Pilots for these flights were chosen at the discretion of the program's Chief Pilot, who preferred proven airmen who had worked for him before. The CIA, operating the surveillance missions of the production SR-71, would defer to knowledgable, experienced people to pilot their planes... people like the Chief Pilot of the A-12/YF-12.

Hawk's 'Cowboyness' can be excused as overly melodramatic, but nevertheless emblematic of his character and essential to justifying his decisions throughout the film. Far more glaring is the X-2B, a thoroughly fictitious airplane that is hoplessly uneconomical (can kill 2 pilots instead of one), unless the abrupt removal of BOTH troublesome pilots from the program was a mission objective Gerson kept secret; perhaps this is the real reason he is so angry afterwards.