SLOWEST BLACKBIRD FLIGHT

The story can be found in Plane and Pilot Magazine and was originally entitled: Speed is Life. Somebody emailed it to me many years ago. It's just a page and well worth a read or a reread.

    "What was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird?"
    Brian Shul, Retired SR-71 Pilot, via Plane and Pilot Magazine

    The longer we continued to peer
    out the window and circle, the slower we got.  With our power back, the
    awaiting cadets heard nothing.  I must have had good instructors in my
    flying career, as something told me I better cross-check the gauges.  As
    I noticed the airspeed indicator slide below 160 knots, my heart
    stopped, and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed two throttles full
    forward.  At this point, we weren't really flying, but were falling in a
    slight bank.

    Just at the moment, both afterburners lit with a
    thunderous roar of flame (and what a joyous feeling that was), and the
    aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the tower.
    Shattering the still quiet of that morning, they now had 107 feet of
    fire-breathing titanium in their face, as the plane leveled and
    accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer
    than expected, maintaining what could only be described as some sort
    of ultimate knife-edge pass.

There's more at the link.