ONE MAN ABOARD BIG JET

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005632358
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: June 24, 2015
• Document Release Date: April 1, 2011
• Case Number: F-2010-01942
• Publication Date: January 6, 1967

Mystery deepened; yesterday ; around?
the 'disappearance: over Southern Nevada
Thursday of a? top : secret spy plane:;. '`
Missing with. one.` man', 'aboard is an,l
experimental SR 71.,. It was flying a
,f
track: between Edwards cAir Force: Base,
Cali?f.,:and Tonopah:.;
Although the aircraft'-.was 'presumed
down. on a flied course, .search plane;;;;
and routine.' nii1itarq training, flight
fEliir_tl i- . .P i 'a7..F lgn t)f n'!?ei'kii d:. .
;7, I cI-lifl fht? rry[ %til'N
tt :;`11l1tl.li pr10oye (,?' Lockheed Air-
craft Corp., designer and builder -,of :the
APPROVED FOR RELEASED
BATE. m-21-201 1
Radio contact was lost at 4'p.m. Thur
day as the SR-71:* passed..w.est. of Las
. Vegas , on test' mission.. The Air' Force
The SR-71;: designed for.. "world-wide
strategics, reconnaissance," flies higher
than 16. ;miles at''2,500 miles per hour,
or? closet to flour.. times ,the cspeed of
Its ` u.'tra - sensitive, 'infra-red heat:
cameras can, photograph: 60,000 squar'e'
miles of terrain-for every hour the plane ,?
.announced development.of the plane:
Prndiuction of the SR-71 soon' made the j,
.famo,is U-2 -.obsolete.. ?Lockheed; 'alsb
bor,i , t~ n eonrt 1, ,, f s~ ~..
f 'a +i ~} i l in ~a'?tlroo
I1!t'~ 'from f;t3Cl ?11i' Pori.. 1i i ,r 11E r
t?4~Eifkl6,i~.~>'the*-!
doe ship ilU-e t ,;:, 'Edwards rlhd
used for' further expfrimentntl0il.
The, same airplane.last Nov. 21 caustic
.
earth-shakingsonic booms in?Las'-Vegas-'''
when ?it' passed. on 'thc'c~me t?ra L.."f o l
:;`'Air Force. officials at'Edwards had ni
comment on the super syl' dis
p panes-
appearance other than that. the' searci -
was continually in progress.
of-space; Air Force officials- said it
'was
"unfeasible that the craft could? escape
the pull of gravity and be placed' in orbit
around the earth:
Exactly one year ago, another: SR-71
om EdWa,~s crashedk
on a :roc ;,,plateau near Albert,' N.M.'. One? test pih ,%
was killed and another bailed out,safel3.
~ JA All, 146 7
 .S
The wreckage of. an experi
mental triplesonic ? reconnaissance,:
jet from Edwards Air Force Base
Was. located near an abandoned
Y town.in Nevada, and the body of.:
''its civilian pilot was found 10 miles
away, the Air Force. reported
Saturday.
The body of Walter L. Ray, 33, of
.;',7900 Farralone St., Canoga Park,
was sighted by a search aircraft: in
t` 'desolate country east of Leith Satur-
LAS VEGAS
CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
ITLANT1C
OCEAN
It was four miles southeast of the ,.WRECKAGE SIT E-Mop shows site
searchers Friday saw the wreckage of SR-71 experimental reconnais-
of the javelin-shaped'SR-71, fastest ,,-sance jet was.fou'nd by Air Force.
aiLernoon. Lockheed crewmen ejected over
After discovery of the plane near ..,c- A/Tcv;rn.nnrl the craft rannrtPr
search was begun for the pilot.
GroaindTeam Reaches Scene
ly landed almost intact, hitting soft
earth in virtually level flight. One
test pilot -was killed . and the other
survived:
Lockheed Aircraft Corp.; which delta wing design. The slim forward' s
made the plane, was 'seen, from the 'triangle of the wing extends to the'.';
air late Saturday. A ground rescue tip of the nose section to give the
The Air Force said the specific An'Edward' spokesman said Ray
cause of death was not determined. had' sufficient fuel for' only' 90 mi-.'t
It declined' to say whether the pilot . nutes of, flight in the SR-71 after
had ejected. the, plane was last reported Thurs.
Ray leaves his wife, Diane Carole; da
Y
his mother, Mrs. Thelma Amelia
[: Ray,, Havana, III.; a brother, Vernon ;
0. Ray, Orange; and a.sister, Elmore..
Cealka, Elkhart, Ind.
Spokesmen at Edwards declined'
to, say why discovery. of. the wrecks :l
age was not revealed until Saturday. r,
An Air Force team of investigators ~;
has been dispatched. to., conduct an
is investigation -into .the cause: of the,'R
The highly secret ' 2,000..m.p.h'.
plane, powered by two huge jet en-;.
`,.gores, was described by President
Johnson in 1964 as the ,most ad-:
vanced in the world, -capable of .
speeds more than three times that'of.
sound and, altitudes' of 'more than ,.1
80,000 feet. ? ' ? '
Secrecy has surrounded the came:
t,; ra-carrying aircraft which is not' al='.`F
,lowed to be photographed at close
i range.' The 100-fo6t-long, jet black
plane is ' widely: considered a super,.
;:.spy plane successor to the U-2 ty'pe`:;
reconnaissance' p I a n e. in which
t5 7 American Francis' Gary Powers was `i
shot down over'?Russia in 1960. ? . ,
One other. SR-71 crashed but was
'not destroyed last-February. Its two .
r ,
 By :-COLIN MCKINLAY
R-J Associate Editor
The body.of the.pilot of
the super " secret Air
?; Force photo - reconnais
sance plane was located
Saturday afternoon about;
three miles -from tlte'
wreckage, 90 miles north
Officials at Edwards Air;
Force base said that the plane
was ,a^ . SR-71, capable of fly?,
ing 2,000 miles per hour ond,l
an 80,000 ft: -ceiling..
Air Force officials' at, Ed
wards ' identified the pilot. is
Walter L. Ray, 33, of Canoga
Park, Calif. Search . parties
found ' his . body 'about : 3 p.m,
It was not known if his, para-'
chute had opened.
The multi-million dollarplane'j
crashed Friday. 'near Leitli,'1
Nev., ' an abandoned section.
station - of ::the Union Pacific's
Railroad.." Air' Force: officials'
missing since _. Thursday: 1, =n ~
RAY'S BODY was
located
about 'three miles'- West' of'the
plane, which was four miles
southwest of Leith. Searchers
said that .Ray ejected. from the
plane at 45,000 feet, 'and his
parachute should have opened
at. 16,000, feet. '
At '. the time the body was.
found; a 60-member search par-"
ty from Las Vegas was about
half-way to' Caliente._: In ' the
group were military personnel,
Clark County ' Sheriff's Deput-
les and members of- the Sher-
iff's Jeep Posse.
The .search party' :'consisted
of 16 vehicles and enough equip-,
ment' for a sustained search
of several days..
THE DEAD pilot, was a civil-
'ian employed by the Lockheed
Aircraft Corp.
An ' Air Force spokesman
said that. a' helicopter, crew ex-
amined the wreckage, and then
military personnel placed ". a
tight Ting-: of security " around
it
There .were some reports that
4the? plane was not an SR-71,
,but some-other secret Air Force
'plane -but Col.' James. Smith;
information officer at Edwards
4.FB, where the flight
-origi-nated, denied this.
THE SR--71 is capable of
,worldwide.. reconnaissance, ac-.
:cording . to an announcement
of.,the? craft made July 24,?,1964;
by, President Johnson
 By COLIN McKINLAY"?
R-J Associate Editor
CALIENTE - More than a
crash` of a.secret U.S. Air Force
spy plane. 'sohtlz of__here,_ but
the normally quiet Meadow Val-
ley. Wash is a hive of. activity
by the military.
THEY'RE- LOOKING for''a
needle in a - haystack - a foot-
long camera `which apparently
popped off, the wing, of the 2,-
000 mile-an-hour reconnaissance
plane when it crashed into the
side of a mountain, four miles
southwest of Leith,' Jan. -5.
The . camera. may provide
some. key to. the crash of the
plane, which was fatal to its
pilot, Walter L.. Ray, 33, em-
ployed by the Lockheed Air-
craft Corp.' .Or, it may' be' a
part of the super-secret equip-
ment. the craft uses to spy on
the earth from altitudes of 80,
000 ft.
This community - is bulging
with Air Force personnel. Every
guest room in town is full.. By
day, they search, and by night,
they rest..
ARMED GUARDS stop motor-
ists in the Meadow Valley Wash
and interview them. Southbound
travelers get their first inkling
that 'something is amiss when
'Reconnaissance-.'a
'Lane Missing
Near Las Vegas
r.` EDWARDS AFB, Calif. (UPI)
=A sleek, black. SR71 Aircraft
ra sophisticated and advanced
.,type of strategic reconnaissance
,plane, was missing and ' pre-'
sun- ed down' in Nevada, A he
Air Force reported Friday.,:_"
THE SR71,' more versatile
than ' the U2 spy plane which
was shot down over Russia, was
believed down in a,remo to area
east'of Las Vegas.
An Air Force spokesman at
.this sprawling flight research
center `100 miles north of `Los
Angeles said the craft- was on
a . routine test flight -from, Ed-
wards Thursday- when it-. dis=
appeared.
they 'are :'stopped by- militar'
personnel near Elgin.' North-::;.
bound motorists . are stopped'
o.. `
near Carp. Both locations 'are:.,.:,
small section stations on the
main line of the the Union .Pacific
Railroad. ra
The Air ' Force--'has also;
..
brought in construction equip.
rnent to build five miles of dirt 'i ~r y
road from Kane 'Springs Wash.,:`'
(See SEEK, Page, 4),
 (Continued from Page 1)
to ' the mountain where . the
plane crashed so the parts can
be .trucked out. Big "Low Boy"
trucks,. empty, stand in vacant
lots here as reminders of the
trucked in equipment.
"WE'RE GOING to get. that
plane out, no matter what it
costs," one 'military=: man. re-
marxed.
'A resident of this town said,
`We've had a number of mili-
tary' airplane crashes around
here, but we've never seen any-
thing like the security for this
crash.
Ranchers on horseback are
even being employed by the Air
Force to search the rugged
mountains for the missing.cam-
era., The plane hit a `mountain
some . unofficial . talk around
h h f
t
t
t t
t
crash scene, is believed to have
been removed the same way.
'There were even some indi-
cations-that the plane may not.
have even been 'the .one the Air ,i
Force. said it was. There was
A HELICOPTER has ,already
removed the spy 'plane's can
opy. The body of the pilot, .who''.
apparently ejected and ..was
found : several miles west of. the
own
e cra
a
was one not j
previously acknowledged
ing among the Air Force Arsen-
al, but this brought .only blank'``
THEIR BEST explanation was
A tragedy has resulted in:and;
unseasonal economic 'boom '
Caliente, and how long ` it will ;
last may.. depend on the reco'vz
with about a 45-degree slope,
and this should give the : road-..,.,.,.
building engineers of the' Air,
'
Force some difficulties. ?
About 80 men are constantly
moving in and out of the com-
munity. : Few of them will say
anything.
"It hasn't been like "other
j1
crashes," said one resident.''
`'Everything is hush, hush.".'
RANCHERS GET $5 a day
for the use of a horse. "
The plane was identified by'
the'. Air' Force "" as the SR-71.
The SR stands for strategic' re-
connaissance: The plane is also,.:':
known as the' YF-12, when it is[
used for other purposes.
-President Johnson announced
'the'' existence 'of the, craft 'on'e}
July 24, 1964,' but little is known :j
of its capabilities. It. is an' ex.
otic successor to the 'notorious
U-2 spy plane shot::d own. over1`3
Russia..
The 'inquisitive Air,Force per-l
sonnel in., Meadow Valley Wash'
talkJo. all travelers..They . arevery. polite, but want. to know
all about..everyone's, business-;,
and destination in the area. - _;
"They even went out and in-
terviewed one . , rancher. , who.:.
was ,.'.working ' in hi, own as
that 'some military ` men were 4
using incorrect designations 'in
their conversations. ' A
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