On The Airbands

Bob Stevens, who is resident cartoonist for the excellent ‘Air Force’ (US) magazine, related a true story in one of his cartoons which featured in the August 1989 edition of AA. It concerned a USAF T-43, also known to the people who fly and maintain them as ‘FLUF’ . . . fat little ugly feller! The aircraft is actually a military version of the civil 737-200 series.

On the particular night of our story, the crew of a FLUF is airborne and monitoring the exchanges on radio between a trainee air traffic controller and the crew of a high flying SR-71 Blackbird, callsign ‘HABU 29’.

USAF 3155 (FLUF) FIRST OFFICER: “Captain, I don’t think that controller’s got the foggiest what a Blackbird is or what it can do!”

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