Col. Buzz Carpenter sits down and tells all about the one military plane that seems to dazzle anyone who’s ever been lucky enough to their eyes upon it.

The SR-71 Blackbird.

He tells about the views from 85,000 feet. How 10,000 foot mountains look “flat”. How you can see the curvature of the earth — or 350 miles in any direction.

He tells about how when the Blackbird turned its engines on before takeoff, the entire base would stop what they were doing to run over and watch it blast off with its unparalleled roar: 117 decibels.

*To put that noise level into perspective, the loudest Michigan Stadium (the behemoth home of the University of Michigan Wolverines’ football team that houses 109,01 people) ever got was 100 decibels — in 2007*

Why does Mr. Carpenter know all of this about the supersonic spy plane that was utilized carefully by six U.S. presidents? And that it was shot at — literally – hundreds of times … by missiles.

Because he used to fly it. Pretty damn good, too. Check out the video for more.