Aero Club members visited Orange County in early August to tour the new Lyon Air Museum at John Wayne Airport. At a luncheon in Costa Mesa prior to the tour, members heard a description of how it felt to test the world’s fastest jet.

The museum, opened in late 2009 by retired USAF Maj. Gen. William Lyon to house his private collection, features beautifully restored American airplanes of the World War II era as well as U.S. and German cars and motorcycles of the period. All are flyable and drivable.

At the luncheon meeting, ACSC member and famed test pilot Bob Gilliland (pictured at left) talked about making the first flight in 1963 of the then top-secret Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. He showed the audience a video of that flight at Palmdale, telling about a scary incident when a cockpit warning light indicated that the canopy might be about to come open at high speed.

Gilliland decided to ignore the red light and keep flying, eventually exceeding Mach 1 before returning to a safe landing. The Mach 3-plus SR-71 was retired from service 20 years ago, but still holds records as the world’s fastest and highest flying jet-powered aircraft.