LOCAL

Bob Gilliland, first pilot of the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane and a Memphian, dies at 93

Memphis Commercial Appeal

Robert "Bob" Gilliland, a Memphian and chief test pilot of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, became the first person to fly the spy plane on Dec. 22, 1964. Gilliland died July 4, 2019, at 93 years old.

On a near-cloudless Dec. 22, 1964, a brawny, broad-shouldered Memphian strapped into what was then the world's fastest aircraft at a secret airstrip in California.

The entire life of 38-year-old Robert J. Gilliland — an unassuming "Bob" on the ground and "Dutch 51" in the air — had brought him to this moment, sitting in this airplane he'd helped develop as its chief test pilot for military contractor Lockheed. This spy plane — the stealthy, high-altitude SR-71 Blackbird — was built to win the U.S. the Cold War.

As he ran through the usual pre-flight checks, flipping switches and ticking boxes, maybe Gilliland thought about just how far he'd come since his U.S. Navy submarine training. And then he got to the part he'd been waiting for, longing for, training for ever since he jumped ship to transfer to the newly independent U.S. Air Force in 1949.

The takeoff.

Gilliland, who died Thursday, on Independence Day, at the retirement home he lived at in Rancho Mirage, California, was the first person to ever pilot the iconic SR-71 Blackbird, earning him a place in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2017. With 6,500 hours of flight time during his career, Gilliland still holds the world record for the most experimental supersonic flight test time above Mach 2 and Mach 3 speeds.

"He finally ran out of gas," Jim Gilliland Sr., 85,of Memphis said Saturday of his brother's death.

The three Gilliland boys — their other brother, Frank Jr., died in 1984 — grew up in East Memphis, attended grade school at what is now the Campus School at the University of Memphis, and then went to boarding school at Webb School in Bell Buckle, south of Nashville, the same school their father Frank Sr. attended. Jim Gilliland Sr., a retired attorney and partner in the family's Gilliland Investments, described his oldest brother as thoroughly confident and competitive with a sparkling intelligence.

"He was so quietly competitive. That was one of his strengths," Gilliland said Saturday morning. "He didn't believe in second place on anything."

Robert "Bob" Gilliland, a Memphian who became the chief test pilot of the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, died July 4, 2019, in California. He was 93.

That competitive streak pushed the hotshot pilot to ever-greater heights.

After a stint patrolling the skies in post-World War II Germany, the elder Gilliland earned "accidental" fame in the aviation community when, as a young second lieutenant, he won his air wing's "top gun" competition. Then, during the Korean War, he volunteered to be reassigned to Taegu Air Base where he flew 20 missions in the Republic F-84 fighter jets.

Back home, Gilliland got a plum but boring assignment in the Air Force's research and development group. He pulled the ejection lever, returning to Memphis to help his father run the family's commercial real estate business, with such notable assets as the gigantic, now-vacant Sterick Building in Downtown. Meanwhile, Gilliland kept flying as a member of the Tennessee National Guard.

Test pilot Bob Gilliland sits in the cockpit of an SR-71 Blackbird at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale.

After his dad died, Gilliland joined Lockheed, first as a test pilot of the F-104 Starfighter in California, then as the chief pilot for European production of the F-104 in Turin, Italy.

And then, in 1962, Gilliland got the call: The legendary chief of Lockheed's legendary advanced research and development team Skunk Works, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, wanted him to lead the tests for what would become a legendary project. The secretive project would take him to the now-infamous Nevada military testing site Area 51 and to Skunk Works' testing area near Burbank, California.

The project was the SR-71 Blackbird, the first manned stealth aircraft ever created, the fastest and best aircraft of its day. And Kelly wanted Bob to be the pilot to test it.

The project was so secret even Gilliland's family didn't know about his role in developing the SR-71 until the U.S. declassified the records of the project years later.

The SR-71, shown here in a file photo, routinely flew over 80,000 feet.

Two years later, Gilliland was sitting in the cockpit of his baby, roughly 1,800 miles from Memphis — a trip that would take about 26 hours by car but less than an hour by SR-71.

As he readied for takeoff, steeling his normally unflappable nerves, maybe Gilliland felt the gravity of the moment, that feeling few know, of standing on the frontier of history. Or maybe he was looking forward to going faster than anyone had ever gone before.

Or maybe he was just looking forward to being back in the air. Back where he belonged.

Gilliland is survived by daughter Dr. Anne Gilliland Hayes (spouse Dr. Richard Hayes) of Reno, Nevada; son Robert J. Gilliland, Jr. (spouse Kim Gilliland) of Palm Desert, California; grandchildren Laura Hayes, Nathaniel Hayes, Stuart Hayes, Scott Gilliland, and Heather Gilliland; and brother Jim S. Gilliland (spouse Lucia Gilliland) of Memphis.

The family is asking that donations in lieu of flowers be made in his name to either the Palm Springs Air Museum, March Field Air Museum, or a U.S. military veteran organization. A memorial service in California is in the works for this fall.

At his request, Gilliland's ashes will be sprinkled in his favorite trout stream.

Columnist Ryan Poe writes The 901, a running commentary on all things Memphis. Reach him at poe@commercialappeal.com and on Twitter @ryanpoe.

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