SR-71

Ramon Itardes made a Google Earth Video that shows about a dozen SR-71's. Images from Google Maps are clearer than the ones on the Video. I could not determine where the planes were from just watching the video, so I stepped through the video and followed along on Google Maps and tracked them all down. Some of the them I was able to locate by stepping through the video and then following along with Google maps. This worked well for those locations that were close together, like the six in California. For the rest of them I had to track them down using the latitude and longitude posted along the bottom of the video, but the numbers were indistinct and hard to read. Sometimes I would guess right, sometimes it took two or three tries, and sometimes I had to backtrack and replay the video and watch the numbers change in order to figure out what they were. Google Earth lists the latitude and longitude in degrees to six decimal places. I only used the first three and that was adequate to locate the aircraft. One degree of latitude (anywhere) or latitude (at the equator) equates to about 70 miles. Two decimal places it gets you within a mile. The third decimal place gets you to within about 100 yards, which is close enough to recognize individual features in an aerial view at the resolution we are working with. Any closer than that and we are talking planning for wheelchair access.
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