“A boy who loved airplanes” which is the autobiography of…
“DONN A. BYRNES, the son of a career U.S. Army doctor and his wife, was born on 29 May 1931. After many moves about this country, a short stay in Hawaii, and attendance in eighteen different schools, Donn graduated from Edison High School, San Antonio, Texas, in 1949. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1951 at age nineteen after three and a half semesters of pre-med at the University of Texas.
Progressing from PFC aircraft mechanic to Aviation Cadet and Air Force pilot, he flew F-84s and F-86Ds in the U.S., Japan, and Guam. In 1958 he and his family returned to the U.S. to attend an Air Force Institute of Technology-sponsored program in electrical engineering at the University of Texas, Austin.
Returning with BSEE in hand to Wright Field, Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio, in 1962, he negotiated an assignment to Project 665A (Reconnaissance/Strike). Unknowingly he had hit upon one of the seed programs for the SR-71 sensors. It was as sensor and systems integration engineer at Wright Field that Donn met Ken Hurley and, in early 1964, was briefed into the SR-71 program.
Absorbed by the Blackbird development effort, Captain Byrnes was transferred to Edwards AFB, California in July 1964, where he became the SR-71 Sensor Test Engineer and Flight Test Engineer. He left Edwards in 1968 to become Base Commander at Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Returning to the U.S. in 1969 he was reassigned to the SR-71 Program, and almost immediately transferred to the F-15 Program, where he was Airframe Projects Manager, Deputy Chief Engineer and, finally, Director of Projects. In 1975 Donn left the F-15 System Program Office (SPO) and assumed the job of Director of Engineering at the Air Force Contract Management Division, Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Colonel Byrnes retired in November 1978 after accumulating more than 3,200 pilot hours, most of which was single engine jet time.”
He has written books on both the SR-71 and F-15 development, both excellent reads. The autobiography is very good too.
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