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COL. DONN A. BYRNES |
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Col. Donn A. Byrnes, USAF Ret, 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. Returning to engineering, he worked for DynCorp, Raytheon, BDM, and other
technical services companies until 1987, when he and his oldest daughter,
Kathleen, formed an
engineering consulting and database management company. Since 1977 Donn and his
wife Sparks have made their home on a small patch of desert mesa near Los Lunas,
New Mexico. Colonel Byrnes is a member of Roadrunners Internationale and the
published author of Blackbird Rising.
About Blackbird Rising, - the Blackbird:
If you want to know how the SR-71 came about, and who did what to whom, you need
to read this book. The Blackbird, the nickname given to the SR-71, was forged
from 1950s and 60s components merged with aerodynamics and structural metallurgy
from the cutting edge. An aircraft with capabilities like no other, capabilities
unequaled even today.
The books cost 17.95 USD and the cost of shipping in the US is 3.00 per book for Media Mail and $5.00 per book for Priority. For international orders the cost of shipping is 9.00 USD for Global Priority, arrives in 7 to 10 days. We respond to e-mail queries within 24 hours. We are unable to process credit cards at the present time.
NEW RELEASE - JULY 2007
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