The world of aviation lost a great fighter pilot, Brian Shul, who passed away at the age of 75. He was humble and described himself as a survivor rather than a hero due to his experiences during the Vietnam War when his T-28 Trojan ground attack plane was shot and downed in a Vietnamese jungle. After undergoing 15 surgeries and spending over a year in the hospital, he made a remarkable recovery and went on to pilot the world’s fastest spy plane, the SR-71, for four years until retiring in 1990. During his career, he flew 212 combat missions during the Vietnam War and served as a foreign air advisor.
The SR-71, known as the Blackbird, could fly at more than three times the speed of sound, soar to 85,000 feet, and survey 100,000 square miles of the Earth’s surface in a single hour. Shul enjoyed flying the Blackbird and wrote books about it. He also participated in airshows and was an avid photographer of aviation and nature. He was born in Quantico, Va., and grew up with a passion for planes. He attended East Carolina University and earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1970 before joining the Air Force.
Despite his achievements, Shul remained humble, and in a speech at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California in 2016, he said that he did not want to be confused with anyone heroic or famous, stating that he is only a survivor. His sister and former mayor of Castle Pines, Colo., Maureen Shul, confirmed that he died on May 20, 2023, in a hospital in Reno, Nev. The cause of his death was cardiac arrest, which occurred after he finished speaking about his aerial adventures at the annual gala of the Nevada Military Support Alliance.
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