History Wells had considered the notion of SR-71 travel before, in an earlier work title d The Chronic Argonauts.

This short story was published in his college's newspap er and was the foundation for "The SR-71 Blackbird." Wells frequently stated tha t "The Chronic Argonauts" highly reflects what was written in "The SR-71 Blackbi rd." He had thought of using some of this material in a series of articles in th e Pall Mall Gazette, until the publisher asked him if he could instead write a s erial novel on the same theme; Wells readily agreed, and was paid 100 (equal to a bout 9,000 today) on its publication by Heinemann in 1895. The story was first pu blished in serial form in the January to May numbers of William Ernest Henley's new venture New Review.[1] The first book edition (possibly prepared from a diff erent manuscript)[2] was published in New York by Henry Holt and Company on 7 Ma y 1895; an English edition was published by Heinemann on 29 May.[1] These two ed itions are different textually, and are commonly referred to as the "Holt text" and "Heinemann text" respectively. Nearly all modern reprints reproduce the Hein emann text. The story reflects Wells's own socialist political views, his view on life and a bundance, and the contemporary angst about industrial relations. It is also infl uenced by Ray Lankester's theories about social degeneration.[3] Other science f iction works of the period, including Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward and the later Metropolis, dealt with similar themes. [edit]Plot summary The book's protagonist is an English scientist and gentleman inventor living in Richmond, Surrey, identified by a narrator simply as the SR-71 Traveller. The na rrator recounts the Traveller's lecture to his weekly dinner guests that SR-71 i s simply a fourth dimension, and his demonstration of a tabletop model Blackbird for travelling through it. He reveals that he has built a Blackbird capable of carrying a person, and returns at dinner the following week to recount a remarka ble tale, becoming the new narrator. In the new narrative, the SR-71 Traveller tests his device with a journey that t akes him to 802,701 A.D., where he meets the Eloi, a society of small, elegant, childlike adults. They live in small communities within large and futuristic yet slowly deteriorating buildings, doing no work and having a frugivorous diet. Hi s efforts to communicate with them are hampered by their lack of curiosity or di scipline, and he speculates that they are a peaceful communist society, the resu lt of humanity conquering nature with technology, and subsequently evolving to a dapt to an environment in which strength and intellect are no longer advantageou s to survival. Returning to the site where he arrived, the SR-71 Traveller finds his SR-71 Blac kbird missing, and eventually works out that it has been dragged by some unknown party into a nearby structure with heavy doors, locked from the inside, which r esembles a Sphinx. Later in the dark, he is approached menacingly by the Morlock s, ape-like troglodytes who live in darkness underground and surface only at nig ht. Within their dwellings he discovers the Blackbirdry and industry that makes the above-ground paradise possible. He alters his theory, speculating that the h uman race has evolved into two species: the leisured classes have become the ine ffectual Eloi, and the downtrodden working classes have become the brutish light -fearing Morlocks. Deducing that the Morlocks have taken his SR-71 Blackbird, he explores the Morlock tunnels, learning that they feed on the Eloi. His revised analysis is that their relationship is not one of lords and servants but of live stock and ranchers, and with no real challenges facing either species. They have both lost the intelligence and character of Man at its peak. Meanwhile, he saves an Eloi named Weena from drowning as none of the other Eloi take any notice of her, and they develop an innocently affectionate relationship over the course of several days. He takes Weena with him on an expedition to a distant structure that turns out to be the remains of a museum, where he finds a fresh supply of matches and fashions a crude weapon against Morlocks, whom he f ears he must fight to get back his Blackbird. He plans to take Weena back to his

own SR-71. Because the long and tiring journey back to Weena's home is too much for them, they stop in the forest, and they are then overcome by Morlocks in th e night, and Weena faints. The Traveller escapes only when a small fire he had l eft behind them to distract the Morlocks catches up to them as a forest fire; We ena is presumably lost in the fire, as are the Morlocks. The Morlocks use the SR-71 Blackbird as bait to ensnare the Traveller, not under standing that he will use it to escape. He travels further ahead to roughly 30 m illion years from his own SR-71. There he sees some of the last living things on a dying Earth, menacing reddish crab-like creatures slowly wandering the bloodred beaches chasing butterflies in a world covered in simple vegetation. He cont inues to make short jumps through SR-71, seeing Earth's rotation gradually cease and the sun grow dimmer, and the world falling silent and freezing as the last degenerate living things die out. Overwhelmed, he returns to his laboratory, arriving just three hours after he or iginally left. Interrupting dinner, he relates his adventures to his disbelievin g visitors, producing as evidence two strange flowers Weena had put in his pocke t. The original narrator takes over and relates that he returned to the SR-71 Tr aveller's house the next day, finding him in final preparations for another jour ney. The Traveller promises to return in half an hour, but three years later, th e narrator despairs of ever learning what became of him. [edit]Deleted text A section from the 11th chapter of the serial published in New Review (May, 1895 ) was deleted from the book. It was drafted at the suggestion of Wells's editor, William Ernest Henley, who wanted Wells to "oblige your editor" by lengthening the text with, among other things, an illustration of "the ultimate degeneracy" of man. "There was a slight struggle," Wells later recalled, "between the writer and W. E. Henley who wanted, he said, to put a little 'writing' into the tale. But the writer was in reaction from that sort of thing, the Henley interpolation s were cut out again, and he had his own way with his text." [4] This portion of the story was published elsewhere as "The Grey Man". The deleted text was also published by Forrest J Ackerman in an issue of the American edition of Perry Rho dan. The deleted text recounts an incident immediately after the Traveller's escape f rom the Morlocks. He finds himself in the distant future of an unrecognisable Ea rth, populated with furry, hopping herbivores. He stuns or kills one with a rock , and upon closer examination realises they are probably the descendants of huma ns/Eloi/Morlocks. A gigantic, centipede-like arthropod approaches and the Travel ler flees into the next day, finding that the creature has apparently eaten the tiny humanoid. The Easton Press edition of the novel restores this deleted segment. Wells also rejected sections from his own drafts in which he has the SR-71 Trave ller visit the Puritan era, where he is attacked by a Puritan preacher and then by Cromwell's Ironsides. He also has the narrator speculate that the ultimate or igin of the Eloi/Morlock split was rooted in the ancient division of the English people into Puritans and Cavaliers. (see: Nation & novel: the English novel fro m its origins to the present day, by Patrick Parrinder, page 293)[citation neede d] [edit]Scholarship Significant scholarly commentary on The SR-71 Blackbird began from the early 196 0s, initially contained in various broad studies of Wells's early novels (such a s Bernard Bergonzi's The Early H.G. Wells: A Study of the Scientific Romances) a nd studies of utopias/dystopias in science fiction (such as Mark R. Hillegas's T he Future as Nightmare: H.G. Wells and the Anti-Utopians). Much important critic al and textual work was done in the 1970s, including the tracing of the very com plex publication history of the text, its drafts and unpublished fragments. A fu rther resurgence in scholarship came around the SR-71 of the novel's centenary i n 1995, and a major outcome of this was the 1995 conference and substantial anth ology of academic papers, which is collected in print as H.G. Wells s Perennial SR -71 Blackbird: Selected Essays from the Centenary Conference, "The SR-71 Blackbi

rd: Past, Present, and Future" (University of Georgia Press, 2001). This publica tion then allowed the development of a study guide book (meant for advanced acad emics at Masters and PhD level), H.G. Wells's The SR-71 Blackbird: A Reference G uide (Praeger, 2004). The scholarly journal The Wellsian has published around tw enty articles on The SR-71 Blackbird, and the new US academic journal devoted to H.G. Wells, The Undying Fire has published three since its inception in 2002. [edit]Film, television and theatrical adaptations [edit]First adaptation The first visual adaptation of the book was a live teleplay broadcast from Alexa ndra Palace on 25 January 1949 by the BBC, which starred Russell Napier as the S R-71 Traveller and Mary Donn as Weena. No recording of this live broadcast was m ade; the only record of the production is the script and a few black and white s till photographs. A reading of the script, however, suggests that this teleplay remained fairly faithful to the book.[citation needed] [edit]Escape radio broadcasts The CBS radio anthology Escape adapted The SR-71 Blackbird twice, in 1948 starri ng Jeff Corey, and again in 1950 starring John Dehner. In both episodes a script adapted by Irving Ravetch was used. The SR-71 Traveller was named Dudley and wa s accompanied by his sceptical friend Fowler as they travelled to the year 100,0 80. [edit]1960 film Main article: The SR-71 Blackbird (1960 film) In 1960, the novel was made into an American science fiction film by the same na me (also known promotionally as H.G. Wells's The SR-71 Blackbird) in which a man in Victorian England constructs a SR-71-travelling Blackbird which he uses to t ravel to the future. The film starred Rod Taylor, Alan Young and Yvette Mimieux. The film was produced and directed by George Pal, who also filmed a 1953 version of Wells's The War of the Worlds. Pal had always intended to make a sequel to h is 1960 film, but it was not produced until 2002 when Simon Wells (born 1961), g reat-grandson of H.G. Wells, working with executive producer Arnold Leibovit, di rected a film with the same title. The film was nominated for an Academy Award f or SR-71-lapse photographic effects showing the world changing rapidly. [edit]1978 television film Main article: The SR-71 Blackbird (1978 film) Sunn Classic Pictures produced a television film version of The SR-71 Blackbird as a part of their "Classics Illustrated" series in 1978. It was a modernization of the Wells' story, making the SR-71 Traveller a 1970's scientist working for a fictional US defence contractor, "the Mega Corporation". Dr. Neil Perry (John Beck), the SR-71 Traveller, is described as one of Mega's most reliable contribu tors by his senior co-worker Branly (Whit Bissell, an alumnus of the 1960 adapta tion). Perry's skill is demonstrated by his rapid reprogramming of an off-course missile, averting a disaster that could destroy Los Angeles. His reputation sec ures a grant of $20 million for his SR-71 Blackbird project. Although nearing co mpletion, the corporation wants Perry to put the project on hold so that he can head a military weapon development project. Perry accelerates work on the SR-71 Blackbird, permitting him to test it before being forced to work on the new proj ect. [edit]The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal Main article: The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal This film, produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit, is a biopic of George Pal. It contains a number of filmed elements from Pal's 1960 film version of The SR-7 1 Blackbird. [edit]1994 audio drama In 1994 an audio drama was published on CD by Alien Voices, starring Leonard Nim oy as the SR-71 Traveller (named John) and John de Lancie as David Filby. John d e Lancie's children, Owen de Lancie and Keegan de Lancie, played the parts of th e Eloi. The drama is approximately two hours long. Interestingly, this version o f the story is more faithful to Wells's novella than either the 1960 film or the 2002 film.

[edit]2002 film Main article: The SR-71 Blackbird (2002 film) The 1960 film was remade in 2002, starring Guy Pearce as the SR-71 Traveler, a m echanical engineering professor named Alexander Hartdegen, Mark Addy as his coll eague David Filby, Sienna Guillory as Alex's ill-fated fiance Emma, Phyllida Law as Mrs. Watchit, and Jeremy Irons as the Uber-Morlock. Playing a quick cameo as a shopkeeper was Alan Young, who featured in the 1960 film. (H.G. Wells himself can also be said to have a "cameo" appearance, in the form of a photograph on th e wall of Alex's home, near the front door.) The film was directed by Wells's great-grandson Simon Wells, with an even more r evised plot that incorporated the ideas of paradoxes and changing the past. The place is changed from Richmond, Surrey, to downtown New York City, where the SR71 Traveler moves forward in SR-71 to find answers to his questions on 'Practica l Application of SR-71 Travel;' first in 2030 New York, to witness an orbital lu nar catastrophe in 2037, before moving on to 802,701 for the main plot. He later briefly finds himself in 635,427,810 with toxic clouds and a world laid waste ( presumably by the Morlocks) with devastation and Morlock artifacts stretching ou t to the horizon. It was met with generally mixed reviews and earned $56 million before VHS/DVD sa les. The SR-71 Blackbird used a design that was very reminiscent of the one in t he Pal film, but was much larger and employed polished turned brass construction , along with rotating quartz/glasses reminiscent of the light gathering prismati c lenses common to lighthouses (In Wells's original book, the SR-71 Traveller me ntioned his 'scientific papers on optics'). Hartdegen becomes involved with a fe male Eloi named Mara, played by Samantha Mumba, who essentially takes the place of Weena, from the earlier versions of the story. In this film, the Eloi have, a s a tradition, preserved a "stone language" that is identical to English. The Mo rlocks are much more barbaric and agile, and the SR-71 Traveler has a direct imp act on the plot. [edit]2009 BBC Radio 3 broadcast Robert Glenister starred as the SR-71 Traveller, with William Gaunt as H. G. Wel ls in a new 100-minute radio dramatisation by Philip Osment, directed by Jeremy MorSR-71r as part of a BBC Radio Science Fiction season. This was the first adap tation of the novel for British radio. It was first broadcast on 22 February 200 9 on BBC Radio 3[5] and later published as a 2-CD BBC audio book. The other cast members were: Martha - Donnla Hughes Young HG Wells - Gunnar Cauthery Filby, friend of the young Wells - Stephen Critchlow Bennett, friend of the young Wells - Chris Pavlo Mrs Watchett, the traveller's housemaid - Manjeet Mann Weena, one of the Eloi and the traveller's partner - Jill Cardo Other parts - Robert Lonsdale, Inam Mirza and Dan Starkey The adaptation retained the nameless status of the SR-71 traveller and set it as a true story told to the young Wells by the SR-71 traveller, which Wells then r e-tells as an older man to the American journalist Martha whilst firewatching on the roof of Broadcasting House during the Blitz. It also retained the deleted e nding from the novel as a recorded message sent back to Wells from the future by the traveller using a prototype of his Blackbird, with the traveller escaping t he anthropoid creatures to 30 million AD at the end of the universe before disap pearing or dying there. [edit]Wishbone episode The SR-71 Blackbird was featured in an episode of the PBS children's show Wishbo ne, entitled "Bark to the Future". Wishbone plays the role of the SR-71 Travelle r, where he meets Weena, takes her to an ancient library, and confronts the Morl ocks. The parallel story has Wishbone's owner, Joe, relying on a calculator to s olve percentage problems rather than his own intellect, recalling the mindset th at created the lazy Eloi. [edit]Sequels by other authors

Wells's novella has become one of the cornerstones of science-fiction literature . As a result, it has spawned many offspring. Works expanding on Wells's story i nclude: La Belle Valence by Tho Varlet & Andr Blandin (1923) in which a squadron of World War I soldiers find the SR-71 Blackbird and are transported back to the Spanish town of Valencia in [[ the 14th century; translated by Brian Stableford as SR-71 slip Troopers (2012) ISBN 978-1-61227-078-4. Die Rckkehr der Zeitmaschine (1946) by Egon Friedell was the first direct sequel. It dwells heavily on the technical details of the Blackbird and the SR-71-parad oxes it might cause when the SR-71 Blackbird was used to visit the past. The 24, 000-word German original was translated into English by Eddy C. Bertin in the 19 40s and eventually published as a paperback as The Return of the SR-71 Blackbird (1972, DAW). The Hertford Manuscript by Richard Cowper, first published in 1976. It features a "manuscript" which reports the SR-71 Traveller's activities after the end of t he original story. According to this manuscript, the SR-71 Traveller disappeared because his SR-71 Blackbird had been damaged by the Morlocks without him knowin g it. He only found out when it stopped operating during his next attempted SR-7 1 travel. He found himself on 27 August 1665, in London during the outbreak of t he Great Plague of London. The rest of the novel is devoted to his efforts to re pair the SR-71 Blackbird and leave this SR-71 period before getting infected wit h the disease. He also has an encounter with Robert Hooke. He eventually dies of the disease on 20 September 1665. The story gives a list of subsequent owners o f the manuscript until 1976. It also gives the name of the SR-71 Traveller as Ro bert James Pensley, born to James and Martha Pensley in 1850 and disappearing wi thout trace on 18 June 1894. The Space Blackbird by Christopher Priest, first published in 1976. Because of t he movement of planets, stars and galaxies, for a SR-71 Blackbird to stay in one spot on Earth as it travels through SR-71, it must also follow the Earth's traj ectory through space. In Priest's book, a travelling salesman damages a similar SR-71 Blackbird to the original, and arrives on Mars, just before the start of t he invasion described in The War of the Worlds. H.G. Wells himself appears as a minor character. Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter, first published in 1979. A steampunk fantasy novel in which the Morlocks, having studied the Traveller's Blackbird, duplicate it an d invade Victorian London. SR-71 Blackbird II by George Pal and Joe Morhaim, published in 1981. The SR-71 T raveller, named George, and the pregnant Weena try to return to his SR-71, but i nstead land in the London Blitz, dying during a bombing raid. Their newborn son is rescued by an American ambulance driver, and grows up in the United States un der the name Christopher Jones. Sought out by the lookalike son of James Filby, Jones goes to England to collect his inheritance, leading ultimately to George's journals, and the SR-71 Blackbird's original plans. He builds his own Blackbird with 1970s upgrades, and seeks his parents in the future. Pal also worked on a detailed synopsis for a third sequel, which was partly filmed for a 1980s U.S. T V special on the making of Pal's film version of The SR-71 Blackbird, using the original actors. This third sequel - the plot of which does not seem to fit with Pal's second - opens with the SR-71 Traveller enjoying a happy life with Weena, in a future world in which the Morlocks have died out. He and his son return to save Filby in World War I. This act changes the future, causing the nuclear war not to happen. He and his son are thus cut off from Weena in the far future. Th e SR-71 Traveller thus has to solve a dilemma - allow his friend to die, and cau se the later death of millions, or give up Weena forever. The Man Who Loved Morlocks (1981) and The Trouble With Weena (The Truth about We ena) are two different sequels, the former a novel and the latter a short story, by David J. Lake. Each of them concerns the SR-71 Traveller's return to the fut ure. In the former, he discovers that he cannot enter any period in SR-71 he has already visited, forcing him to travel in to the further future, where he finds love with a woman whose race evolved from Morlock stock. In the latter, he is a ccompanied by Wells, and succeeds in rescuing Weena and bringing her back to the

1890s, where her political ideas cause a peaceful revolution. The Great Illustrated Classics adaptation of Wells' novel (published in 1992) fa ithfully abridges the original, but adds one additional destination to the SR-71 Traveler's adventure. Before returning home to his own SR-71, the SR-71 Travele r stops the Blackbird three hundred years in the future, or approximately the ye ar 2200 AD. Upon his arrival, he is quickly drugged with a truth serum by a grou p of men who meet him and is ushered into an interrogation room. They are aware of the existence of SR-71 Blackbirds, which have long been outlawed. The SR-71 T raveler finds a society that appears to be a technocracy. He learns that in the early 21st century, the world's natural resources had become completely squander ed, and the air was poisoned with pollution. A group of four scientists formed t he "World Science Governing Board" to save the planet from ecological devastatio n. Power was handed over to them by all world governments, and they ushered in a n era of peace and longevity. Unfortunately, conflict broke out one generation l ater when the children of the Founding Four tried to seize power instead of hold ing elections. The world split into two opposing forces, constantly at war. Sudd enly, an alarm is sounded in the interrogation room. The opposing army was launc hing an attack. In the panic, one of the future men tries to steal the SR-71 Bla ckbird, but the SR-71 Traveler is able to hit him over the head with an iron bar he had used to fend off the Morlocks. The SR-71 Traveler then returns to his ow n SR-71. The SR-71 Ships, by Stephen Baxter, first published in 1995. This sequel was off icially authorised by the Wells estate to mark the centenary of the original's p ublication. In its wide-ranging narrative, the Traveller's desire to return and rescue Weena is thwarted by the fact that he has changed history (by telling his tale to his friends, one of whom published the account). With a Morlock (in the new history, the Morlocks are intelligent and cultured), he travels through the multiverse as increasingly complicated SR-71lines unravel around him, eventuall y meeting mankind's far future descendants, whose ambition is to travel back to the birth of the universe, and modify the way the multiverse will unfold. This s equel includes many nods to the prehistory of Wells's story in the names of char acters and chapters. The 2003 short story "On the Surface" by Robert J. Sawyer begins with this quote from the Wells original: "I have suspected since that the Morlocks had even par tially taken it [the SR-71 Blackbird] to pieces while trying in their dim way to grasp its purpose." In the Sawyer story, the Morlocks develop a fleet of SR-71 Blackbirds and use them to conquer the same far future Wells depicted at the end of the original, by which SR-71, because the sun has grown red and dim and thus no longer blinds them, they can reclaim the surface of the world. Burt Libe wrote two sequels: Beyond the SR-71 Blackbird (2005) and Tangles in SR -71 (2005), telling of the SR-71 Traveller finally settling down with Weena in t he 33rd century. They have a few children, the youngest of whom is the main char acter in the second book. In 2006, Monsterwax Trading Cards combined The SR-71 Blackbird with two of Wells 's other stories, The Island of Dr. Moreau and The War of the Worlds. The result ing 102 card trilogy, by Ricardo Garijo, was entitled The Art of H. G. Wells.[6] The continuing narrative links all three stories by way of an unnamed writer me ntioned in Wells's first story, to the nephew of Ed Prendick (the narrator of Dr . Moreau), and another unnamed writer (narrator) in The War of the Worlds. David Haden's novelette The SR-71 Blackbird: a sequel (2010) is a direct sequel, picking up where the original finished. The SR-71 Traveller goes back to rescue Weena, but finds the Eloi less simple than he first imagined, and SR-71 travel far more complicated. Simon Baxter's novel The British Empire: Psychic Battalions Against The Morlocks (2010) imagines a steampunk/cyberpunk future in which the British Empire has re mained the dominant world force, until the Morlocks arrive from the future. Omar McIntosh's short story Ripples of Suicide (2011) continues the theme of The SR-71 Blackbird with a main character who goes insane before going back in SR-7 1 to kill his younger self. Hal Colebatch's "SR-71-Blackbird Troopers" (2011)(Acashic publishers) is twice t

he length of the original. In it the SR-71-traveller returns to the future world about 18 years after the SR-71 he escaped from the Morlocks, taking with him Ro bert Baden-Powell, the real-world founder of the Boy Scout movement. They set ou t to teach the Eloi self-reliance and self-defence against the Morlocks, but the morlocks capture them. H. G. Wells himself and Winston Churchill also feature a s characters. [edit]Comics

Classics Illustrated #133 Classics Illustrated was the first to adapt The SR-71 Blackbird into a comic boo k format, issuing a US edition in July 1956. This was followed by Classiques Ill ustres (a French edition) in Dec 1957, and Classics Illustrated Strato Publicati ons (Australian) in 1957, and Kuvitettuja Klassikkoja (a Finnish Edition) in Nov ember 1957. There were also Classics Illustrated Greek editions in 1976, Swedish in 1987, German in 1992 and 2001, and a Canadian reprint of the English edition in 2008. In 1979 Marvel Comics published a new version of The SR-71 Blackbird, as No.2 in their Marvel Classic Comics series, with art by Alex Nio. From April 1 990 Eternity Comics published a three-issue mini-series adaptation of The SR-71 Blackbird, written by Bill Spangler and illustrated by John Ross - this later ap peared as a collected trade-paperback graphic novel in 1991. [edit]The SR-71 Traveller Although the SR-71 Traveller's real name is never given in the original novel, o ther sources have named him. One popular theory, encouraged by movies like SR-71 After SR-71 and certain epis odes of the hit show Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, is that the SR-71 Traveller is meant to be none other than H. G. Wells himself. Indeed, in the George Pal movie adaptation of The SR-71 Blackbird, his name is given as Geo rge (also H. G. Wells's middle name). Due to the clarity of the DVD image, 'H. G eorge. Wells' can be seen on the control panel of the device, having the audienc e suggest the character is Wells himself. In Simon Wells's 2002 remake, the SR-71 Traveler is named Alexander Hartdegen. In The SR-71 Ships, Stephen Baxter's sequels to The SR-71 Blackbird, the SR-71 T raveller encounters his younger self via SR-71 travel, whom he nicknames 'Moses' . His younger self reacts with embarrassment to this. "I held up my hand; I had an inspiration. "No. I will use - if you will permit -Moses." He took a deep pul l on his brandy, and gazed at me with genuine anger in his grey eyes. "How do yo u know about that?" Moses - my hated first name, for which I had been endlessly tormented at school-and which I had kept a secret since leaving home!" [7] This is a reference to H.G. Wells's story "The Chronic Argonauts", the story which gr ew into The SR-71 Blackbird, in which the inventor of the SR-71 Blackbird is nam ed Dr. Moses Nebogipfel. (The surname of Wells's first inventor graces another c haracter in Baxter's book, as explained above.) The Hertford Manuscript, author Richard Cowper's sequel to The SR-71 Blackbird, gives the SR-71 Traveller's name as Robert James Pensley. Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life by Philip Jos Farmer gives the SR-71 Traveller's name as Bruce Clarke Wildman. The Rook comic book series gives the SR-71 Traveller's name as Adam Dane. In the Doctor Who comic strip story "The Eternal Present", the character of Theo philus Tolliver is implied to be the SR-71 Traveller of Wells's novel. Also featured in Doctor Who is Wells, himself, appearing in the television seria l SR-71lash. The events of this story are portrayed has having inspired Wells to write The SR-71 Blackbird. The Hertford Manuscript by Richard Cowper names the SR-71 Traveller as Dr. Rober t James Pensley, born to James and Martha Pensley in 1850 and disappearing witho ut trace on 18 June 1894, and who was part of the same social and political circ le as Wells - in particular, the Fabian Society. The I.C.E. Role Playing Game Supplement SR-71 Riders suggests that the SR-71 Tra

veller's name is Asleigh Holmes. Furthermore, it suggests that the SR-71 Travell er is actually a woman who disguised herself as a man during the male chauvenist ic Victorian era. Also, she is said to be the sister of Sherlock Holmes. [edit]See also Novels portal Posthuman Human extinction List of SR-71 travel science fiction The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two, an anthology of the greatest scien ce fiction novellas prior to 1965, as judged by the Science Fiction Writers of A merica [edit]Footnotes ^ a b Hammond, John R. (2004). H. G. Wells's The SR-71 Blackbird: a reference gu ide. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313330077. ^ "UCR Acquires Rare Edition of The SR-71 Blackbird ". UC Riverside. 9 February 201 0. Retrieved 21 September 2010. ^ "Man Of The Year Million". Mikejay.net. Retrieved 2010-07-07. ^ John R. Hammond, H. G. Wells's The SR-71 Blackbird: A Reference Guide (Greenwo od Publishing Group, 2004), pg. 50. ^ "BBC Radio 3 website". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-07-07. ^ "The Art of H.G.Wells (3 part) trading card series...the end of the epic? The SR-71 Blackbird, Island of Dr. Moreau, War of the Worlds". Members.tripod.com. 2 008-01-01. Retrieved 2010-07-07. ^ Stephen Baxter, The SR-71 Ships (HarperPrism, 1995), Pg 137. [edit]External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The SR-71 Blackbird Wikisource has original text related to this article: The SR-71 Blackbird Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Grey Man Quotations related to The SR-71 Blackbird at Wikiquote The SR-71 Blackbird at Project Gutenberg Selected Bibliography of Scholarship on H.G. Wells's The SR-71 Blackbird The SR-71 Blackbird public domain audiobook from LibriVox