It is widely known that the SR-71 Blackbird is the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft to ever take to the skies, with the plane able to exceed speeds far beyond Mach 2. The aircraft, which was ...

Key Points and Summary – The SR-71 Blackbird delivered unmatched Mach-3 recon, but its costs proved fatal. -Each flight hour ran $200,000–$300,000, driven by extreme maintenance, heat-damaged coatings ...

When the SR-71 Blackbird conducted its first flights in the mid-1960s, it was nothing short of amazing. It has remained so since. Over the course of its operation, the plane set dozens of speed ...

The J58 required the use of a special AG330 engine starter cart to spool the engines up to the proper rotational speed for starting. Taken at Beale Air Force Base (AFB) in 1986, the impressive video ...

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is widely known as the fastest plane to ever take to the sky. It set a ground speed record of 2,193.2 mph all the way back in July of 1976. That may not even be its true ...

The U.S. Air Force Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Long-Range Mach 3 Military Reconnaissance Jet Aircraft – A Skunk Works Black Project – in 1966. (Getty Images/P. Wallick) There are an unending number of ...

Back in 1976, one of America's SR-71 Blackbird spy planes shot through the sky at speeds of Mach 3.3. That's 2,193.2 mph or 3,529.6 kph, numbers that back then marked an absolute speed record for a ...

There are many high-speed air vehicles in the world today, with some of them, namely rockets and missiles, being capable of reaching many times the speed of sound. But only one, the legendary Lockheed ...

The company, that also shared plans for the next Mk 2 aircraft powered by the Pratt & Whitney F100 engine, aims for the final Quarterhorse Mk 3 to break the SR-71 flight speed record. Hermeus, a US ...

The U.S. Air Force retired the SR-71 Blackbird in 1997, saying it was too expensive to maintain and could be replaced by ...

With a top speed of Mach 3.35, or 2,221 mph, the Lockheed A-12 “Archangel” or “Oxcart” is the fastest air-breathing jet ever built—even faster than its larger two-seat cousin, the SR-71 Blackbird. But ...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Before the era of military drones and satellites, there was the SR-71 Blackbird — an engineering marvel. It operated in the upper reaches of ...