Key Points and Summary: The SR-71 Blackbird’s high-speed missions were fraught with challenges, including catastrophic engine failures at Mach 3. -Crews like Colonel Richard Sheffield and his pilot ...

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is unlike virtually any plane that came before it, and virtually no planes like it have been ...

Here’s What You Need to Remember: Any plane is only as fast as whatever drives it, and the SR-71 was powered by a pair of Pratt and Whitney J58 turbojet engines. The engines in question, which were ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

The SR-71 Blackbird may have been one of the most secretive aircraft of all time, developed behind closed doors in Lockheed’s Skunkworks. But after some time, it was an aircraft treated like any other ...

Even if you're not an aviation fan, everyone knows the SR-71—the U.S. reconnaissance jet that flies higher and faster than just about anything short of a moon shot. Jon Kaase didn't choose this name ...

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works is developing the SR-72, a hypersonic spy plane designed to reach Mach 6. The SR-72, intended to replace the SR-71 Blackbird, will utilize a scramjet engine and is ...

The SR-71 is perhaps the most iconic Cold War spy aircraft, famous for many record-setting flights. Seemingly impervious to loss by enemy defenses, a dozen Blackbirds were lost to accidents. On July ...

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 ...