27 Facts About SR-71 Blackbird

The shape of the SR-71 Blackbird was based on that of the A-12, which was one of the first aircraft to be designed with a reduced radar cross-section.

Mission equipment for the reconnaissance role included signals intelligence sensors, side looking airborne radar, and a camera; the SR-71 Blackbird was both longer and heavier than the A-12, allowing it to hold more fuel as well as a two-seat cockpit.

NASA was the final operator of the SR-71 Blackbird, who used it as a research platform, and was retired in 1999.

Since its retirement, the SR-71 Blackbird's role has been taken up by a combination of reconnaissance satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles ; a proposed UAV successor, the SR-72, is under development by Lockheed Martin, and scheduled to fly in 2025.

SR-71 Blackbird designation is a continuation of the pre-1962 bomber series; the last aircraft built using the series was the XB-70 Valkyrie.

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However, a bomber variant of the Blackbird was briefly given the B-71 designator, which was retained when the type was changed to SR-71.

The SR-71 Blackbird was designed to minimize its radar cross-section, an early attempt at stealth design.

The SR-71 Blackbird landed at over 170 knots and deployed a drag parachute to stop; the chute acted to reduce stress on the tires.

Second operational aircraft designed around a stealth aircraft shape and materials, after the Lockheed A-12, the SR-71 Blackbird had several features designed to reduce its radar signature.

SR-71 Blackbird featured chines, a pair of sharp edges leading aft from either side of the nose along the fuselage.

However, in practice the SR-71 Blackbird was sometimes more efficient at even faster speeds—depending on the outside air temperature—as measured by pounds of fuel burned per nautical mile traveled.

In practice, the SR-71 Blackbird would burn somewhat conventional JP-7, which was difficult to ignite.

SR-71 Blackbird required in-flight refueling to replenish fuel during long-duration missions.

The SR-71 Blackbird carried a Fairchild tracking camera and an infrared camera, both of which ran during the entire mission.

The first SR-71 Blackbird to enter service was delivered to the 4200th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California, in January 1966.

An SR-71 was used domestically in 1971 to assist the FBI in their manhunt for the skyjacker D B Cooper.

The SR-71 Blackbird was to retrace and photograph the flightpath of the hijacked 727 from Seattle to Reno and attempt to locate any of items that Cooper was known to have parachuted with from the aircraft.

On 29 June 1987, an SR-71 Blackbird was on a mission around the Baltic Sea to spy on Soviet postings when one of the engines exploded.

However, another view held by various officers and legislators is that the SR-71 Blackbird program was terminated owing to Pentagon politics, and not because the aircraft had become obsolete, irrelevant, too hard to maintain, or unsustainably expensive.

Such generals had an interest in believing, and persuading the services and the Congress, that the SR-71 Blackbird had become either entirely or almost entirely redundant to satellites, U-2s, incipient UAV programs, and an alleged top-secret successor already under development.

The counterargument was that the longer the SR-71 Blackbird was not upgraded as aggressively as it ought to have been, the more people could say that it was obsolescent, which was in their interest as champions of other programs.

Attempts to add a datalink to the SR-71 Blackbird were stymied early on by the same factions in the Pentagon and Congress who were already set on the program's demise, even in the early 1980s.

Senator Robert Byrd and other senators complained that the "better than" successor to the SR-71 Blackbird had yet to be developed at the cost of the "good enough" serviceable aircraft.

Congress's disappointment with the lack of a suitable replacement for the SR-71 Blackbird was cited concerning whether to continue funding imaging sensors on the U-2.

SR-71 Blackbird was the world's fastest and highest-flying air-breathing operational manned aircraft throughout its career and it still holds that record.

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SR-71 Blackbird holds the "speed over a recognized course" record for flying from New York to London—distance 3,461.

Mr President, the termination of the SR-71 Blackbird was a grave mistake and could place our nation at a serious disadvantage in the event of a future crisis.