“Faster than a speeding bullet” may bring to mind a certain superhero from the planet Krypton, but it was literally true of the SR-71 Blackbird, the sleek, stealthy Air Force spy plane taken ...

The SR-71 “Blackbird” broke the world’s record for sustained altitude in horizontal flight in 1976 when it flew at Mach 3.3 (times the speed of sound). As of 2025, no fighter or proposed ...