At Mach 3, friction with the atmosphere raised the SR-71’s skin temperatures to a searing 500 degrees Fahrenheit—hot enough to make the fuselage glow red.

The SR-71 Blackbird’s Mach 3 speed, altitude, and modest radar-reduction tempted some to imagine a fighter-bomber variant—outrunning interceptors, dodging SAMs, and trucking cruise missiles. In ...

Sharon Caples McDougle joined the US Air Force in 1982, where she specialized in working with pressure suits for the SR-71 and U-2 missions. She fitted suits for individual pilots and suited them up ...

A four-part quartz glass windshield resisted both heat and distortion when the SR-71 Blackbird was flying at speeds exceeding ...

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 ...

The SR-71 Blackbirds were used in intelligence-gathering operations over the Soviet Union and Vietnam. As Washington and Beijing race to produce the world’s first-ever sixth-generation aircraft, new ...

When the Blackbird entered service with the Air Force in 1966, it was simply too advanced for existing fuel and navigation systems. Few machines have captured the public’s imagination like the SR-71 ...

Jeff Bezos told Italian Tech Week that space-based data centers could be built within two decades, reflecting what many see ...