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. Despite being retired a generation ago, the ...

Meet the SR-71 Blackbird: Aviation history is littered with impressive aircraft. From the tiny SA-2A “Sky Baby” to the massive H-4 “Spruce Goose” aircraft designers have always pushed the boundaries ...

Here’s What You Need to Remember: The pilot “basically wore a space suit, the same sort of thing that you would later see space shuttle crews wearing,” Merlin added. “The cockpit also got very hot ...

Sleek, black and evil in appearance, the SR-71 Blackbird was THE masterpiece of Cold War engineering. Flying faster and higher than any fighter, this stealthy reconnaissance aircraft could snoop where ...

Watch the impressive engineering in this in-depth tour of the SR-71 Blackbird's jet engine and you'll see an extraordinary reconnaissance aircraft that still impresses despite taking its first flight ...

The SR-71 Blackbird, the most impressive plane ever created at the time, remained a mystery even 20 years after its first flight. But in the July 1982 issue, Popular Mechanics published a tell-all ...

I think the SR-71 is probably the most awesome thing humans have done. It was designed with slide rules, by people who were gifted at visualizing air, long before wind tunnels could get up into that ...

Is the SR-71 still the fastest plane ever in service? This question captivates aviation enthusiasts and historians alike because the aircraft flew three times the speed of sound and remained ...