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What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane. The story of a supersonic legend. From Pdf To Music Xml. By Erik Schechter. And put an end to the SR-71 program in 1990. SR-71 Blackbird EC97 43933-4. NASA Facts Dec. Entists used the SR-71 in a program to study ways of reducing sonic boom overpressures. The cost of running the SR-71 fleet in the 1980s was $260 million annually and It costs $50,000 an hour to fly the SR on a routine basis. What are the records for the sr-71 blackbird? The record for fixed wing flight is 85,000 feet.

Plans for the SR-72 drone were first unveiled Friday in an Aviation Week article which revealed that Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works advanced development program has drafted plans for a plane that could fly as fast as Mach 6 - twice the speed of the Blackbird. The SR-72 would have the ability to gather intelligence, conduct surveillance and reconnaissance, and launch combat strikes at an unprecedented speed. The plane is designed to fill what is considered in military circles to be a gap in capabilities between the spy satellites orbiting Earth and the manned and unmanned technology meant to replace the SR-71.

The original Blackbird, which was introduced in 1966 and served until 1999, was primarily used by the US Air Force and NASA to collect intelligence through the Cold War. Along with flying at speeds fast enough to outrun a surface-to-air missile, the Blackbird also avoided enemy radar by flying at low altitudes. A total of 32 aircraft were built and, although 12 were lost to accidents, not a single one was lost to enemy combat. Yet the sheer cost of replicating the Blackbird has prevented the US military from commissioning such a powerful weapon at a time when the Air Force has dominated international skies with the drone program. But Lockheed Martin now believes it has encountered a technological breakthrough rendering the conversation around costs irrelevant.