How fast blackbird

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints. Dario Leone. Dario Leone Dario Leone is an aviation, defense and military writer. His writing has appeared in The National Interest and other news media. You may also like. Jul 14 Jul 5 The slowest speed ever recorded by a Lockheed Blackbird. Oct 10 Leave a comment Cancel reply You must be logged in to post a comment.

Always up to date! Military WWII. During the Cold War, this plane could fly higher and faster than any other -- and 55 years after its first flight, it still does.

The Lockheed SR, designed in secrecy in the late s, was able to cruise near the edge of space and outfly a missile. To this day, it holds the records for the highest altitude in horizontal flight and the fastest speed for a non-rocket powered aircraft. It was part of a family of spy planes built to venture into enemy territory, without being shot down or even detected, in a time before satellites and drones.

The black paint job, designed to dissipate heat, earned it the nickname Blackbird, and paired with the sleek lines of the long fuselage, made the plane look unlike anything that had come before -- a design that hasn't lost any of its brilliance.

An SR ''Blackbird'' during a training mission in Most conventional airplanes look like someone built them -- this one almost looks like it was grown. A CIA spy. In May , an American U-2 spy plane was shot duown in Soviet airspace while taking aerial photographs.

Initially, the US government said it was a stray weather research aircraft, but the story fell apart once the Soviet government released photos of the captured pilot and the plane's surveillance equipment.

The incident had immediate diplomatic repercussions for the Cold War and reinforced the need for a new type of reconnaissance plane that could fly faster and higher, safe from anti-aircraft fire. The task of designing such an ambitious machine fell on Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, one of the world's greatest aircraft designers, and his secret division of engineers at Lockheed, called Skunk Works.

Speed, altitude and stealth were major factors in keeping the SR safe because Hanoi was ringed with the latest SAMs provided by the Soviets. The s proved to be the most noteworthy period for the high-Mach Blackbird. Widdifield, set a speed record in SRA serial no. Less than two weeks later, the same airplane made a long-distance sprint from London to Los Angeles in record time.

The pilot on that flight, year-old Captain Harold B. His reconnaissance systems officer was Major William C. Their historic September 13 flight would stretch across seven time zones and take almost twice as long as the New York—to—London dash.

Adams and Machorek greet the Farnborough crowd after their record breaking flight. He also piloted B bombers during the Vietnam War, logging combat missions over Southeast Asia between the two aircraft. After he was deployed to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina following the October Yom Kippur War, he flew one of his most memorable SR missions—a hour minute round trip to the Middle East requiring five aerial refuelings—for which he and his backseater were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

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