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The SR-71 Blackbird was an advanced reconnaissance aircraft, with a cruising speed of Mach 3.2 and a cost of over $200 million per acquisition. It was built using advanced technology and design features, and had a camera so accurate it could pick up a car’s license plate from an altitude of 85,069 feet. The craft was specially shaped for stealth and was unarmed, but could evade most threats simply with its extreme speed. Its replacement is unknown, but there has been speculation about the existence of a secret hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft called the Aurora.
The SR-71 “Blackbird,” formally known as the Lockheed SR-71, was an advanced reconnaissance aircraft considered iconic of superior American aerospace technology. The elegant and stealthy vessel was black in color, 107 feet 5 inches (32.74 m) long, had a wingspan of 55 feet 7 inches (16.94 m), 18 feet 6 inches (5.64 m) high, with a cruising speed of Mach 3.2 (2,200+ mph, 3,530+ km/h) and a gross vehicle weight of 170,000 lbs (77,000 kg). Its top speed was unknown, although it could have been Mach 4 or better. The SR-71 Blackbird has been called “one of the most spectacular aircraft ever built”. Its cost and function were similar to those of spy satellites.
First introduced in 1966, 32 SR-71 Blackbird boats were produced in the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, costing over $200 million US dollars (US dollars) per acquisition, with the vessel remained in use until 1998, when it was definitively retired. The SR-71 Blackbird was built using the most advanced technology and design features available at the time, including unique intakes to slow the airflow from Mach 3.2 to Mach 0.6 for turbojet engines, dozens of computers managing everything from the internal airflow to the detailing control surface, an 85% titanium and 15% composite structure, its distinctive chines (sharp tapered sides designed to make the craft more aerodynamic ) and many others.
As a strategic reconnaissance aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird was unarmed, but could evade most threats simply with its extreme speed. If the pilot detected a surface-to-air missile launch, standard evasion procedure was simply to accelerate. The craft was specially shaped for stealth, and its titanium frame was covered in radar-absorbing materials. No SR-71 Blackbird has ever been lost to enemy action, although 12 of 32 aircraft have been lost to crashes, resulting in three deaths in its 32-year history.
Throughout its history, the SR-71 Blackbird was the fastest and tallest operational manned aircraft in the world, reaching an altitude of 85,069 feet (25,929 m, 16 miles), nearly three times the altitude of the Mountain. Everest. It had a camera so accurate it could pick up a car’s license plate from this altitude, which, at the time of its introduction, was superior surveillance to the best spy satellites. Spy satellites orbit at an altitude of at least 200 miles above the surface, requiring more powerful cameras to see the same ground features.
The replacement for the SR-71 Blackbird is unknown, but has been the subject of much speculation since the craft was retired in 1998. Some have speculated about the existence of a secret hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft called the Aurora, but its existence is not it has never been acknowledged by any government official.
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