Lockheed Once Built A Reconnaissance Aircraft That Set A Speed Record In 1976 That No Crewed Jet Has Beaten Since

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was one of the most extraordinary aircraft ever to take to the skies. The plane was a long-range, high-altitude reconnaissance jet designed during the Cold War to outrun threats rather than directly fight them. Originally developed by Lockheed's Skunk Works and introduced in the 1960s, the Blackbird was built for strategic intelligence missions over vast distances, gathering imagery and electronic data at speeds and altitudes that made interception extremely difficult (if not impossible).