Hi, P-assengers! How are you? We hope all of you are healthy and happy during this pandemic. Today, we will tell you about the SR-71 Blackbird. So, let’s get straight to the topic for today.
The SR-71 is one of the most impressive spy planes in aviation history. The SR-71 has become the fastest plane in the world right now. It flew faster three times than the speed of sound, and its top speed was 2,200 mph (3.3 Mach). The SR-71 also flew higher than other reconnaissance aircraft during its almost 24 years in service, and the SR-71 usually flew at 80,000 feet.
Lockheed Martin Aircraft Corporation built SR-71 for the USAF (United States Air Force) at the height of the Cold War. Its development can’t separate from the incident in 1960. Another spy plane from USAF, namely U-2, was shot down by Uni Soviet (known as Russian now). The SR-71 provides sophisticated optical instruments, radars, and high-resolution cameras. SR-71 was capable of surveying 99,600 square miles (258,000 km2) of the Earth’s surface per hour.
It was the best spy plane that the US had. There are 4,000 missiles fired at the SR-71, but no one ever hit the SR-71 because the SR-71 is very fast and flies highly high. But, the speed and height of the flight can damage the pilot and the body of the plane itself. Because of that, the SR-71 uses titanium as the composition of the aircraft. Titanium has many advantages, such as heat resistance and lightweight.
The first flight happened on December 22, 1964, but unfortunately, the SR-71 was retired in 1998 because of some consideration. One of the considerations because the operational cost and the cost maintenance of the SR-71 were costly. Because of that reason, the SR-71 was retired.
So that’s all for today’s article, we hope you can get a new knowledge after reading this article. Thanks for taking the time to read this article. See you again in the following article, P-assengers!
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