The SR-71 Blackbird

It was a plane which flew at the edge of space; so high that most other jet engines would seize because of the 
lack of air. A plane that flew so fast that its air-frame heated and grew during flight. A plane that, if needed, could outrun missiles launched to bring it down.

The Lockheed SR-71 was a product of airplane maker Lockheed's Skunk Works, a secretive project which came up with some of the world's most advanced aircraft. It was designed after the loss of a U-2 spyplane over the Soviet Union in 1960 – a plane thought to fly too high to be shot down. The Blackbird would fly even higher, and at speeds of Mach 3.3 it would be fast enough to outrun any missile fired at it.

From 1966 until its last mission in 1989, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird flew thousands of missions around the globe, photographing military installations from China to Egypt, the Arctic Circle to North Korea.