Key Points and Summary: The SR-71 Blackbird’s high-speed missions were fraught with challenges, including catastrophic engine failures at Mach 3. -Crews like Colonel Richard Sheffield and his ...

The SR-71 Blackbird spy plane could fly faster than Mach 3, more than 2,000 miles per hour. This allowed it to easily avoid surface-to-air missiles.

The engine had to support flight operations at a variety of speeds, meaning the engine had to have very diverse capabilities.The engine had two key afterburner modes, which allowed it to easily ...

The company behind the SR-71 Blackbird ’s engine is reportedly working on a hypersonic engine design that draws on that jet’s legendary power plant. You love badass planes. So do we.

A spare "engine start cart," a machine containing 2 Buick Wildcat engines in tandem and specifically designed to mechanically rotate the SR-71 engines for starting, was flown in by C-130.

Unusual shot of SR-71 Blackbird (Air Force serial number 61-7974) with one engine in afterburner and the other either shut down or in mil power at Beale AFB, California, circa 1983.

The SR-71 ’s inlets completely surrounded each J-58 engine and included the characteristic movable conical spike used to change the inlet’s geometry.

When the SR-71 Blackbird conducted its first flights in the mid-1960s, it was nothing short of amazing. It has remained so since. Over the course of its operation, the plane set dozens of speed ...

The SR-71, an aircraft that first flew some 50 years ago next Monday, still holds the public's imagination like no other flying machine. It could lob a couple of guys, some cameras, radars and ...

Another angle, from the other side Production schedule for the SR-71 The J-58 engines This is the exhaust of the J-58 engine. It could reach temperatures of 1760C (3200F).

When the last SR-71 Blackbird was grounded in 1998 it was a double blow. Not only did aviation lose one of the most advanced aircraft ever built, but also one of the most beautiful. Lockheed ...

The J58 required the use of a special AG330 engine starter cart to spool the engines up to the proper rotational speed for starting. Taken at Beale Air Force Base (AFB) in 1986, the impressive ...