The interior of the cockpit and fuselage of the SR-71 Blackbird supersonic spy plane

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird strategic reconnaissance aircraft was, until its retirement in 1998, the fastest operational jet aircraft.

The fascinating engineering and lesser-known details of the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane
The cockpit interior of the still mysterious F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft

The SR-71 made its first flight on December 22, 1964. It was a project of Lockheed's secret division, Skunk Works. Thirty-two aircraft were built (12 of them lost in accidents) with titanium-coated fuselages to withstand the high speeds they reached: 3,540 (Mach 3.2), operating with a flight ceiling of 25,908 meters. The USSR made many attempts to shoot it down when it flew over its airspace taking photographs, but it was so fast and flew so high that an SR-71 could never be shot down.

The SR-71A had two crew members: a pilot and a navigator. Both wore pressure suits, giving them the outward appearance of astronauts. Due to the era in which these aircraft were operational, its cockpit instruments were analog. This aircraft was retired in 1989, largely for political reasons, due to the end of the Cold War. Some of them were activated and finally retired in 1998. NASA operated the last two airworthy SR-71s until 1999 as research platforms.

There are 19 SR-71s on display in museums across the United States today. One of these is SR-71A 61-7971, which can be seen at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. A few days ago, Paul Stewart posted a complete video showing this aircraft, both externally and inside its cockpit and fuselage:

You can see some screenshots from this interesting video here, showing the plane's cockpit, one of its Pratt & Whitney J58 engines, and one of its enormous cameras. It's an aircraft that remains impressive even today.

---

Main photo: U.S. National Archives.