Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird SR-71A

The SR-71A was the production version and the one that flew every operational mission of the type: 29 of the 32 airframes built left Palmdale under this designation. The first aircraft flew on 22 December 1964 at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, with Lockheed test pilot Bob Gilliland at the controls, and the model entered service at Beale AFB in January 1966.

Its two crew — pilot and reconnaissance systems officer — sat in tandem cockpits, and the payload was split between the removable nose and the chine bays: optical and infrared cameras, side-looking airborne radar (Goodyear Aerospace first, later Loral's ASARS-1) and electronic intelligence equipment. The structure, 85 per cent titanium, measured 32.74 metres long by 16.94 across, weighed 30,617 kg empty and took off at up to 78,018 kg on two afterburning Pratt & Whitney J58s.

It was the SR-71A that set the records still standing: on 28 July 1976 aircraft 61-7962 reached 85,069 feet (25,929 m) in horizontal flight and 61-7958 recorded 1,905.81 knots (3,529.6 km/h) as an absolute speed. Aircraft 61-7976 was the most flown of all, with 2,981 hours and 942 sorties. The variant operated from Kadena, Okinawa, and RAF Mildenhall until the 1989-1990 retirement, returned partially to service between 1995 and 1998, and in NASA hands closed the story of the type with the flight of 61-7980 (NASA 844) on 9 October 1999.