The SR-71 Blackbird was a spy plane built by Lockheed in the 1960s, and decades later it’s still the fastest jet ever flown by a human pilot. Painted matte black and shaped like a long dart, it cruised at over Mach 3 - more than 2,200 miles per hour - at altitudes around 85,000 feet, more than twice as high as a passenger jet.
It went so fast that air friction heated the skin to about 500°F in flight. The whole plane actually grew several inches longer from the heat. To make room for the expansion, the panels on the ground fit loosely, which meant the SR-71 leaked fuel everywhere when it sat still. Once it heated up in flight, the panels sealed tight.
Over 4,000 missiles were fired at SR-71s during their service. Not one ever hit. The standard procedure if anything threatened the plane was simple: push the throttles forward and accelerate away. The Blackbird retired in 1998, and no replacement has ever officially matched its speed and altitude.
