The legendary SR-71 Blackbird retains the record for America’s fastest manned aircraft—ever. W hile almost everyone has heard of the American-made F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightni ...

In 2013, Lockheed Martin announced development of the successor to the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. The SR-71 was capable of reaching speeds over three times the speed of sound, and the SR-72 is ...

Even the successor, the SR-72 “Son of Blackbird,” is going to be unlike the SR-71. It is not only slated to be hypersonic—theoretically reaching speeds of up to Mach 6—but also unmanned.

The SR-71 was manufactured by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and built in Burbank, California, where new tools and methods had to first be invented before the Blackbird could be produced.

In the Pacific Theater, P-38s downed over 1,800 Japanese aircraft, and more than 100 P-38 pilots became “aces.” ...