The SR 71 Blackbird was made in times of desperation, It was made during the Cold War. The main purpose of this aircraft was to breach into one of the most hostile airspaces for the Americans. The background of this story originates from American fears after WW2, they had learned the importance of keeping a vigilant eye on the enemy, the hard way. In the 1950s they started to make practical amends to the situation. These amends came in the form of the U2 spy plane, but when it flew from the Peshawar airbase in May 1960, the disaster struck.

A U2 was shot down by the Soviets and in the process Francis Gary Power was caught, he was an American pilot. Gary Power was tried as a spy and the soviets made it an international incident to assert dominance. It was an extremely embarrassing situation for the Americans and their allies. America made sure that it never happened again.

The experiments began after that to fulfill America’s hidden oath. America came a step closer to the SR 71, that step is the A12 Oxcart. A single seat A 12 flew on 24 April1962, The test pilot Lou Schalk became airborne accidentally during high speed taxi trials. They were first introduced operationally in 1967 and these aircrafts proved to be instrumental for the Vietnam War. 13 of these aircrafts were built, but at least 5 of them were shot down from 1963to 1968, Even though it was a failure, credit must be given as it was a concept aircraft that moved them closer to a refined machine.

The airforce became jealous of the A12 program as it diminished their role in spying, Airforce demanded its own spy plane program, and they convinced President Johnson of their program. On 18 February Airforce authorized Lockheed Martin to build six aircrafts, with 25 authorized later. This aircraft cost 23 million dollars each while excluding the research cost, In today's perspective about $250 million per plane. The total development cost of the A12 and the SR71 came to $1338 billion from 1968 to 1972. Ironically, the most essential part of this aircraft was titanium which was bought from the Soviets, they basically dug their own grave. In February 1968, all dies mold and maps that were used in the creation of the Blackbird were ordered to be destroyed, so no one would ever be able to make a plane like the Blackbird.

SR71 proved to be very successful in all missions, it flew a historic 1000 sortie and did not get shot even once. Blackbird was about 107 feet in length, and about 55 feet and inches in wingspan, to put this into perspective that's about 3.5 school buses parked together. The Blackbird generated severe power through its two Pratt and Whitney J58 1, together both produced 34,000 pounds of thrust, but what’s crazy as its crazy speed of 3.3 Mach originated only 20% from the engine and 80% of the thrust was from the Inlet system due to its air compression, though the engine still has to be credited as the two engines produced 55 locomotive worth of power.

It also flies at a very high altitude of  85000 feet, for reference commercial plane fly at an altitude of 30000 feet, when fuel is low it can reach 90000 feet, bordering space, its climb rate is also phenomenal as it clocks in at 11820 feet per minute or 197 feet per second. Its one time fuel range is about 2824 nautical miles, but considering the spectrum of American bases and refueling stations, it can vary.There are only 2 people in the crew, A pilot and a reconnaissance officer, A reconnaissance officer controls all the machinery from radars to cameras and all other sensors, its payload capacity in that sense is 3500Lbs.Its airframe is very tough, and is largely made of titanium, it has a coat of heat emissive black paint, and precious metals such as gold that help it withhold temperatures such as  595C, otherwise the skin of the aircraft would melt.

The SR71 Blackbird is truly an intriguing plane, and has proven to be very successful in every mission, but what does it represent? It is clear that it's not peaceful. I do not know what it represents but whoever had this Sentinel of the Stratosphere would dominate the world.