The SR-71 Blackbird’s high-speed missions were fraught with challenges, including catastrophic engine failures at Mach 3.

NASM, SI SR-71’s evasionary prowess owed much to its ... when airflow within an engine’s finely tuned inlet was disrupted, resulting in a sudden, drastic loss of thrust. Unstarts could be ...

then the other of the SR-71’s J-58 engines. One sound I shall never forgot is that of those unmuffled Buicks holding steady at better than 6,000 rpm in excess of 15 seconds at a time ...

Designed to be the hypersonic successor to the iconic Blackbird, the SR-72 “Darkstar” is allegedly under development by Lockheed Martin’s highly secretive Skunk Works team. The Darkstar was first ...