The SR-71 Blackbird could fly faster than 2,000 miles per hour and operate above 80,000 feet. But before it could fly at Mach 3, Lockheed Skunk Works engineers had to figure out how to build an aircraft capable of surviving it. Heat threatened the airframe. Conventional materials weren’t enough. Fuel, engines, seals, navigation systems, and even the people flying the aircraft faced problems that existing aviation technology wasn’t fully prepared to solve. During the Cold War, and beginning with the secret A-12 OXCART program, Lockheed’s Skunk Works developed a remarkable chain of solutions that eventually made the SR-71 Blackbird possible. And almost every solution created another problem that had to be solved. This is the story of how engineers invented their way to one of the most extraordinary aircraft ever built. But speed and altitude weren’t the end of the story. The next challenge was building an aircraft that could reduce the enemy’s chance of seeing it in the first place.
