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the fastest bird in the west

An air-to-air overhead front view of an SR-71A strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The SR-71, unofficially known as the Blackbird, is a long-range, advanced, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 Oxcart and YF-12A aircraft. The United States Air Force retired its fleet of SR-71s on Jan. 26, 1990, but returned them in 1995 until January 1997. Throughout its nearly 24-year career, the SR-71 remained the world's fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft. Location: Beale Air Force Base, California, USA. Evaporating fuel can be seen streaking down the fuselage and top of the wings from the aerial refueling port aft of the cockpit.

Here's a delightful little story about the SR-71 Blackbird, attributed to Major Brian Shul, USAF (Retired), that I'm going to duplicate here so that it's less likely disappear from the internet.

You can listen to Shul tell the story in a Youtube video, if that floats your boat (or flies your plane, I suppose). Doing both is amusing because the reported speed seems to have gotten larger as Shul has retold it. All good stories grow in retelling.

There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane. Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment.

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