| one of the first examples of the use of radar absorbent material, blackbird is a spy titanium is notoriously difficult to shape due to it's toughness... the cutting and shaping tools were one of the major costs of the building. another problem sr71 had was it's very poor fuel efficiency... due to this it needed in-flight refuelling up to 6 times per flight! it was designed before computers were practical... and only cost $33 million per plane (electronics was another $33 million each): very cheap, even when intervening inflation is accounted for. with all that it has performed magnificently... it can pick out a golf ball from cruising altitude (26km), can map 110,000 square miles per hour and it has successfully evaded over 1000 attempts by the soviets to shoot it down. it is also still in service almost 40 years after its inception: there are two in service with the usaf and 3 in service with nasa at dryden). the final thing about this remarkable aircraft is it's looks... it is still far and away the prettiest aeroplane i've ever seen.... all together it is the best piece of design i've ever known, certainly worthy of trying to emulate. most of these photos are of sr-71a (the operational model), however some (the ones with two seat.... look for the hump behind the main seat) are of sr-71b which was a training model.
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