The SR-71 Blackbird was developed in the 1950s by Kelly Johnson at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works; David Fravor has called it, from a pure-speed perspective, an engineering marvel.1 The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) created around six shell companies to buy the titanium needed to build the largely titanium airframe from the Soviet Union itself, the country the aircraft was designed to fly over.2 In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the retirement of the A-12 OXCART reconnaissance aircraft when it was replaced by the SR-71, itself a modified version of the A-12.3
Lex Fridman has said the SR-71 still holds the speed record of any aircraft.4 At high altitude, the aircraft could show an indicated airspeed of around 560 kilometres per hour while actually travelling at around 4,000 kilometres per hour over the ground, because the air is much thinner at altitude.5 Fravor said it flew at altitudes above approximately 21,000 metres, where the thin air reduces relative aerodynamic stress on the airframe despite the high true airspeed.6 Its top speed has been recorded at Mach 3.3, approximately 3,500 kilometres per hour.7 The aircraft can just about reach Mach 5 at high altitude, beyond which it would be incinerated by the heat generated,8 and at full speed requires airspace roughly half the size of the state of Ohio to complete a turn.9
Before satellites became widely used, Fravor said the U-2 and the SR-71 were the aircraft doing high-altitude reconnaissance work in the 1950s.10 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) flew SR-71 aircraft out of California Palmdale, on loop flights up towards Washington State and Montana.11 Descending from above approximately 18,000 metres, the aircraft produced visible contrails,12 and would refuel from a tanker aircraft after descending from altitude before climbing back up.13
Jim Goodall has written 20 books on top-secret aircraft such as the SR-71, the F-117A Night Hawk and the B-2 stealth bomber.14 Skunk Works, Lockheed’s advanced development programme, has a history developing the U-2 spy plane and SR-71, the F-117A Night Hawk, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Lightning stealth jet.15
According to Goodall, Dave (SR-71 pilot), a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force (USAF) who flew the SR-71, witnessed an unidentified craft while night-flying out of Japan Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, in late 1972 or early 1973.16 Goodall wrote that as Dave advanced the throttles on his SR-71 to try to intercept the object, he could see, as he grew closer, that it was not round and had shiny metallic edges.17 In the early 1990s, while working at a high-security aerospace company facility, Robert Fish was shown digital radar tracks showing a hypersonic UFO tracking alongside a USAF SR-71.18 The tracks showed two objects streaking through the sky at over Mach 3, one in a side-chase position to the other, with the lead aircraft being the SR-71 and the other unidentified;19 the unidentified object then made a 90-degree right turn, headed off in a different direction, and rapidly gained altitude while maintaining its speed.20 Before the 2004 USS Nimitz UAP encounter, UAP tracked on radar appeared at approximately 24,000 metres, above the normal envelope of aircraft except for a few exceptions such as the U-2, the SR-71, and the alleged Aurora aircraft.21 Elsewhere, UAP have been reported making immediate right-angle turns at speeds up to ten times faster than the SR-71.22 David Fruehauf, a former SR-71 pilot, said in a television interview two decades after Bob Lazar’s 1989 disclosure that he found Lazar very credible, partially backing his claims.23