![]() “The best aspect of being an SR-71 pilot was the mission, and I believe all who supported or flew the airplane operationally would agree. I know of no time when the SR-71 was flown above Mach 3.33, and I doubt that one was flown faster, except by accidental error.” ![]() The SR-71 was point-designed to cruise continuously at Mach 3.2, which is quite an achievement, but it was not intended to have a lot of margin above that speed. The SR-71 could attain Mach 3.5, but the aircraft would be in an untested and prohibited area outside of its flight envelope, and serious damage to the aircraft might occur. I, and most probably all other pilots, never purposely violated any published limits while flying the SR-71. That would be a violation of military orders, the flight manual restrictions, and common sense. I am certain that no pilot ever put both throttles in maximum afterburner and let the aircraft accelerate to see how fast it would go. “Our maximum speed limit, directed by the Flight Manual, was Mach 3.3, but the SR-71 was not power-limited, so it could fly faster however, doing so would exceed the compressor inlet temperature limit, as well as other limits both heat related and structural. We spoke to pilot BC Thomas about life in the most exciting seat in the world. From the 1960s until the 1990s the US spied on whoever it liked with impunity from the snapping cameras and greedy sensors of the fastest aeroplane ever to take off from a runway, the spectacular SR-71 Blackbird.
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