The SR-71 “Blackbird” is the air forces brute force answer to intelligence. During the cold war, the US used U-2 spy planes, which went on a different route. Rather than going extremely fast, they went extremely high. Going up to 70,000 feet, they assumed that it was too high for Soviet radars and surface-to-air missiles. This idea was wrong as the Soviets could see the plane from day one. The USSR eventually shot it down it paraded it around the country as proof of aggression from the west. This was a disaster for the US, but it still needed an intelligence aircraft. Lockheed was contracted to make the aircraft, and they created the A-12, which was later designated the SR-71 for the USAF. It was a tremendously fast aircraft, one that still holds the record for fastest aircraft to date. Lockheed had to make the aircraft almost entirely out of titanium because of how hot it got during flight. It cost 200 million (around 1.8 billion today) to run every year. The program was shot down on the 28 of December, 1966 because of the immense running costs, the success of intelligence satellites and drones, and improvements in the Soviet Air Defenses. Although, $160,000 was allocated to keep six SR-71’s in working order. And that, my friends, was the story of the crazy fast supa-plane that no one was able to shoot down.