![]() ![]() By 1973, Pentagon officials were calling for the creation of an attack aircraft that could fly undetected past enemy radar. Though lightning-fast, the Blackbird was not invisible. ![]() On July 3, 1963, the plane reached a sustained speed of Mach 3 at an astounding 78,000 feet, and remains the world’s fastest and highest-flying manned aircraft. Using sheets of titanium coated with heat-dissipating black paint, engineers created the SR-71 Blackbird. President Eisenhower needed something quicker, stronger, and more elusive. By 1960, Soviet radar and surface-to-air missile technology had caught up with the U-2. This vital reconnaissance, unobtainable by other means, averted a war in Europe and a nuclear crisis in Cuba.īut high altitude was not enough. It cruised at 70,000 feet, snapping aerial photographs of Soviet installations. Just four years later, amidst growing fears over a potential Soviet missile attack on the United States, Skunk Works engineers-who often worked ten hours a day, six days a week-created the U-2, the world’s first dedicated spy plane. His engineers turned one out in 143 days, creating the P-80 Shooting Star, a sleek, lightning-fast fighter that went on to win history’s first jet-versus-jet dogfight over Korea in 1950. Johnson promised the Pentagon they’d have their first prototype in 150 days. As with virtually all Skunk Works projects that followed, the mission was secretive and the deadline was remarkably tight. Uncle Sam needed a counterpunch, and Johnson got a call. Conceived in 1943, the Skunk Works division-a name inspired by a mysterious locale from the comic strip Li’L Abner-was formed by Johnson to build America’s first jet fighter. ![]()
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