How Fast Could The SR-71 Blackbird Really Fly?

The SR-71B Blackbird. Wikipedia 

 National Interest: How Fast Could the SR-71 Blackbird Really Fly?  

Numerous SR-71 pilots have anecdotally reported higher speeds during missions and other unrecorded flights, and there is no way to be certain who was truly the fastest of all time. 

The SR-71 Blackbird, created by Lockheed’s “Skunk Works” experimental division, represented the pinnacle of Cold War aircraft design. Springing from the earlier Lockheed A-12 designed in “Project Oxcart,” the SR-71 was sleek, aerodynamic, and, consequently, fast. The aircraft was designed to cruise at speeds exceeding Mach 3.0, and could go even faster when needed. For instance, it could pick up speed when it was trying to outrun missiles, which it could do with minimal difficulty. 

The Soviet Union never developed anything remotely analogous to the SR-71, and no other nation has come close. Nor is it likely that they ever will. With the development of satellite photography, the need that the SR-71 filled no longer exists as it did during the 1970s and 1980s, and the immense resources poured into the development and maintenance of the Blackbird are now better used elsewhere. For this reason, the Blackbird was retired from the Air Force in 1988. During the turmoil of the 1990s, the plane was briefly brought out of retirement, but it was shelved for good in 1998.  

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WNU Editor: The record is Mach 3.56, or just under twenty-four hundred miles per hour.