Head-on view from slightly above the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, beautifully lit from the darkness of its storage building at the National Air and Space Museum, September 21, 2000. Eric Long / NASM ...

“Faster than a speeding bullet” may bring to mind a certain superhero from the planet Krypton, but it was literally true of the SR-71 Blackbird, the sleek, stealthy Air Force spy plane taken ...