In the late 1950s, the U.S. spent $800 million building a Mach 3.1 strategic bomber that could cruise above 70,000 feet and outrun every Soviet interceptor. The North American XB-70 Valkyrie used six ...
In the early 1980s, Lockheed's Skunk Works proposed converting the SR-71 Blackbird — the Mach 3+ reconnaissance aircraft that flew above 80,000 feet and was never shot down — into the SR-71 I, an ...