Answer: It depends on the airplane. Some corporate airplanes can fly up to 51,000 feet. The Concorde flew up to 60,000 feet, and the all-time high flier was the SR-71 which could go over 80,000 ...

This image from 23 May 1995 captures the pure power of an SR-71 ‘Blackbird’ high altitude reconnaissance aircraft on takeoff. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

During its service life, the SR-71 ran a number of daring missions for the military. It was capable of surveying vast areas of territory in a single flight, capturing high-resolution imagery and ...

The SR-71 Blackbird spy plane could fly faster than Mach 3, more than 2,000 miles per hour. This allowed it to easily avoid surface-to-air missiles.

The SR-71 Blackbird was designed with a titanium outer layer. ... The unit initially used a 24-inch focal length and could capture high resolution imagery 72 miles across, ...

The SR-71 Blackbird. Just a few months after the first flight of the A-12, in December 1962, the Air Force ordered six “reconnaissance/strike” or SR aircraft for high-speed, high-altitude ...

The SR-71 could sustain Mach 3 flight for 90 minutes, at which points it required in-flight refueling. A Blackbird once set the record for flying from New York to London in 1 hour and 54 minutes.

SR-71 pilots used to say, only half-joking, that unstarts were the Blackbird’s way of punishing them for letting their attention wander to the magnificent view from 80,000 feet.

Furthermore, an SR-71 required an average of a week of maintenance between each mission because the high-speed flights often caused bits and pieces of the airplane to loosen or come off.

Reaching over Mach 3, the SR-71 Blackbird was a high-altitude, strategic reconnaissance aircraft. Veteran pilot “Buz” Carpenter explains the fastest jet ever.

During the Cold War, the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane could fly higher and faster than any other – and 55 years after its first flight, it still does.