What Is The Fastest Aircraft Ever Made & How Was It Stored?

What makes the versatility of aircraft hangars so important is not only the complications that come with housing aircraft of varying wingspans, but also ensuring that complex aircraft are capable of being maintained in conditions that allow them to take off quickly and safely.

This is particularly important for aircraft which necessarily need to take off and land quickly and smoothly, such as reconnaissance and interceptor aircraft, where lengthy preparation following a period in storage is a luxury one cannot always afford.

One notable example of this is the fastest aircraft ever made, a spy plane that has held this record for over half a century, seems unlikely to ever be bested and a craft that has changed the needs for aircraft storage and takeoff in the process.

Is The Blackbird SR-71 The Fastest Plane Ever?

The Blackbird SR-71 spy plane by Lockheed Martin is considered to be the fastest aircraft ever made, but how is such an achievement measured?

Generally, there are two ways to measure the speed of a plane:

• An aircraft’s top speed

• How quickly an aircraft travels from one set destination to another, usually London to New York

In 1974, the SR-71 set both records, and neither has come close to being broken in the 52 years since.

To understand why, it is important to know the circumstances in which the SR-71 was made.

Why Was The Blackbird Made?

The SR-71 was designed to be the replacement for the U-2, a relatively slow spy plane that was repeatedly shot down and was almost a catalyst that escalated the Cuban Missile Crisis into full-blown nuclear war.

The SR-71 was designed to avoid these issues by being able to fly higher and faster than any other aircraft had achieved before and since.

This, alongside its design, which made it hard to detect via RADAR, made it almost impossible to spot and practically invincible.

Why Is The Right Aircraft Hangar So Important?

One particular complication with the SR-71 is its sheer speed, which means that having the right repair and replacement tools on-site is more important than it would be for practically any other plane.

Any high-speed spy planes need to have faultless reliability, which means that workshops need to be available in any hangar to check and repair any faults.

As well as this, both the takeoff and landing speeds are extraordinarily high, requiring more constant replacement of components such as wheels and tyres.

Is The Blackbird SR-71 Still Used?

Interestingly, whilst the U-2 is still being used, the SR-71 has been officially retired, but the reasons why this is the case are more than a little complex.

Part of it was that the rise of drones and satellites for reconnaissance in the 1980s had made it redundant, but a much larger reason was a complex web of policies within the United States Air Force.

The SR-71 had unique advantages no other aircraft (manned or unmanned) has, but it required a data link in order to make those advantages worthwhile, and the lack of an immediate way to broadcast imagery and data was the primary reason to retire the aircraft.

It was retired in 1989, reactivated in 1993 and finally retired in 1998, with the last two working aircraft flown by NASA until 1999.