Lockheed Martin Blackbird SR71-B. These awesome aircraft were designed and built in the USA during the 1950s. Capable of flying at 85000 feet with a top speed in excess of Mach 3. They were primarily designed and built for spying.

The Lockheed SR-71 was designed in secrecy in the late 1950s, it was able to cruise near the edge of space and outfly a missile. To this day, it holds the records for the highest altitude in horizontal flight and the fastest speed for a non-rocket-powered aircraft.

The black paint job, designed to dissipate heat, earned it the nickname Blackbird, and, together with the shape of the long fuselage, made the plane look different from anything that came before it. It still looks like something from the future, even though it was designed 7 decades ago. Built before its time.

In 1976, the SR-71 set the records it still holds: flying at a sustained altitude of 85,069 feet and reaching a top speed of 2,193.2 miles per hour, or Mach 3.3. The SR-71 was last flown by NASA in 1999, which used two of the aircraft for high-speed and high-altitude aeronautical research. Since then all the surviving Blackbirds have found their way into museums. They have earned their place in aviation history.