Key Points - The A-12 Oxcart, developed by Lockheed's Skunk Works for the CIA in the early 1960s, was the single-seat, Mach 3.29 (at 90,000 feet) precursor to the USAF's more famous SR-71 Blackbird.

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 feet.

During the Cold War, this plane could fly higher and faster than any other – and 55 years after its first flight, it still does. The Lockheed SR-71, designed in secrecy in the late 1950s, was able to ...

At the beginning of the year, Boeing revealed a concept design at an aerospace forum for a strike and reconaissance aircraft that could fly five times the speed of sound—a spiritual successor to the ...

Developed by Lockheed at its famously secretive Skunk Works in Burbank, California, the SR-71 was a derivative of the A-12 reconnaissance plane built for the CIA as a replacement for the U2 spy plane ...

Key point: These are the designs that attempted to make an SR-71-like bomber. However, such plans ended up failing for a variety of reasons. For every military aircraft that makes it into service, a ...

The SR-71 Blackbird is a legend, a spy plane that has captured imaginations since it first went Mach 3.5 over Soviet spymasters in the 1960s; you may recognize its distinct profile from spy flicks, ...