Thanks to SquareSpace for making this.video possible and for helping launch my.new Mustard store. More on that after.this video. In the midst of the Cold War,.two Mig-25s race to intercept a threat.along the Soviet border. They're the.fastest interceptors ever built, and if.they really push their engines, they can.reach an incredible Mach 3.2. But it's.not enough. Because what they're chasing.can outrun and out-climb any threat. A.plane engineered to be invulnerable..The Cold War locked the United States.and Soviet Union into a tense a struggle.for global influence and control. Both.sides poured enormous resources into.military technologies. But getting an.upper hand means knowing your opponent's.next move. And in the 1950s, little was.known about facilities deep within the.Soviet Union. An extensive network of.radar stations, surface-to-air missile.sites, and interceptor air bases kept the.Americans away. Until 1956, when U-2.spy planes began flying over the Soviet.Union. Neither fast nor stealthy, the U-2s had.one critical advantage. At 70,000 feet,.they could fly above Soviet air defenses..U.S. President Eisenhower was even.assured, Soviet radars couldn't detect.the U-2 at such high altitudes. But it.turns out, the Americans were wrong. The.Soviets had tracked the U-2 since day one, and it was only a matter of time before.they'd be able to shoot one down. Simply.flying high wasn't enough. Even before.the U-2 began its surveillance missions,.there were already plans underway to.replace it. Because true impunity over.Soviet airspace would need a combination.of incredible speed, altitude, and stealth..And this led the Americans to explore.some pretty radical spy plane concepts,.like a ramjet powered aircraft that.would be deployed from the bottom of a.supersonic B-58. But in 1959 the CIA.chose Lockheed to develop the next.generation of spy plane..Meanwhile, the U-2 continued to fly over.the Soviet Union. But not for very long,.because in the spring of 1960, a Soviet.surface-to-air missile finally managed.to bring one down. The captured pilot and.wreckage were paraded around the Soviet.Union used as proof of Western.aggression. As tensions rose, now more.than ever the US needed a replacement.for the U-2..And what Lockheed developed, would be.unlike any aircraft ever built. A plane.that nearly 60 years after its first.flight, remains the fastest air-breathing.jet to ever fly. Lockheed's.highly-classified spy plane would be.known as the A-12. Originally used by the.CIA for reconnaissance, the A-12 was also.developed into an interceptor prototype,.armed with air-to-air missiles, along.with a variant that could launch an.unmanned reconnaissance drone. But it was.the SR-71 Blackbird, a variant developed.for the Air Force that would go on to.serve for decades, while earlier versions.were quickly retired. The Blackbird could.cruise at Mach 3.2 right near the edge.of space, and do it for hours on end..To achieve this, Lockheed's engineers had.to innovate pretty much everything from.scratch. To sustain such incredible.speeds the SR-71 and its predecessors.were powered by engines often described.as turboramjets. Below Mach 2 they.functioned like conventional.after-burning jet engines. But above that,.they behaved more like ramjets, as an.inlet cone adjusted to bypass air around.the engine and directly into the.afterburner. At mach 3.2 the SR-71's.exterior would heat up to beyond 500.degrees Fahrenheit, easily hot enough to.soften aircraft aluminum. Lockheed.engineers used titanium for 92 percent.of the aircraft, and in the 1960s this.required inventing entirely new.fabrication technologies. It's unusual.shape did more than just spook UFO.enthusiasts, it helped reduce its radar.signature as did its special black paint,.which earned the SR-71 its Blackbird.name..The A-12 and SR-71 were first deployed.over North Korea and Vietnam, where they.were unsuccessfully targeted by over 800.surface-to-air missiles. But the spy.plane never flew into Soviet airspace. At.least not officially, because another.shoot-down over the Soviet Union would.be catastrophic..So instead, the SR-71 flew along its.borders, using its powerful side-looking.radar and cameras to peer hundreds of.miles into Soviet territory. And that.frustrated the Soviets. In 1976, Viktor.Belenko defected to the west, by escaping.the Soviet Union in his Mig-25. He.described the frustration of trying to.intercept Blackbirds. The MiG's were.Mach 3 capable, but only for a few.minutes at a time. Not for hours like the.Blackbird. Nor could they climb to reach.the SR-71's incredible altitude. Even.their enormous R40 missiles lacked the.guidance needed to strike the SR-71.head-on. For years, the Blackbirds were.practically invulnerable. They could out.fly and out-climb any threat. But by the.1980s, Mig-31s were roaming the.skies, equipped with sophisticated radar.and long-range R33 missiles. They posed.a legitimate threat, as did a new.generation of Soviet surface-to-air.missiles. But the greatest threat to the.Blackbird wasn't an enemy missile or jet..It was itself. No Blackbird was ever lost.on a mission, but more than a third of.the 50 built were destroyed in accidents..One literally disintegrated around its.pilots. They were also enormously.expensive to operate. Each one siphoning.about 300 million dollars a year out of.America's defense budget. A fleet of.special aerial refuelers and a small army.of support and maintenance staff were.needed just to keep these planes mission.ready. And advances in spy satellites.aerial drones and the SR-71 s inability.to deliver surveillance data in real.time, diminished some of the plane's.utility. Add to that, politics and.infighting for defense budgets and by.the late 1980s, the SR-71's days were numbered..They were officially retired in 1998,.with two sent to NASA for testing. The.technology behind the A-12 and SR-71 is.now well over fifty years old. Yet.somehow these incredible planes.still speak to us. Not about the past, but.the future. Leaving us with a sense of.wonder unlike any other in aviation.history. A few months ago, I launched my.Mustard site with SquareSpace. It was fun,.easy, and I did it literally in a few.hours. But now it's time to take it to.the next level. Using SquareSpace's.incredibly easy and intuitive e-commerce.features, I just launched the Mustard.online store. With SquareSpace's seamless.integration with Prtintiful, it took me.only a few hours to get up and running..Be sure to check out the store, and let.me know if you have any requests for.Mustard swag. From start to finish, using.SquareSpace has been incredibly seamless,.intuitive, and fast. Whether you're a.photographer, blogger Youtuber, or run a.small business, make your next move with SquareSpace's all-in-one platform. Start.building your website for free at.squarespace.com/mustard, and when.you're ready to launch your website,.use the code Mustard for 10% off your.first purchase..
