Historic Aviation Quiz: The SR-71 Blackbird

While it is well known that Lockheed test pilot Bob Gilliland was at the controls for the first flight of the SR-71 on December 22, 1964, where did that sortie take place from?

During its first international sortie July 21, 1967, SR-71A 61-7972 strayed into foreign airspace following the failure of its Astro-Inertial Navigation System. Whose airspace was it?

Developed from the A-12 high-altitude, Mach 3+ reconnaissance platform built for the United States Central Intelligence Agency by Lockheed, how many variants of the SR-71 were there in total officially?

On average how much did the first SR-71 cost to build when accepted by the USAF in 1968?

With fears of national security and the type’s secrets and technology falling into the hands of foreign entities, in what year did the US Government order that all SR-71 tooling be destroyed?

How many production examples of the SR-71 were rolled out of the ‘Skunk Works’?

True or False: On average, the USAF could only fly each SR-71 operationally once a week due to the nature of the turnaround required after mission recovery?

The SR-71 was dubbed the ‘Habu’ by locals on the Japanese island of Okinawa. But what was a Habu?

How many hours is it said the SR-71 fleet spent at Mach 3+ during its first USAF career between 1966 and 1990?

True or False: An SR-71 was used to assist the FBI in its manhunt for the skyjacker D B Cooper – the still to this day unidentified man who hijacked Flight 305, a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727 – in 1971?