Now this is speed!!

[mr0077]

A former boss of mine was stationed at Okinawa during the Viet Nam war and told me some interesting stories about them. He said they would take off at ten am, run over north Viet Nam and Cambodia and be back by noon. When they were on final approach a Jeep with armed MPs would wait at the approach end of the runway. As the plane crossed the threshold the camera pod would eject, and parachute down to the runway while the plane landed and went immediately to a guarded secure area (shoot to kill level security). The MPs would run down the runway, pick up the camera pod and take it to be developed and evaluated to expedite the intel dissemination.
My old boss said he asked one of the pilots how fast it would go, and the guy gave him the "official" top speed, but added that he had had it that fast there was still a lot of throttle left and that it would go a LOT faster than he would.
What an amazing missile/aircraft.
And I second the book "Skunk Works", it's not specifically about the Blackbird, but it gives you an insight into some of the amazing things Lockheed did there.