SEPTEMBER 1, 1974
News that a new supersonic airliner is planned that would whisk passengers from New York to London in just three and a half hours has the aviation world excited.
But while the supersonic Overture jets are quick, they don’t come close to threatening the shortest ever flight time for the journey, which has stood since September 1, 1974. Then a US Air Force SR-71 Blackbird made the trip in one hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds, at an average speed of 1,435mph.
The speed included deceleration for in-flight refuelling, meaning the aircraft’s top speed was much higher – at around 2,455mph.
For comparison, the best commercial Concorde flight time was 2 hours 52 minutes and the Boeing 747 jumbo jet averages 6 hours 15 minutes.
The Blackbird, of which 32 were built, was a long-range, high-altitude, very-high-speed strategic reconnaissance aircraft operated by the US Air Force and Nasa.
It entered service in January 1966 and was initially retired in 1989, though several were briefly reactivated during the 1990s before their second retirement in 1998. Nasa was the final operator of the Blackbird, using it as a research platform but they were finally retired in 1999.
Since its retirement the Blackbird’s work has been done by satellites and drones, with a planned unmanned replacement, the SR-72 being under development and planned to take to the skies in 2025.