On 24 Jul 2003 18:59:04 GMT, (B2431) wrote:


Trust me, if anyone ever broke that record the SR would have easily
re-established a higher record . . .

The original record "upper limit" was set "low" to mask the true
capabilities of the aircraft.

Steve Swartz


With all the radar and stuff like that there why are the capabilities of the
SR-71 still classified. I'm sure the bad guys already know. I'd really like to
know how high and how fast it realy was.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired


According to Wings of Fame Volume 9 pg 36 at one point in the program
the A-12 had reached Mach 3.56 and 96,200 ft.

Someone a while back posted a link to an image that listed 500 KEAS
(Knots ? AirSpeed) and somebody else mentioned 600 KIAS as the
structural limit. The aformentioned graph lists Mach 3.3 at about
seventy-two thousand feet as 440 KEAS. So if you extrapolate and
figure out what groundspeed five or six hundred knots IAS is at
96,000ft. . .who knows? Of course there are heat limits too in
there.