Historians take us back to the Spring of 1965 for a behind the scenes look at the YF-12A (later designated the SR-71). Here we find crews and testers at Edwards in the midst of a speed run as well as the loading and deployment of a missile during a test – video courtesy of the U.S. Air Force:

Below, the North American XB-70A Valkyrie. This nuclear-armed bomber was designed to elude air interception by flying over Mach 3 at 70,000 feet, a feat that required innovations such as compression lift, variable wingtip geometry, six massive air-breathing engines, and a high-speed ejection capsule – video courtesy of the U.S. Air Force:

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