Congress Spent $100,000,000 Bringing Just 2 SR-71 Blackbirds Back from Retirement in 1995 and Another $30,000,000 in 1997. By 1998 the Program Was Dead Again.

Congress Spent $100,000,000 Bringing Just 2 SR-71 Blackbirds Back from Retirement in 1995 and Another $30,000,000 in 1997. By 1998 the Program Was Dead Again.

Across its whole service life the SR-71 Blackbird accumulated 53,490 flight hours, 11,675 of them above Mach 3, over 17,300 sorties. By the late 1980s the surviving fleet of 12 aircraft cost roughly $260,000,000 a year to operate — about $20,000,000 per aircraft — and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney put the figure at around $85,000 per flight hour. The Air Force argued the same money could sustain two tactical fighter wings.