NORFOLK, Va. — If you boarded a flight at Norfolk International Airport and landed in Los Angeles, California, the flight would last approximately five hours on a commercial airline.
On May 6, 1990, airspeed limits were pushed to the brink, and that trip was cut down to a time that’s hard to believe.
In 1966, what was then Lockheed Corporation introduced an innovative new aircraft called the SR-71 Blackbird.
The long-range, high-altitude aircraft was so fast that it could outpace missiles. To this day, it remains one of the fastest planes ever put in the sky.
At the time, there were other aircraft capable of reaching speeds of more than 2,000 mph, like the Blackbird, but only in short bursts.
The Blackbird would show the world the power of its record-breaking speed that day in 1990.
Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding and Joseph Vida took off from Palmdale, California at 4:30 a.m.
Before the cross-country flight, which was to turn over the aircraft to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., the SR-71 would need to get a running start off the Pacific Ocean in order to reach its top speed coast-to-coast.
Shortly after the afterburners were lit, police got calls from concerned residents over what they thought was an explosion or an earthquake.
But it was just the sonic boom from the Blackbird, hitting supersonic speeds as it cruised across states in just minutes.
Yeilding and Vida would land at Dulles International Airport in front of a crowd of thousands. It was a 2,300-mile trip in just 64 minutes and 20 seconds, shattering the world record for the fastest coast-to-coast flight.