04/22/2026
Fuel efficient "Earth Day" post!! 🤣
When President Lyndon B. Johnson unveiled a “super plane” capable of flying more than 2,000 mph, a high school kid named Ed Yeilding saw it on TV and made a promise to himself.
One day, he’d fly it.
Years later, Lt. Col. Yeilding was in the cockpit of the SR-71 Blackbird for its final flight, tasked with taking it from California to Washington, D.C. at the request of the Smithsonian.
The distance was roughly 2,400 miles. A normal flight takes about five hours.
The Blackbird did it in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds.
After taking off from Palmdale, the aircraft refueled midair before climbing to 83,000 feet. From that altitude, Yeilding and his reconnaissance systems officer watched Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon pass beneath them in minutes.
“We were crossing country in minutes that took months for our pioneers to do 150 years earlier,” Yeilding said.
By the time they reached the East Coast, the SR-71 had averaged more than 2,100 mph, setting a record that still stands today.
It wasn’t just a record flight. It was the final mission of one of the most iconic aircraft ever built before it was retired to the Smithsonian.
