”We were moving faster than a rifle bullet”

SR-71 RECORDS One last, fast pass by 972 before its final landing at Dulles Airport on 6 March 1990. USAF VIA PAUL CRICKMORE When Congress decided in 1989 to cease funding the USAF’s ‘Senior Crown’ SR-71 programme, many said the decision was premature. The aircraft’s mid-1990s reactivation offered further proof. Its capabilities remained unique, and its performance unmatched. It might therefore have seemed rather impudent to use the type’s final service flight to remind the world of exactly that. The