You can also get close to an SR-71 at the Robins Air Force Base museum in Georgia, and if you touched it probably nobody would notice

There's also one at the March air field museum (attached to March ARB, née March AFB) in Riverside, California.

Theres one at Strategic Air Command Museum in Nebraska.

https://www.sacmuseum.org/what-to-see/aircraft/sr-71a-blackb...

I've visited that one. As a someone who grew up during the Cold War, the idea that we've got these once super-secret military aircraft just sitting where any old tourist can walk up and take picture from a few feet away always generates some cognitive dissonance.

In Palmdale California, at the corner of 25th St E & E Palmdale Ave [1], there's what is essentially a parking lot with a chain link fence around it. Sitting there are a SR-71, a A-12, a D-21 (supersonic recon drone originally launched from A-12 variant), and a U-2. You can just sit there and take all the pictures you want.

[1] https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6026576,-118.0860601,117m/da...

The important fact is missing - can you touch it?

I have definitely touched the SR-71 at the Evergreen museum in Oregon.

I'd feel more ok with touching an SR-71 at an AFB or the Evergreen museum, but the SMITHSONIAN? Never! :)

Was it rough or smooth? It looked smooth but I wonder if it felt rough!