Or when they created it. The first manned flight was in 1903. In less than sixty years we had this plane. That's unbelievable.

Few things about that plane that are not amazing. There is an engine on display at the aforementioned exhibit in Seattle. Every tube on the outside runs in a 'Z' configuration instead of just a straight line, because the engine grows 6 inches longer at full operational temperature.

What's more unbelievable? After 48 years we don't have anything that comes close to it and we don't even fly them anymore.

> I highly recommend a visit to the Museum of Flight in Seattle where you can see a real SR-71 Blackbird

There's also one at the Pima Air and Space museum, near Tucson, AZ. Considering that and a minuteman silo are the only things worth seeing within 100 miles of Tucson (kidding, but not by much, the "Landmarks of Tucson" article on wikipedia is 10 entries long, with 3 entries actually in Tucson), I'd recommend keeping it for when you need to go to this hellhole, and doing more interesting things in or around Seattle.

Very cool museum; they have some incredible stuff. However, the "Blackbird" you mention isn't actually an SR-71, it's an M-21 - a variant of one of the CIA's A-12's (the SR-71's predecessor).

http://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/lockheed-m-21-blackbi...

If you're in Seattle and have an opportunity, visit the Museum's restoration facility at Paine Field in Everett (at the opposite end of the runway for the 747/widebody factory.) It's a nondescript warehouse manned mostly by super kind volunteer retirees. Unlike the roped-off museum experience, at the restoration facility you can touch and pick up things. The last time I was there I held a Merlin piston in my hands. So cool.

The Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland Nebraska has one as well.