The Lockheed SR-71 spy plane was – and still is – the fastest plane on the planet. The Goal Known unofficially as the “Blackbird” for its black paint job, which was developed to dissipate heat, the jet featured sleek lines that certainly were “futuristic” when it was flying top secret missions years before American astronauts headed to the moon. It was developed in secret in the late 1950s to cruise to 80,000 feet above the earth, near the edge of space, and out fly any missile that was launched at it.