Photo of the Week: World’s Fastest Fighter Jet
Rare member of the Blackbird family leaves lasting aviation legacy
By Evan Dougherty
Published January 27, 2025
Read Time: 2 mins
On May 1, 1965, a Lockheed YF-12 set a world speed record of 2,070 mph at an altitude of over 80,200 feet.
That record has not been matched by any operational fighter aircraft nearly 60 years later.
The Lockheed YF-12 was an experimental, clandestine fighter-interceptor designed to modernize the Air Force’s fighter fleet during the height of the Cold War.
Developed under secrecy by Lockheed’s famed “Skunk Works” division, the YF-12 was publicly revealed in 1964. Equipped with an advanced radar and missiles, the YF-12, crewed by a pilot and flight engineer, was designed to use its speed and high-altitude capabilities to intercept and destroy enemy bombers at long ranges. The YF-12 was capable of flying more than three times the speed of sound at altitudes above 80,000 feet.
Lockheed built three YF-12 prototypes for Air Force test and evaluation flights out of Edwards Air Force Base, California. NASA joined the program in 1969 to expand the agency’s research and development capabilities for aircraft design and supersonic flight.
Although the Air Force had plans to acquire more than 90 full-scale production models of the YF-12, the program was canceled in the early 1970s in favor of other defense priorities. Despite this, the Air Force and NASA continued to fly the YF-12s through 1979 for flight research.
