The SR-71 flew so fast and so high that she was impossible to shoot down with enemy interceptors or surface to air missiles (SAMS). Top speed was Mach 3.3 and she flew as high as 85,000 feet.32 were built, 12 were lost BUT zero to enemy action.She could "survey" over 100,000 square miles in an hour.SR-71s required their own tanker, the KC-135Q, due to the unique JP-7 fuel they burned.Blackbird was the official name of the SR-71 but the pilots and ground crews nicknamed her HABU after a venomous snake on the Japanese island of Okinawa where she was based.