Well, for me personally, SR-71 is one of those childhood geek objects of idolation that grows in stature inverse to the rest of the things one finds interesting

Well, for me personally, SR-71 is one of those childhood geek objects of idolation that grows in stature inverse to the rest of the things one finds interesting when they are in their pre-teens and how they look like 25 years later. Most of the things one finds fun and insipirational then end up looking quite silly now. Unlike the Blackbird. The more one understands about how engineering projects go, how work is organized and how hard it's to do anything novel ones appreciation of the plane and the organization that built it and operated it grows enormously.