An F/A-18 demonstrates the Prandtl-Glauert singularity (vapor cone near Mach 1) and/or an interdimensional portal

SR-71 Blackbird

Two F-15s welcome a pair of MIG-29s to US airspace.

Photoshopped, but so what?

Beautiful view: two Saab JAS 39 Gripens in flight. btw, also in the photo, in the background: the Swiss Alps.

Sunset photos: Better with or without a B-52?

Boeing B-47B rocket-assisted takeoff, 1954 (sorry, environmentalists).)

Delta Dart

Lockheed XFV vertical takeoff and landing fighter

Vapor cloud forms around an SR-71 Blackbird near Mach 1 (which is still first gear for a Blackbird)

My idea for our second car. Insufficient space for child seats is the only issue...

Rocket-assisted takeoff (here on a C-130 Hercules). Thinking of getting this for our station wagon?

The National Air and Space Museum has a Lockheed P-38 Lightning on exhibit. Now how about the National Gallery of Art?

On December 7, 1941, this Army B-17 was hit by Japanese strafing…

12/7/41: This Army B-17 was hit by Japanese strafing and ignited over the Pacific. The captain, Raymond T. Swenson of California, tried to fly to Oahu, Hawaii, making it as far as Hickam Field. The burning plane separated while landing there. Captain and crew survived.

de Havilland Sea Vixen

The YB-49: No, not futuristic B-2-derivative concept art, but rather a photo from 1947.

The totally badass McDonnell XF-85 Goblin:

1960 photo of X-15 pilot Neil Armstrong, who would later become better known as a Cadillac spokesman.

This is an X-15. It goes 4,520 mph. It I had one, I could now go pick up the milk in 0.87 seconds.

A small percentage of the Boneyard in Tucson (4,200 retired military aircraft awaiting repurposing)

Not Photoshop, an X-29 (experimental forward-swept wing)

Men go over Niagara Falls (in Voodoos)

Delta Dagger

Fuel efficiency!

FA-18 gives good cone

Blackbird

The National Air and Space Museum has a Lockheed P-38 Lightning on exhibit. Now how about the National Gallery of Art?

LTV A-7 Corsair II

Not a cloud, not Photoshop, but the Prandtl-Glauert singularity demonstrated by a B-2 nearing the speed of sound

Aardvark dumping

Can you feel that?

A sharp-looking X-3 Stiletto

An F-104 Starfigher and its parents

1944 photo of B-25s in Italy. If you look closely, you can see, in the bg, Mt. Vesuvius erupting.

Bell Airacuda photo (how did the Airacuda not win the Badassest Plane Name vote (http://keiththomsonbooks.com/badassest)?)

F-35

"Buff"

F-35 Lightning II: The last manned aircraft?

F-101 Voodoos in NYC. Is it the drink I had with dinner, or is the Empire State Building leaning to the right?

YF-12

The YF-12, the fighter interceptor version of the Blackbird featured in ONCE A SPY. In 1965 Air Force tests, the YF-12 set records for speed—2,070.101 mph—and altitude—80,258 feet—but it never became operational. Officially, that is.

Lightning in a cloudless sky (P-38 Lightning)

One of the finest American works of art, Lockheed's F-104 Starfighter

B-24 Liberator/airshow pyrotechnics

A real-life Vulcan

TSR2: plane downed by politicians

A ten (A-10)

Dassault Rafale

If the event you haven't seen too many Blackbird photos…

F-15 Silent Eagle

I would take a Harrier if someone offered me one. You?

Sky candy

B1-B

Warthogs are beautiful.

from a B-29's nose…

A sub-hypersonic A-20

B-35 (conceived by Jack Northrop in the 1930s)

The Sukhoi T-50, now available in lime

An F-18 pilot, flying past his apartment, sees a stranger in boxer shorts on the balcony. How do you think the pilot will respond?

Osprey

The F-15 was so good that in 1984, the Air Force decided to try it against satellites. It succeeded.

Looking for a fixer-upper F-4 Phantom? This little number's sitting in the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB…

Raptor

F/A-18

XB-70 Valkyrie (designed in the 1950s)

How new planes are made.

F-14

Starfighter

LeDuc 010

F-15

B-2, Rose Bowl

F-117 Nighthawk

F-15

What's amazing about the Blackbird isn't that it was designed 50 years ago—there was no shortage of cool aircraft designs. It's that the Blackbird was flying 49 years ago.