I like high-tech hardware in general. But I'm not normally a fan of military stuff for a variety of reasons. But last year I stumbled across a remarkably unique jet plain in the parking lot of a museum in my own home town. This is one of the fastest jet airplanes in the world. The A12: titanium skin, mach 3, custom fuel, top-secret for decades. Flew so high, the pilot had to wear a space suit. It is so large, I had a hard time fitting it into the frame:

[IMAGE: https://steemitimages.com/DQmVLJru9V6hJDj3UVn2XXUJABMCeinpw1wHa93jexH8W6o/IMG_20161022_094653.jpg]

This next picture has an extra-fun bonus: in the background is one of the previous-fastest jets, the F-104 StarFighter, which was also designed by the same company, Lockheed.

[IMAGE: https://steemitimages.com/DQmVDnkPkenKALYjCgWaVzcrzDYa6SpzRSyx6f9RCvqAgPx/IMG_20161022_095108.jpg]

I read about these planes last year, as documented in my previous post https://steemit.com/reading/@markhu/2016-reading-list-partial-stack

Further reading: http://www.migflug.com/jetflights/a-12_oxcart-vs-sr-71_blackbird.html