SR-71 Facts: 29 Details That Might Surprise You

Two Mile Long Film

This image is taken from 65,000 feet above Monterey Harbor. It is a 10x magnification on the original image and has been cropped. The white dots in the water at 18-inch wide bouys.

The film inside the SR-71’s camera was five inches wide and two miles long. Once a SR-71 returned to base, the photo-maintenance division removed the film and cut it into 500-foot long segments. From there, they would put on surgical gloves and go up and down the lines, inspecting this missive roll of film for cuts, tears or scratches. This was a time consuming process that had to be done correctly or else the entire mission may have been for nothing. Click the icon on the bottom right of the image to learn about that photo.