"The Sled" (also once known as "Oxcart") is the SR-71 Blackbird
spy plane from the 1960s and still the fastest airplane in the world. In his book,
"Sled Driver," SR-71 Blackbird pilot Brian Shul writes: "I'll always
remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day as Walt (my
back-seater) and I were screaming across Southern California, 13 miles
high. We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft
as we entered Los Angeles airspace. Though they didn't really control
us, they did monitor our movement across their scope.

I heard a Cessna ask for a read-out of its ground speed. "90 knots,"
Center replied.

Moments later, a Twin Beech required the same. "120 knots," Center
answered.

We weren't the only ones proud of our ground speed that day as, almost
instantly, an F-18 smugly transmitted, "Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests
ground speed readout."

There was a slight pause, then the response,"525 knots on the ground,
Dusty."

Another silent pause; As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation
this was, I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from
my back-seater. It was at that precise moment I realized that Walt and
I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison. "Center,
Aspen 20, you got a ground speed readout for us?"

There was a longer than normal pause.... "Aspen, I show 1,742 knots"
(That's about 2,005 mph)

No further inquiries were heard on that frequency.