Talk:SR-71 Blackbird

Baltic interception trailing distance: 3 km vs 2.9 km within same paragraph

Within a single paragraph describing Soviet/Swedish observations of SR-71 intercepts over the Baltic, the article gives two different distances for the trailing separation between a MiG-25 and the SR-71.

The paragraph (in the Operations section covering Baltic intercepts) states in narrative voice that the MiG would "close to an altitude of 19 km, precisely 3 km behind the SR-71," and then immediately quotes the Swedish observers: "the MiG-25 would reach 63,000 ft before completing its stern attack 2.9 km behind the Blackbird."

Within the same paragraph, describing the same recurring interception geometry, the article gives both 3 km and 2.9 km as the trailing separation. The narrative and the quoted source contradict each other on the same specific figure. One of the two — either the narrative's rounding of 3 km or the quoted source's 2.9 km — is inaccurate, and the discrepancy is unexplained.

This is a minor but genuine internal inconsistency within a single paragraph. The narrative should either match the quoted source's precision (2.9 km) or explicitly note that 3 km is a rounded figure. Rome (talk) 17:51, 5 May 2026 (UTC)