I was watching a special on the history of the SR-71 blackbird and on the special it said that it was the only plane that the air force had ever built which never lost a plane or crew-member. Is this true?
Too late to edit: Three crew members were lost, two during or after ejection.
That’s a 40% loss rate, as bad as the Space Shuttle …
I don’t know if this really counts, but the T-43 is one of the safest aircraft ever built … also known as the Boeing 737. The 777 is running even safer but the USAF hasn’t bought any yet.
According to this page, the 747 is even safer than the 737, and the Air Force has several - notably the two VC-25 variants used as Air Force One. Also the E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post.
Arguably the safest planes in Air Force history are prototypes, because they still exist. That’s not to say that they were actually safe (witness the X-3), but they sustained no hull losses.
I’d guess that there were no losses as there were relatively few of them so the odds of losing one was far less. Maybe a bit of luck involved also. I know that once back on terra firma they used to leak fluid everywhere after the panels that made up the aircraft body had cooled and contracted post-supersonic flight. Read more about it here: http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/sr-71/