When one of the unit’s administrative sergeants called the Soviet embassy in San Francisco, he proposed they offer him $100,000 in exchange for some important SR-71 documents What aviation geek…
Nobody ever shot down a Blackbird. Nonetheless, 12 of them crashed out of combat The SR-71 Blackbird acquired intelligence during its service in some of the most difficult environments on…
‘On takeoff roll, an F-101 came upon our wing; he was going to race us whether we wanted to or not,’ Richard “Butch” Sheffield, SR-71 Blackbird Reconnaissance Systems Officer The…
“During early flight testing at Area 51 with the A-12s, Jim Eastham told me that A-12 #128 flew as fast as any A-12 during testing. On the particular day that…
The crews of the SR-71 Blackbird remember the KC-135Q Stratotanker crew with gratitude for their attention to their safety The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird requires JP-7 fuel, which the KC-135Q variant…
The Blackbird’s cockpit needed to be rearranged prior to the aircraft’s first flight, but the cost was high and it wasn’t functional. The SR-71 Blackbird collected intelligence during its service…
At the Edwards AFB Open House Airshow on October 9, 1999, an SR-71 Blackbird made its final flight The brief video in this post, which was recorded on Saturday, October…
The A-12 was an early attempt by Lockheed to create a spy plane that could avoid enemy detection and anti-aircraft fire. It was the first “attempt” at a stealth aircraft…
During the harshest period of the Cold War, the SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3 + spy plane crew used some unusual equipment while flying through Soviet-controlled airspace The SR-71 Blackbird collected…
The USAF ordered 93 F-12B Blackbird Mach 3+ Interceptors, each of which was equipped with three Hughes AIM-47A Falcon air-to-air missiles in secure compartments at the fuselage’s bottom On February…