How The SR-71 Blackbird Spy Plane Outwitted Soviet Air Defenses
Henry Kelsall - Yesterday 9:06 AM
At the height of the Cold War, the United States wanted to know nearly everything that the Soviet Union was up to. But high altitude military spy plane flights were under threat after the shooting down of a U-2 spy plane by the Soviets in 1960. The U-2 it turned out, despite flying so high, was vulnerable to Soviet surface-to-air missiles. So the American’s needed a new aircraft that could fly higher, and faster, and take the photographs of Soviet missile sites and various other points of interest, and get out of there safely.
The famous Lockheed Skunk Works division was soon tasked with creating such an aircraft. Based upon the earlier A-12, the SR-71 Blackbird would be the product that Lockheed eventually came up with. The Blackbird would be a Mach 3 capable interceptor that could effectively out run any Soviet radar system and interceptor aircraft, and its innovative design reduced its radar cross-section, making it harder for the Soviets to find on their radars. The Blackbird would go on to serve the United States Air Force from 1966 until 1998, while NASA would use the aircraft for an extra year before it finally retired.
Background And Development Of The SR-71
Lockheed had already built the A-12 reconnaissance aircraft, a Mach 3 capable machine itself, and 13 of them were built. But the project was canceled just four years after the first A-12 flight in 1962, citing budget concerns and the upcoming SR-71, which was to be bigger and more powerful. The A-12 also spawned the YF-12 interceptor version and the M-21 drone carrier. But the SR-71 would be the ultimate version of the A-12, and it featured a design similar to that of its predecessor.
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