Crickmore, Paul F. Lockheed Blackbird. Beyond the Secret Missions. The Missing Chapters

The SR-71 Blackbird is an aircraft that has become a symbol of US technological superiority during the Cold War. Using recently declassified information, the author updates his authoritative account of the aircraft. The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is considered one of the most elegant, sleek and powerful aircraft ever designed. But it was not built to be admired it was built to be unseen. The high-altitude reconnaissance flights it was designed to perform were top secret and carefully concealed from the public. Now that the aircraft have become museum pieces and details of their work have been declassified, the full story of their design and deployment can finally be told. This updated edition of Paul Crickmore's classic Lockheed Blackbird: Beyond the Secret Missions is based on 850 pages of documents and images released by the CIA about the A-12 OXCART programme. These highly significant documents range from high-level US government discussions about the reasons for developing and ultimately deploying the OXCART to extremely detailed intelligence data collected during each of the 29 missions flown by the OXCART during Operation Black Shield. The Blackbird aircraft family continues to fascinate a wide age group, and since the aircraft will never fly again, its history has become timeless. This new edition will be the final word on the SR-71 Blackbird and its operational history.