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SENIOR CROWN SR-71

For its reconnaissance mission, the aircraft was outfitted with an advanced synthetic aperture radar system [ASARS-I], an optical bar camera and a technical objective camera wet film system. All were once part of the aircraft's original equipment.

The SR-71 was designed by a team of Lockheed personnel led by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, at that time vice president of the company's Advanced Development Projects, known as the "Skunk Works." The first version, a CIA reconnaissance aircraft that first flew in April 1962 was called the A-11. Upon retrofitting with J-58 engine, it was designated the A-12. An interceptor version was developed in 1963 under the designation YF-12A. A USAF reconnaissance variant, called the SR-71, was first flown in 1964. The A-12 and SR-71 designs included leading and trailing edges made of high-temperature fiberglass-asbestos laminates which among other features contributed to their reduced radar signature. Its existence was publicly announced by President Lyndon Johnson on Feb. 29, 1964, when he announced that an SR-71 had flown at sustained speeds of over 2000 mph during tests at Edwards, Calif.

The Air Force needed technical assistance to get the latest reconnaissance version of the A-12 family, the SR-71A, fully operational. Eventually, the Air Force offered NASA the use of two YF-12A aircraft, 60-6935 and 606936. A joint NASA-USAF program was mapped out in June 1969. The NASA YF-12 research program was ambitious; the aircraft flew an average of once a week unless down for extended maintenance or modification. It made 90 flights between 16 July 1971 and 22 December 1978.

The airframes are built almost entirely of titanium and titanium alloys to withstand heat generated by sustained Mach 3 flight. The aircraft's largely titanium structure is coated with a special radar-absorbing black paint that also helps dissipate the intense frictional heat resulting from flight through the atmosphere at faster than three times the speed of sound. It also gives the plane its distinctive "Blackbird" nickname. Aerodynamic control surfaces consist of all-moving vertical tail surfaces above each engine nacelle, ailerons on the outer wings, and elevators on the trailing edges between the engine exhaust nozzles.

Congress appropriated $100 million in the fiscal year 1995 defense budget to reactivate two A-model jets and one B-model pilot trainer aircraft. The Air Force program office for the reactivation of the Blackbirds is at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. They are operated by Air Combat Command

The move to reactivate the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft was not unopposed. Critics looked at the SR-71 's limitations -- it can effectively operate only in good weather and cannot transmit the images it collects directly to those who need them -- and concluded that the aircraft should be retired.

Correction: "The two reactivated SR-71 Blackbirds (1995-1998) were equipped with all-weather day/night ASARS-1 radar imaging 'downloadable' to any military ground station, and an electro-optical digital imaging camera (a modified TEOC), similar to the U-2 SYSERS, which also could downlink to any ground station. It also could carry traditional film, so it could carry 3 different imagery collection systems each mission, 2 which were NRT. It was a targeteer's perfect look-shoot-look intelligence platform." -- Colonel Joe Reich, USAF (Ret), Senior Intelligence Officer, SR-71 Reactivation Team, 1995-98

           Built    Lost  
A-12          13       5
M-21           2       1
YF-12          3       2
SR-71A        29      11
SR-71B         2       1
SR-71C         1       0

A-11 / A-12

YF-12

SR-71

• U-2/SR-71 PHYSIOLOGICAL SUPPORT PROGRAM AIR COMBAT COMMAND ACCI 11-459 : 10 MAY 96

• SR-71 Blackbirds by Leland R. Haynes
• Soviet Analogs to U-2 and SR-71
• Skunkworks Digest Archive

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