Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

By Paul F. Crickmore

Book Overview

The definitive technical guide to the incredible Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and its intelligence-gathering systems. The SR-71 represents the very pinnacle of Cold War aircraft design and it has become an aviation icon. Together with its predecessor, the A-12, the Blackbird was a giant leap into the technical unknown and the design employed many forms of new technology made necessary by the excesses of speed, altitude and temperature to which the aircraft was subjected. Paul F. Crickmore charts its 34-year Air Force career, in which the SR-71 proved itself to be the world's fastest and highest flying operational manned aircraft. It set a number of world records for altitude and speed, including an absolute altitude record of 85,069ft on 28 July 1974, and an absolute speed record of 2,193.2mph the same day. This truly was a unique and ground-breaking aircraft, whose fascinating design history is explored here in full and illuminated with photographs and detailed technical illustrations.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1472804929
• ISBN13: 9781472804921
• Release Date: June 2015
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (UK)
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 7.1" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A fine introduction to a trully legendary plane

Paul Crickmore is among the top experts on the Blackbird and with this book he presents many facts about the design, the construction and the operational history of the A-12 and the SR-71 without suffocating the reader in a sea of details, like his other books on the subject. While the account of the various missions flown by the SR-71s was very interesting, I found the technical chapter "Design Accomplishments" a real marvel. Crickmore gives also interesting appendices with the serial numbers and the fate of every single A-12, F-12 and SR-71, some guide to modellers looking for available kits, information on the NASA use of the aircraft and the world records set by the Blackbird that still stand. The photographs are very good (most of them black and white) with highly informative captions, the drawings are excellent, but there is the serious omission of not including in the book a table of technical characteristics.