Wide-angle view of the front of a Lockheed M-21 Blackbird on display in the Great gallery of the Museum of Flight, Boeing Field
Front view of a Lockheed M-21 Blackbird on static display in the Great gallery of the Museum of Flight, Boeing Field, Seattle. The Lockheed D-21B Drone is mounted on the rear upper surface of the aircraft. Rear view of a Lockheed M-21 Blackbird on static display in the Great gallery of the Museum of Flight, Boeing Field, Seattle. The Blackbird family of aircraft cruise at speeds of more than Mach 3 and fly over 85,000 feet (25,500 m) in altitude. Conceived nearly 50 years ago, Blackbirds remain the fastest and highest flying air-breathing production aircraft ever built. This M-21 is a unique variant of the A-12, the earliest Blackbird type. Built for a CIA program code-named "Tagboard," the M-21 carried unpiloted vehicles for intelligence gathering. These drones were intended for launch from the M-21 "mother ship" for flights over hostile territories. Design features of the M-21 include the second seat for the Launch Control Officer and the launch pylon on which the drone is mounted. The Museum's M-21 was built in 1963, and is the sole surviving example of its type. The Lockheed SR-71 is an advanced, long range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft by the Lockheed Skunk Works as a Black project. The SR-71 was unofficially named the Blackbird, and called the Habu by its crews, referring to an Okinawan species of pit viper. Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was responsible for many of the design's innovative concepts. A defensive feature of the aircraft was its high speed and operating altitude, whereby, if a surface-to-air missile launch were detected, standard evasive action was simply to accelerate. The D-21 drone was an unpiloted aircraft originally designed for CIA and Air Force surveillance missions over particularly hostile territories. Launched from airborne carrier aircraft, the D-21's Marquardt RJ43-MA-11 ramjet engine propelled it at speeds over 2,000 mph. (3,200 km/h).
Size: 2704px × 4064px
Location: Museum of Flight, 9404 East Marginal Way South, Seattle, Washington 98108
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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