Osprey Colour Series (Aviation) : Lockheed SR-71 : The Mach 3 Blackbird : The Secret Missions Exposed

A 128 page photographic essay on what is still the world's fastest and most sophisticated air breathing aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird. The goal of the Blackbird program from the beginning was to develop a Mach 3 vehicle that could accomplish high-altitude reconnaissance missions. This is the best known product of Lockheed's 'Skunk Works' and served throughout the Cold War as America's most capable manned spy plane. America's most closely kept top-secret weapon of the cold war. Years after its retirement many of the technical aspects of this spyplane are still classified. The SR-71 cruised at an amazing Mach 3 with a flying altitude of nearly 85,000'. Text by Paul F. Crickmore.