The most complete book ever published on the SR-71 Blackbird, from initial design stage and testing through production, testing, and operations. The legendary SR-71 Blackbird spy plane was, and still is, the world’s only operational Mach 3 aircraft, and was designed, built, and tested by Lockheed’s famed “Skunk Works.” This book covers all fifty Blackbirds built, from the first flight in 1962, to the last in 1999.As a replacement for the venerable U-2 spyplane, Lockheed went from contract signing to first flight in only thirty-two months starting in April 1958—from the beginning of design studies to the signing of a contract from the CIA to build the initial batch of A-12s in February 1960, to first flight in 1962. From A-1 design through the completion of the very first Radar Cross Section models of the A-12Testing of every major system and subsystemMore than 700 color and black-and-white images from a variety of sources, as well as the author’s own superb, new photography