Lockheed Blackbirds - Warbird Tech Vol. 10 [Paperback]

Tony Landis (Author), Dennis R. Jenkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2005

On 26 April 1962, Lockheed test pilot Lou Schalk took the first flight in an aircraft at a classified desert test facility in Nevada. The aircraft was far more advanced than anything in the sky, and when made public several years later it would capture the world's fascination like few other aircraft ever have. Three distinct variants were eventually manufactured, but surprisingly, none of them ever had an official name. Unofficially, they have all been referred to as "Blackbirds" and "Habu," the fastest, highest flying air-breathing aircraft in the world. The Lockheed model number of the first variant was A-12, but by a sort of inspired perversity it came to be called Oxcart, a code name also applied to the program under which it was developed. The other two variants carried the Air Force designations YF-12 and SR-71. This is the story of the Lockheed Blackbirds - fifty of the fastest, highest-flying air-breathing aircraft ever developed and deployed. This book is crammed with detailed photos and illustrations and is a fantastic resource for scale model builders.

Product Details

• Paperback: 108 pages
• Publisher: Specialty Press; Revised edition (August 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580070868
• ISBN-13: 978-1580070867
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,507,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Blackbird family history. Unique information!, December 22, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Lockheed SR-71 / YF-12 Blackbirds (Warbird Tech, Vol. 10) (Paperback)

Before you say "Oh no, not ANOTHER book on the SR-71" take a look at what Dennis Jenkins has done. He broaches subjects that I've never seen written on the whole Blackbird heritage. Jenkins is careful to cover the A-12, YF-12, M-12, D-21 and SR-71 all in equal detail.

Jenkins organizes his book in chronological order as to the development of the various subject aircraft. The first chapter is devoted to the development projects that led up to the A-12 Oxcart (this is all new material to me considering the detail Jenkins is able to go into, even including prototype wind tunnel model photos and line drawings!). The next four chapters then methodically cover the development of the A-12, YF-12, D-21 and M-12/21 and then the SR-71. In these chapters the Blackbird equipment is also covered (the start-carts, avionics and reconnaissance packages).

There are two follow-on chapters about the SR-71 retirement and then resurrection (Jenkins will need to add an appendix now about the recent SR-71 forced retirement by Clinton's line-item veto). A few more interesting pages summarize important acronyms (Black Shield, Senior Bowl and such) and also list important dates in the Blackbird heritage (Kelly Johnson died on 22 December 1990).

The line drawings are excellent and make the price of the book worthwhile by themselves. Drawings show the structural detail of the Blackbirds, temperature distribution in flight (interesting), cockpit layout, engine/inlet operation and crash rescue procedures among other things. This is the most detail you'll see on the Blackbirds outside of hard-to-obtain Lockheed and NASA documents (I know, I've worked at NASA).

There is a lot information packed into these slim volumes of the Warbird Tech Series, but I will complain about the preponderance of black and white photos. There is a special color section in this book, but for the same price (or nearly so) I have found books on the F-15 and other aircraft packed with color photos. The absence of color in this book is not so disturbing as the SR was black! I would like to see more color in other books of the series though.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!!!!, November 23, 2004

By 

Blackbird Fan (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lockheed Blackbirds - Warbird Tech Vol. 10 (Paperback)

As with any reprint, your first thought is they must have found one new photo and are trying to sell it as updated. This is so not the case with this book. It has been completely done over from scratch. Very little from the original volume is in this book. There are a bunch of 'new' A-12 and YF-12 images along with more photos, drawings and info on the Fish and Kingfish than I have seen in any other book. If you are a fan of the Blackbirds like I am, then this book is definitely worth picking up.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Complete, Extensively Illustrated, February 8, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lockheed Blackbirds - Warbird Tech Vol. 10 (Paperback)

Even though it was retired by the Air Force in 1990 and the NASA version has been grounded since 1999, the Blackbird is still one of the most fascinating aircraft ever built. Conceived by the CIA the project was turned over to the Air Force. It was never very popular with the Air Force. Most of the missions were actually conducted at the direction of the National Reconnaissance Office (then so black an organization that even the name was secret) but the budget for operating the plane came from the Air Force which wanted to spend the money on other projects such as the B-1B Bomber.

This book gives an excellent history of the airplane from its first concept (at the request of the CIA) through it's last flight. The book also covers the several variations of the plane including the M-21 (which carried the D-21 drone), the original A-12 (single seater), the YF-12A (the fighter version), and of course the SR-71A, the main production version. It also gives a list of the final dispositions of the remaining aircraft so you can find out where to go see one.