A short history of the Blackbird family of planes

The SR-71's Roots

It's hard to imagine the fastest jet aircraft in the world today was developed before 1962. The prime architect of the SR-71 was C. L. "Kelly" Johnson, head of Lockheed's Advanced Development Project (ADP), better known as the "Skunk Works". In 1943, Kelly organized the Skunk Works, a small unit of technical and production specialists, to build America's first production jet fighter. The XP-80, the prototype of the F-80 Shooting Star, was completed in less than five months. This effort exemplified Kelly's credo-be quick, be quiet, be on time. For 30 years he headed Lockheed's Skunk Works and played a leading role in the design of more than 40 of the world's most advanced aircraft-among them the SR-71, U-2, F-104 and P-38.

I recall, early in my SR-71 career, Kelly Johnson flying up from Burbank to Beale (as Lockheed ADP personnel routinely did) in their Lockheed Jetstar to attend one of our squadron monthly aircrew meetings. I was highly impressed with his ability to answer our detailed questions about the SR-71, and also by the fact that a Lockheed senior vice president would take the time to attend one of our meetings. Sadly, on 21 December 1990, Kelly Johnson died at the age of 80. He was a giant of his time-revered, admired, honored, and dedicated to excellence in building aircraft. An aviation genius, he achieved what was thought to be impossible.

Designed with slide rules and built in total secrecy, the SR-71 was well ahead of its time. New technologies and frontiers had to be explored to build and aircraft capable of continuous Mach 3 flight, where heat from skin friction alone would build up inside the aircraft to 300 degrees F. The nose of the aircraft would heat up to 800 degrees F, the windshield over 600 degrees F and the exhaust section reached 1,200 degrees F. All these extreme temperatures were developed flying through an air mass with a temperature of -70 degrees F.

Titanium was the only lightweight metal of the time that could sustain the heat and still provide the strength necessary to maintain aircraft integrity. Although difficult to work with as a metal, titanium was chosen to be the primary metal comprising over 90 percent of the SR-71's airframe. Because of the extreme heating and cooling cycles over its lifetime, each aircraft actually became stronger (annealed) every time it flew.

Everything on the airplane had to be specially designed. The hydraulic fluid, lubricating oil, fuel, engines and a variety of other complex systems, all had to be developed to overcome the extreme heat encountered at Mach 3 speeds and the hostile outside pressure and temperature environment above 80,000 feet. Even a special black paint for the aircraft's exterior had to be developed to withstand the extreme heat.

In August of 1959, the CIA awarded a contract to the Lockheed Skunk Works for the development of a Mach 3 aircraft called the A-12. In January of 1960, the contract to build a dozen A-12 aircraft was awarded. The first flight occurred on 26 April 1962 in aircraft 924 and was flown by Lockheed test pilot Lou Schalk from the secret test site at Groom Lake, Nevada. The early test flights barely exceeded Mach 1 because the J-58 engines from Pratt & Whitney were not fully developed and J-75's were used instead. It wasn't until January of 1963 that the first J-58 powered A-12 flew. Soon they were exceeding Mach 3.

Two of the A-12's were modified to carry the D-21 ramjet reconnaissance drone on top of the aft fuselage. The 42 foot titanium D-21 drown was powered by a Marquardt RJ43-MA-11 ramjet and was to be launched from the A-12 at Mach 3. Aircraft 940 and 941 were modified to carry the D-21 drone and included a rear cockpit for a second crew member. Once modified to carry the drone, the A-12 aircraft were called the M-12. The back seat crew member (called the Launch Control Officer) was in charge of safely launching the drone from the M-12. Once launched, the Mach 3.35 drone followed a preplanned flight profile with camera ON/OFF points also controlled by the navigation system. The 11,000 pound D-21 drone had a range of around 3,000 nm and could fly as high as 95,000 feet. Following its mission, the drone flew to a point over friendly territory, and its palletized camera unit was ejected and recovered by a modified C-130 aircraft, equipped with a Midair Recovery System (MARS), where it would be taken for processing. As the D-21 continued its descent, it would soon self-destruct by a barometrically activated explosive device.

After three successful launches, on 31 July 1966, Lockheed pilot Bill Park and launch crew member Ray Torick climbed aboard 941 to launch the D-21 drone. At launch separation the drone hit the tail section of the M-12 causing it to pitch up abruptly. The fuselage forebody separated from the rest of the aircraft with both crew members inside. Both men ejected successfully, however Torick drowned in the ocean before being rescued by the Navy. After the loss, Kelly Johnson canceled the M-12/D-21 program.

B-52's at Beale were then modified to carry the D-21 drones, one under each wing on inboard pylons. The B-52's flew to Guam in darkness and launched the drones into China during daylight. Only a few missions were flown before the project was canceled. Seventeen D-21 drones were stored at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, four of which were delivered to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on 2 June 1994, for possible flight research projects. The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington, displays the world's only M-12 mated with its D-21 drone.

The Air Force became interested in using the A-12 as a high altitude interceptor to defeat a new generation of Soviet bombers. The next version of the aircraft, an Air Defense long-range interceptor, was proposed by Kelly Johnson in March of 1960 to General Hal Estes II, in Washington, D.C. It was called the YF-12A and had a two man crew. By coincidence, I had the pleasure of working for Brig. Gen. Hal Estes III, 14th Air Division Commander, as my immediate boss at Beale AFB, and meeting his father during a visit. He talked fondly about the start of the YF-12 program as he toured the base.

On 7 August 1963, Jim Eastham flew the first YF-12 (tail number 934). Three YF-12A's were built and tested (934, 935, 936), but finally lost out to funding for the F-111, a favorite of then Secretary of Defense, Robert "Strange" McNamara. Two of the YF-12's and an Air Force SR-71 were given to NASA for high speed research, while the third YF-12 (934) was extensively modified to produce the dual controlled SR-71C trainer (981). The NASA program terminated in October of 1979.

The YF-12 carried the advanced Hughes ASG-18\GAR-9 fire control and missile system (forerunner of today's F-14 Phoenix system), later designated the AIM-47 missile. The radar modification to the nose of the YF-12 degraded directional stability to such an extent that three ventral fins had to be added. Two shorter fins were mounted under each engine nacelle, and a larger, retractable fin was located under the aft fuselage. It retracted to give the necessary ground clearance on takeoff and landing.

Back in January of 1961, Kelly Johnson made a proposal for a dual-role strategic reconnaissance bomber (designated the R-12) to the Secretary of the Air Force and Col. Leo Geary (now Brig. Gen. Ret.), Pentagon project officer for the YF-12. The proposal for the R-12 never got very far. As the Skunk Works continued development on the YF-12, it encountered very strong opposition in the Air Force from those trying to save the B-70 bomber program. While this flurry of activity was going on, the Skunk Works proposed an advanced strategic reconnaissance aircraft for the Air Force, and on 28 December 1962 a contract to build six SR-71 aircraft was issued to Lockheed.

The first SR-71 prototype (950) was driven on two flatbed trucks from Burbank to Palmdale's plant 42 for final assembly on 29 October 1964. Two months later, on 22 December 1964, Lockheed test pilot Bob Gilliland flew the first SR-71 aircraft. The pace of testing the flying envelope and operational characteristics of the SR-71 picked up momentum with the Air Force also testing and evaluating three SR-71's (953,954 and 955).

Everything about the aircraft turned out to be "unique". At Mach 3 cruise, heating of the entire aircraft length (107 feet) forced it to "grow" several inches in flight. To give you and idea of Mach 3 speed, imagine a 30-06 rifle bullet fired over San Francisco and being able to sustain its muzzle velocity (3,000 feet/sec) all the way to New York City-the SR-71 would arrive first (3,100 feet/sec)! It's hard to imagine an aircraft built in the early 60's, utilizing Radar Absorbing Material (RAM) to produce less than a ten square meter target for enemy radars to find. The mere thought of a stealth aircraft back then was only for dreamers, but Kelly managed the impossible! It was a sad day, on 5 February 1970, when the Skunk Works received word from the Pentagon to destroy all the tooling for the Blackbird so that it would never be built again. A total of twenty nine SR-71A's, two SR-71B's, one SR-71C, fifteen A-12's, and three YF-12's were built by Lockheed.

The 4200th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (SRW) was activated at Beale on 1 January 1965, the only unit to fly the SR-71. A year later, on 7 January 1966, Wing Commander Col. Doug Nelson, along with instructor pilot Lt. Co. Raymond Haupt, delivered the first SR-71 to Beale. It was the "B" model trainer, aircraft 956. The second SR-71B followed shortly, and "A" models continued to arrive steadily through late 1967. The unit designation was changed to the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing on 25 June 1966. Shortly after the Strategic Air Command was inactivated on 1 June 1992, the 9th Wing became part of the newly created command called the Air Combat Command (ACC) and its designation was shortened to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing.

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