A-12 Blackbird Declassified

by Jeannette Remak

At Mach 3.2, the A-12 Blackbird was the fastest aircraft in the world when it first flew in 1962. Four decades later, it still is. The A-12 was designed from the beginning to be a pure surveillance plane for the CIA, capable of shooting nothing but high-resolution film. It excelled in that role, although some details of its performance and missions remain classified. Now, using CIA connections and a lot of persistence, the authors used the Freedom of Information Act to unveil and declassify much of the information found in this book. Find out why the SR-71 was chosen as the successor to the A-12, and learn about the previously top-secret capabilities and missions these aircraft accomplished.

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2001

About the author

Jeannette Remak is a military aviation historian, a former consultant for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force and other museums, and co-founder of Phoenix Aviation Research with Joseph Ventolo Jr..

Reviews

[Chris Tschirhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow it is amazing what this aircraft was and it was developed in the late 50s early 60s.