Lockheed's Sr-71 'Blackbird' Family: A-12, F-12, M-21, D-21, Sr-71

Rating:
Summary: Blackbird Summary
Review: This is the latest book on Lockheed's Blackbird family of "Titanium Wonderbirds" from the mind of aeronautical genius Kelly Johnson. The text is very complete with many details on development, various "firsts", record flights, summaries of individual airframes and operational statistics. There are many very good black and white photos and a color section at the end of the book. The color section has several never before published pictures, but the quality of most of them is definately not up to Mr Goodalls' normal standards. There are a couple of caption errors such as the one on top of page 126 that says it is of 2 reactivated SR-71s at Palmdale. It is actually of two SR-71s at the time of their 1990 retirement and it was taken on the south run up pad at Beale AFB, CA. The control tower and individual SR shelters are barely visible on the horizon between the two aircraft.
The book has very good coverage of the Tagboard/Senior Bowl program with the D-21 on the M-21 and B-52H. This program was also covered in Mr Goodall's previous book on the Blackbirds with some different pictures.
If you are interested in just one book that covers the entire Blackbird history from initial development to final retirement, this is the book to get.

Rating:
Summary: Blackbird Summary
Review: This is the latest book on Lockheed's Blackbird family of "Titanium Wonderbirds" from the mind of aeronautical genius Kelly Johnson. The text is very complete with many details on development, various "firsts", record flights, summaries of individual airframes and operational statistics. There are many very good black and white photos and a color section at the end of the book. The color section has several never before published pictures, but the quality of most of them is definately not up to Mr Goodalls' normal standards. There are a couple of caption errors such as the one on top of page 126 that says it is of 2 reactivated SR-71s at Palmdale. It is actually of two SR-71s at the time of their 1990 retirement and it was taken on the south run up pad at Beale AFB, CA. The control tower and individual SR shelters are barely visible on the horizon between the two aircraft.
The book has very good coverage of the Tagboard/Senior Bowl program with the D-21 on the M-21 and B-52H. This program was also covered in Mr Goodall's previous book on the Blackbirds with some different pictures.
If you are interested in just one book that covers the entire Blackbird history from initial development to final retirement, this is the book to get.