Exhaust jet engine Lockheed M-21 Blackbird. by Jaap van den Berg

About "Exhaust jet engine Lockheed M-21 Blackbird."

by Jaap van den Berg

About the artwork

Exhaust jet engine Lockheed M-21 Blackbird.

In 1959, Lockheed submitted an unsolicited proposal to the US Air Force for a Mach 3+ reconnaissance aircraft: the Lockheed A-12. The aircraft was ordered first by the CIA. Most aircraft had one seat, but two were built as two-seaters. The A-12 used titanium, composite materials and stealth technology for the first time. It required advances in design methods, manufacturing techniques and fuels. The prototype first flew in April 1962.

The Blackbird, as it was unofficially called, was ahead of its time. The CIA used the A-12 on covert missions through 1968. The best-known Blackbird variant, the SR-71, was developed for the Air Force and carried out reconnaissance missions until 1990.

The cockpit of the aircraft in the picture is of a Lockheed M-21, a rare two-seat variant of the Lockheed A-12. The aircraft was built for a CIA programme codenamed Tagboard and had an unmanned D-21 drone on top of the fuselage used for intelligence gathering. These drones were launched by the M-21. Features of the M-21 included the second seat for the Launch Control Officer and the launch mast on which the drone was mounted. Two M-21 aircraft were built, the only remaining aircraft of which can be admired at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. The other aircraft was lost in a D-21 launch accident in 1966.

This photo was taken on 5 August 2024 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.