Lockheed Blackbird Family: A-12, YF-12, D-21/M-21 & SR-71 Photo Scrapbook

 Author's Summary

Still the world's most popular and most exciting aircraft, the Lockheed family of A-12, YF-12, D-21/M-21, and SR-71 Blackbirds are to this day the highest-performance jet-powered airplanes ever flown.  They have set numerous world speed and altitude records for manned aircraft powered by air-breathing engines that theoretically may never be broken. Although no longer operational, A-12s and SR-71s flew for nearly three decades at speeds in excess of Mach 3 and altitudes of up to 90,000 feet. 

Expanding on the successful sales of all Specialty Press Blackbird publications is this natural extension of our product line created by compiling many never-before-published photos coupled with new declassified information recently released by the CIA, including black-and-white and color photos of A-12 cockpits, early camera installations, and never-before-seen special camouflage schemes.

MWSA Review

MWSA 2010 Gold Medal for Artistic, Picture Book

Did you know that there were only fifty Blackbirds ever produced? Tony Landis tells us "In a fitting tribute to this remarkable vehicle, the Blackbird family remains the only operational aircraft to have had all surviving airframes still in existence after retirement, either placed in storage or put proudly on display in a museum. Not one single airframe was ever scrapped." I found that very interesting. You know what else was interesting?  The fact that this was the first book that appeared at our home that I couldn't get back from my husband so that I could read it in order to write a review! So I let him know that he was going to have to participate in giving me feedback for this review.
 
This book includes more than 100 "never-before-published" photos and even recently declassified images from the CIA. That really impressed us along with the technical information being enjoyable to read and was also very understandable to someone like me that has little background knowledge on the Blackbirds. I appreciated the engineering sketches that were included which were very helpful in learning about more aspects of these planes.
 
This book is great for both the expert and novice when it comes to learning about the Blackbird. It is very impressive and well-worth adding to your book collection, especially for readers who love photo journals with lots of information. Tony Landis did a superb job of putting together this photo scrapbook Lockheed Blackbird Family. To sum it up, my husband was thrilled to find out he was going to get to keep the book!  

Reviewed by: Joyce Gilmour (2010)