Specialty Press

Lockheed Blackbird Family

by  Tony Landis

Reviewed By  Pablo Bauleo, IPMS# 46363

MSRP: $19.95 ISBN 13: 9781580071512 Website: www.specialtypress.com 128 pages, 120 b/w and 265 color photos with 40 illustrations Review Flying faster and higher than any other manned air-fed airplane, and surrounded with a veil of secrecy for most of its operational career, the Blackbird airplane triggers the imagination of modelers and aviation enthusiast like no other aircraft does. This book covers the whole evolution of the Lockheed high speed, high altitude airplane known as the "Blackbird". It begins with the A-12, the photoreconnaissance-only version of the Blackbird. Then it moves into the YF-12, which was envisioned as a fast armed interceptor which would fire nuclear air-to-air missiles against incoming bomber waves. The next generation of the family involves the D-21/M-21 combination, in which an unmanned drone was to be launched from the Blackbird. The book culminates with the superb SR-71, which added electronic intelligence (ELINT) to the photographic capabilities inherited from the A-12. Each chapter has a short introduction, but the book is designed to tell the story of the Blackbird family as a "scrapbook". It has plenty of pictures with very descriptive captions. The close-up pictures of the exterior, cockpits and instrument panels, as well as the interior drawings will serve aviation aficionados and aviation modelers well. Many of the pictures have not been published before, but the book does not specify which ones fit this description. Recommended to aviation aficionados and modelers alike. I would like to thank Specialty Press for the review sample.