Key Points - The A-12 Oxcart, developed by Lockheed's Skunk Works for the CIA in the early 1960s, was the single-seat, Mach 3.29 (at 90,000 feet) precursor to the USAF's more famous SR-71 Blackbird.

Summary and Key Points: The A-12 Oxcart, predecessor to the famed SR-71 Blackbird, was a groundbreaking reconnaissance aircraft developed by Lockheed’s Skunk Works in the late 1950s. -Designed to ...

The Archangel-12, or A-12 for short, is considered to be America's first supersonic spy plane. But the spy plane was retired after one year as its successor was already in development. Its design ...

Sleek, black and evil in appearance, the SR-71 Blackbird was THE masterpiece of Cold War engineering. Flying faster and higher than any fighter, this stealthy reconnaissance aircraft could snoop where ...

-Officially retired due to high costs and improving satellite tech, a former SR-71 RSO, Richard “Butch” Sheffield, reveals in his unpublished book that the decision was politically driven. -The Air ...

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is unlike virtually any plane that came before it, and virtually no planes like it have been made since. Even though the remarkable machine's development began in the ...

On the cover of Aviation Week’s Jan. 20, 1990, issue, a U.S. Air Force/Lockheed SR-71 flies over Lake Almanor in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Air Force had announced the phasing out of the program ...