In the end, the A-12 was able to produce higher-resolution photography, but the SR-71 became the successor due to its side-looking radar and cameras. This ability meant the SR-71 could achieve its ...

However, none of these spinoffs entered service, and the A-12 was retired in favor of an Air Force operated variant, the SR-71. The A-12 mounted a single high-resolution camera that recorded a ...

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. -While both ...

However, none of these spinoffs entered service, and the A-12 was retired in favor of an Air Force operated variant, the SR-71. The A-12 mounted a single high-resolution camera that recorded a ...

For the next two decades, the SR-71 would be called upon to photograph sites around the world that were beyond reach of spy satellites. Operating the battery of high-resolution cameras was the job ...

Lockheed Martin published its history in this collection of high resolution scans of old photos. Above: The SR-71 was a technological ... taken from the high-speed cameras at Edwards AFB ...

In the days before high-resolution satellite imagery, the SR-71 provided images of places no other airplane could have achieved. A: No current jet has exceeded Mach 3.5, only the SR-71 and A-12 ...

with a resolution measured in inches. There was also a special infrared camera that documented the route of the mission from beginning to end. Though the SR-71 overflew many countries, it never ...

The SR-71, an aircraft that first flew some 50 years ago next Monday, still holds the public's imagination like no other flying machine. It could lob a couple of guys, some cameras, radars and ...

One iconic aerial surveillance tool that many in the United States will remember is the SR-71 Blackbird ... The Optical Bar Camera that was a standard installation in the aircraft could film ...