David Doyle.

May 1967 witnessed the first Blackbird flight over Vietnam. When the CIA's A-12 was retired from Vietnam service in June 1968, its place was taken by the Air Force version of the plane with the now more familiar name of "Strategic Reconnaissance" SR-71. Though exceptionally good at what it did, the highly specialized nature of the SR-71 made it expensive to operate and by the late 1980s, the Air Force was ready to shelve the Blackbird in order to fund other projects. Despite the objections of ground force commanders and indeed even against the wishes of Congress, the aircraft were retired in the late 1990s. In addition to the A-12 and SR-71, Lockheed's famed Skunk Works also turned out the M-21, a version of the Blackbird whose sole purpose was to launch D-21 drones. Packed with detailed line drawings and over 200 photographs.