nebulus@uunet.UU.NET (Bruce McDiffett - no good deed goes unpunished) (11/05/90)
From: decwrl!well.sf.ca.us!well!nebulus@uunet.UU.NET (Bruce McDiffett - no good deed goes unpunished) The best book I've read about the SR-71 and its relatives is SR-71 Blackbird in action by Lou Drendel Squadron/Signal Publications, 1982 ISBN 0-89747-136-9 Around $12 (I forget exactly how much) Squadron/Signal can (or could) be reached at 1115 Crowley Drive, Carrollton, TX 75011-5010 This book (well, it's almost a book - about 50 pages) is just chock full of fascinating stuff - details about the SR-71, the A-12, the YF-12A, plus the variants. Also a pretty good rundown of where all the airframes are (or were in 1982). It's full of revealing photos (for example, a shot of A-12 #06940 with a D-21 drone mounted on the back!) This book pretty much answered all the questions I had about the SR-71 (except for those concerning mission profiles :-> ). A note about the recent mothballing of much, if not all, of the SR-71 fleet: when I was at Beale for an open house, I asked one of the pilots who had just come in from a flyby whether the Air Force wanted to keep the SR-71's flying. His response was that the Air Force liked the plane, but hated picking up the tab for all the missions, since they were all for State (read CIA). :-> alt.conspiracy fodder: Anyone notice how you can't buy the SR-71 models that used to include a model of the GTD-21? I was pretty surprised when I first saw them, but now I can't find them anywhere (insert Twilight Zone music here...). -- -Bruce Anyone notice you haven't seen much of Dan Quayle since Bush threatened to send the reserves to the Middle East?