Ich hab mal wieder knochenharte Nachforschungen der STRG-C STRG-V Kategorie betrieben und kann nun stolz das Ergebnis präsentieren.
Quelle: Museum of Flight, Seattle
Manufacturer: Lockheed
Model: M-21
Year: 1964
Registration: None
Serial No.: 60-6940
Location: Museum of Flight
Viewable? Yes
Span: 55.58 feet
Length: 102.25 feet
Height: 18.5 feet
Wing Area: 1,795 square feet
Empty Weight: 52,000 pounds
Gross Weight: 117,000 pounds
Cruise Speed: 3+ mach
Max. Speed: still classified
Service Ceiling: still classified
Range: still classified
Blackbird "Mother Ship"
The Blackbird family of aircraft cruise at speeds of more than Mach 3 and fly over 85,000 feet (25,500 m) in altitude. Conceived over 40 years ago, Blackbirds remain the fastest and highest flying air-breathing production aircraft ever built.
This M-21 is a variant of the A-12, the earliest Blackbird type. Built for a CIA program code-named Tagboard, the M-21 carried unpiloted vehicles for intelligence gathering. These drones were intended for launch from the M-21 "mother ship" for flights over hostile territories. Design features of the M-21 include the second seat for the Launch Control Officer and the launch pylon on which the drone is mounted.
The Museum's M-21 was built in 1963, and is the sole surviving example of its type.
Clarence "Kelly" Johnson
When a young engineer named Kelly Johnson came to Lockheed in 1933, one of the first things he told his new employers was that their new airplane design, the Electra, was inherently unstable. Instead of firing him, Lockheed out Johnson to work on the problem. A double vertical tail configuration cured the Electra's woes and became a familiar trait of other Lockheed planes that Kelly helped design, including the P-38 Lightning, the Lodestar, the Ventura, and the triple-tailed Constellation. In the early 1940s, Johnson established and led Lockheed's "Skunk Works"—an advanced development department that built some of America's most radical and fascinating aircraft, including the P-80, the U-2, the F-104, and the Blackbird spyplane.
Revolutionary Design
In 1959, Lockheed's "Skunk Works" won the contract to build a new spy plane for the CIA and Air Force. Because of the extreme operating altitudes, speeds, and temperatures, practically everything on the new Blackbird had to be "reinvented," including tires, oil, fuel, and even paint. Kelly Johnson claimed that he offered $50 to any one of his engineers who could find something easy or conventional to do on the project. "I might as well have offered $1,000," he said, "because I still have the money." In spite of the difficulties, Lockheed prevailed. Within 26 months, the Skunk Works had developed hundreds of revolutionary components and a 95-percent titanium structure necessary to withstand the high temperatures of the Blackbird’s Mach-3 flight.
Flight Fact: An SR-71, part of Lockheed's "Blackbird family," set the world's speed and altitude records for an air-breathing production plane. The records of 85,000 ft. (25,500 m) and 2,193 mph (3,509 kph), set in 1976, have never been broken.
