 |
 |
 | |  |
Panel użytkownika
Jestes niezalogowany
Książki
|
Lockheed SR-71 Operations in the Far East Paul F Crickmore | ||||||||||||
 |
Cena okładkowa: 12.99 GBP
Cena detaliczna: 59.00 zł
| |||||||||||
| Even before the first operational flight of the legendary Lockheed U-2 spyplane, aircraft design genius Kelly Johnson began work with his team at the company’s ’Skunk Works’ plant on the type’s replacement. The result was the A-12, a single-seat version of the SR-71, which unlike the USAF’s two-seater that followed shortly afterwards was built for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The limited and rather short operational successes of the A-12 were soon totally eclipsed by the more capable, longer serving SR-71. First deployed to Kadena AB, on the island of Okinawa, on 9 March 1968, this tri-sonic ’hotrod’ flew its first operational sortie over North Vietnam just 12 days later. On that debut mission, the platform overflew surface-to-air missile sites with complete impunity, gathering the detailed intelligence that led directly to the end of the siege of Khe Sanh in the process. Thereafter, the SR-71 roamed freely over areas previously denied to the vulnerable U-2, capturing photographic, radar and electronic intelligence used to assess bomb damage and gauge the enemy’s order of battle. In addition to North Vietnam, the SR-71 was also a key asset in intelligence gathering during the Cold War, hoovering-up information about the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet based in Vladivostok, as well as the port’s defences, monitoring the antics of North Korea and flying four 11-hour, non-stop sorties into the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War in the late 1980s. | ||||||||||||