Dark Eagles: A History of the Top Secret U.S. Aircraft

Air Force Base Military Storage and Disposition Center. A second group arrived in 1977.[329] The seventeen survivors were Articles 502, 510, 513, 522, 524, 525, and 528–538. They were labeled 'GTD-21Bs' (GT stood for ground training). Davis-Monthan is an open base, with public tours of the storage area, so the odd-looking drones were soon spotted and photos began appearing in magazines.[330]

The early reports about the D-21Bs underline how elusive the facts about a Black aircraft can be. The early stories speculated that they had been

'proof-of-concept' test vehicles for the A-ll, that they had been an interim reconnaissance aircraft, used until the SR-71 was operational, and that they had been carried under the belly of the A-11/YF-12A.[331]

It was not until 1982 that a single photo each of the D-21/M-21 and D-21B/B-52H combinations were released. By the mid-1980s, more substantial information was available. The details of the loss of Article 135 were published. The accounts also said that 'fewer than five' overflights were made, and that one camera package had been lost during an ocean recovery.[332] The B-52H portion of the Tagboard program remained a blank — it was not clear what year the test launches began nor when the overflights were made. Performance of the D-21 was also not clear. Published accounts gave estimates as high as Mach 4 and 100,000 feet. The published range varied between 1,250 and 10,000 miles. [333]

In 1993, a film entitled 'Kelly's Way' was produced for the Edwards Air Force Base Flight Test Museum. It included shots of the D-21 being loaded on the M-21, in-flight shots, and film of two successful D-21 launches.

There was no footage of the B-52 launches.

It was not until publication of Jay Miller's book, Lockheed's Skunk Works: The First Fifty Years, in late 1993 that the details were finally released. Miller's book used Kelly Johnson's own logs and official documents to tell the story of the 'Blackest' of the Blackbird family. A year later, Ben Rich's book, Skunk Works, gave a personal account of the Tagboard.

That same year, the surviving D-21Bs were released to museums. The Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base received one, as did the museum at Dover Air Force Base, and the Pima County Air Museum.[334]

Another was particularly appropriate. After the M-21 program was canceled, Article 134 was placed in storage. When the A-12s and SR-71s were sent to museums, Article 134 was given to the Seattle Museum of Flight. It was still in the original silver and black finish, but the pylon had been removed. When the D-21Bs were released, museum volunteers built a new pylon. D-21B Article 510 was then mounted atop Article 134. On January 22, 1994, the new display was opened.[335]

NASA also saw the possibilities of the D-21Bs as test aircraft. The Ames-Dryden Flight Research Center was able to get four of them, Articles 513, 525, 529, and 537. No test program had been determined, but the opportunity to acquire such a vehicle was too good to pass up. One obvious program would be testing of scramjet engines, similar to those planned for the X-30. The launch would be made from one of NASA's SR-71s. It was felt that the unstart problem that had caused the fatal crash had been solved.

Test instrumentation would replace the camera package. As with the earlier mission profile, the D-21B would be lost at the end of the flight. Any such NASA D-21B flight program would be made a quarter century after the last operational mission. In the meantime, D-21B Article 525 was loaned by NASA to Blackbird Park, where it joined the prototype A-12 and an SR-71 on display.

THE TAGBOARD ASSESSED

The D-21B Tagboard was the ultimate expression of the Black reconnaissance aircraft. The end of the D-21 program brought to a close an era of Black airplane development. The first Black airplanes, the XP-59A and P-80, had been tactical fighters. Starting in the early 1950s, the emphasis shifted to reconnaissance aircraft. The following two decades saw the X-16, U-2, Sun Tan, A-12, 147, 154, and, finally, the D-21.

On the surface, the Tagboard program was cut short by President Nixon's ending of China overflights. As with the Model 154, there was also a deeper reason. The cancellation of the D-21B program was not only the result of changing politics, but also a changing reconnaissance situation.

On June 15, 1971—one month before the D-21B program ended — the first Big Bird reconnaissance satellite was orbited. It was built around a large telescope and had a resolution of six inches from over 100 miles high.

Improved Big Birds would operate for as long as 275 days.[336] Johnson had long realized the effect satellites would have. In 1959, when the A-12 project was just getting started, he asked the CIA whether there would be one round of aircraft development or two before the satellites took over.

Both agreed there would be only one.[337] This proved accurate — while the SR-71 served for a quarter of a century, the A-12 and D-21 both had brief operational lives.

The D-21 Tagboard was as challenging as anything undertaken by the Skunk Works. The development problems were not unusual, given the complexity of the D-21's mission pfotiTe. The development program 'was more akin to that of a missile than an aircraft. Like a missile, each D-21 would be lost at the end of the flight — whether it succeeded or failed. All that Lockheed had to go on to determine the cause of any problems was the telemetry. Development of the early missiles was a prolonged process.

GHOST

In February 1986, D-21B Article 517 finally came home. After the guidance system malfunctioned on the first overflight, it had kept going and reached Siberia before self-destructing. The shattered debris rained down from the sky. One of the pieces, a panel from the engine mount, was found by a shepherd, who turned it over to Soviet authorities. Seventeen years after the November morning it was launched, a CIA official walked into Ben Rich's office with the panel. Rich, now head of the Skunk Works after Kelly Johnson's retirement, asked where he had gotten it. The CIA official laughed and said, 'Believe it or not, I got it as a Christmas gift from a Soviet KGB agent.' The panel, composed of radar-absorbing material, looked as if it had just been made.[338]

As they talked, another Dark Eagle was being built in the same hangar that had seen production of the D- 21s. It did not have the thundering speed of the D-21; in fact, this new plane was a subsonic attack aircraft. Unlike the sleek, manta ray shape of the D-21, the new Dark Eagle was angular. It had a form that was a violation of every aerodynamic principle built into airplanes since the Wright Brothers. This strange shape, crafted with the utmost care, had only one virtue.

It was invisible.

CHAPTER 7 The Dark Eagles of Dreamland The Have Blue Stealth Aircraft

I conceal my tracks so that none can discern them; I keep silence so that none can hear me.

Sun Tzu ca. 400 B.C.

A common thread running through the history of the postwar Black airplanes was the quest for a reduced radar cross section. It was hoped that the U-2 would fly so high it would be difficult to pick up on radar. Tests over the United States seemed to justify this hope, but once overflights began, the Soviets had no major difficulties tracking it. Attempts were made to reduce the U-2s' detectability, but these proved ineffective.

Based on this experience, Kelly Johnson realized the A-12 would have to be designed from the start for a reduced radar cross section. The important word was reduced—the North Vietnamese and Chinese were able to detect the A-12s. Taken together, the A-12s' speed, height, and reduced radar return made them unstoppable.

With the Ryan drones, both approaches were taken. The Model 147 Lightning Bug drones were modified with