The SR-71 Blackbird: The Cold War at Mach Three

About this episode

This episode explores the history and significance of the SR-71 Blackbird during the Cold War, highlighting its engineering, intelligence missions, and the CIA's covert operations.

The SR-71 Blackbird remains the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft ever built. It cruised above Mach three, operated at altitudes above eighty-five thousand feet, and for more than two decades it flew reconnaissance missions over hostile territory that no weapon on earth could stop. But the real story behind the Blackbird isn't just one of engineering brilliance. It's a story of deception carried out at an almost absurd scale.In this episode, we trace the full history of the aircraft from the Cold War intelligence crisis that made it necessary to the secret test flights at Groom Lake to its eventual retirement in nineteen ninety-eight. We cover Eisenhower's desperate need for photographic proof of Soviet military capabilities, Kelly Johnson and the origins of the Skunk Works, the U-2 program and the shootdown of Francis Gary Powers, and how the political fallout from that incident created the urgent demand for something faster and more survivable.At the center of the story is the CIA's covert titanium procurement operation. The Blackbird's airframe was over ninety percent titanium, and the world's largest supplier of that metal was the Soviet Union — the very country the…

Topics covered

• Cold War
• reconnaissance
• aviation history
• intelligence
• deception
• military technology

Keywords

• SR-71 Blackbird
• Cold War
• reconnaissance missions
• CIA
• titanium procurement
• Eisenhower
• U-2 program
• military aircraft
• deception

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CIA, Soviet Union

Products: SR-71 Blackbird

Places: Groom Lake

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