Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: The Illustrated History of America's Legendary Mach 3 Spy Plane

Lovely hardcover book. great pictures, fascinating facts. Good on the coffee table for the Blackbird enthusiast.

Not just a decorative accent for your mid-century modern living room's coffee table, this is a deeply researched and lushly presented history & tribute to the SR-71, Kelly Johnson, and the history of the Skunk Works. If you can find anyone under 40 still capable of reading (and accurately intellectually processing) anything longer than a tweet, and looking at something other than a phone screen, they just might realize that one of the best-designed and highest-performing aircraft - still to this day - was designed and construction started in the late 1950s. In a perfect world, that would lead them to ask why we have not advanced in aircraft design and engineering at the same pace as other technology during that same 60+ years, and incentivize them to start doing something about it.

An excellent photo album on the SR-71 and its family.Yes, text is minimal, but what is printed is enough to tell you what you're seeing. There is a lot of unpublished photos.The assembly pictures are great.The section on the D-21 was excellent.Listing each type of the SR family by tail number, with representative photos is great. USAF and NASA.Disposition of each aircraft is nice to have. Every photo in this album belongs there.Liked the format of the book. The cover, great.I've known James Goodall since the 80's. Even back then he was a go to encyclopedia on all things Blackbird.He is a terrific person. And a darn good photographer, too. His photo / slide archive is awesome!This is a must have book if the SR-71, if remarkable bird interests you.It joins my SR-71 library along with Col. Richard H. Graham and Paul Crickmore's books on this subject.Excellent work, Jim!John - Tucson

An excellent book all about the SR-71 Blackbird. Well written history and super pictures through out the book. Well done.

With about a zillion and four blackbird books out there, including another four by this author, why this book? What this book is about is pictures, more pictures, then even more pictures of anything blackbird related. (And, despite the title, not only the SR-71, but the other versions as well.)Planes in flight, planes on the ground, planes in pieces, pieces of planes, drawings of pieces of planes, wreckage of planes, patches, if it is related it is here.What this is not is a narrative story of the development of the planes. There is a one page forward, a one page intro, and then the torrent of pictures. All have captions, and there is much information in the captions, but already knowing the basic history is a near must for diving into this book.The author says he has over 30,000 blackbird photos. This book "only" has about 1000 in it. Nonetheless, it is more like an archive than a curated collection and there are a lot of similar pictures and many pictures of interest only to a true fanatic.So, ultimately, this is a book for someone who can't get enough blackbird pictures.I was provided a copy for review by the publisher.

Extremely fast delivery. Great packaging. The book is just amazing. Its by Aviation Historian Jim Goodal with just a huge amount of facts and information. The pictures and layout are like a coffee table book and is wonderful to read and look at. A must have for any SR-71 fan. Get it!

Well documented and many photos I have never seen previously. Covers every module and program from design/development through CIA Oxcart program through the last flights in 1999 with the NASA test flights. A nice edition to my library of 20+ books on the greatest airplane of all.

A must-have for any SR-71 fan, written and compiled by one of its greatest fans. Each photo mentions the tail number so you know exactly which individual plane he's talking about.

The sr71 blackbird is my favourite plane, and the book describes it brilliantly.

Alla faccia del leggero danno in copertina....e dentro?

Sehr faszinierendes Thema kombiniert mit einer einzigartigen Aufmachung des Buchs. Tolle Fotos, tolles Material, tolle Grafiken (alleine das Logo im Innencover, zusammengesetzt aus der SR-71 ist super!)

Superbe ouvrage sur cet avion de légende. Un concentré de photos et croquis sur l'avion et son historique.De plus l'historique (en anglais) se lit au fil des pages.il permet aussi aux maquettistes de trouver une foule de photos de détail.Ouvrage à offrir pour les fêtes !

Als reine Bildersammlung grundsätzlich gut. Leider werden bei rund 700 Fotos auf 220 Seiten sehr viele kleine und ganz kleine Abbildungen notwendig. Die vorliegende Auswahl zeigt einmal mehr, daß weniger, aber besser ausgewählte und dafür größere Abbildungen wesentlich effektiver sind. So wird für das NASA-Logo und das von Skunk Works je eine Seite geopfert. Dafür blättert man sich dann durch Seiten mit sinnlosen Briefmarken-Bildchen des fast 33 Meter langen Flugzeugs. Etwa 160 Seiten sind interessant und informativ gestaltet.