From The Archives: SR-71 Operational Assignment Ends

The cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology’s Jan. 22, 1990, issue featured the U.S. Air Force/Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird flying over Lake Almanor in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

The Air Force was phasing out the program at the time—the victim of a budget squeeze and the lack of a strong service advocate. 

Nonetheless, the termination of SR-71 operations caught many off guard, despite the warning signs that the aircraft had been omitted from the White House budget for the previous two years. 

Since its introduction in 1964, the reconnaissance aircraft flew missions over heavily defended North Vietnam with impunity, and provided vital intelligence in many other theaters, including the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Lebanon, Libya, the Falklands and the Persian Gulf. 

Several aircraft were briefly reactivated before their second retirement in 1998. NASA was the last Blackbird operator, using it as a research platform until 1999. 

Lockheed photo by Eric M. Schulzinger.

See the cover image and read the full issue dated January 22, 1990. 

Read the feature article on page 38: U.S. Reconnaissance Weakened By SR-71 Program Termination

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