Thank you very much to the wonderful folks at Osprey Publishing for providing this new publication for review. Thanks are also due to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me the opportunity to explore a fascinating historical documentation and description of the enigmatic SR-71. The book was particularly interesting to me, since the time I stood nose-to-nose with a Blackbird at Beal AFB during IPMS Nationals in Sacramento in the 80’s. This volume follows previous Osprey releases describing the SR-71 and the A-12.

In typical Osprey style, you will find a balance of detail, data, and photographs in a small package that gives a succinct and in-depth overview of a complex subject. The book is formatted in standard Osprey layout with 64 glossy pages filled with text, 35 color photos, 12 black-and-white photos, 5 diagrams, 1 data table, and 8 color plates, one of which appears as a back-cover fold-out. The softcover binding is 9.75 x 7.25 inches and a little less than a quarter-inch thick. The cover is a color painting of SR-71 61-7976 dodging a North Korean SA-2 over the DMZ in 1981. In 5 chapters, Mr. Crickmore provides a brief historical introduction of the aircraft nicknamed “Habu” by the crews that flew it, followed by an overview of design and development, technical specifications, operational history, and the protracted political demise of the aircraft. He concludes with a candid and insightful discussion that may raise a bit of ire with the logic of Washington, D. C. A thorough bibliography and index completes the publication.

The introduction, second and third chapters provide essential and detailed background information about the SR-71. These three chapters are brief but thorough overviews of Blackbird design history and details, its flight systems and flexible sensor arrays, the astonishing ways of managing fluid dynamics at triple-sonic speeds, and the sheer challenges of maintaining airworthy status.

The final chapters provide an interesting contrast. The operational history of the Blackbird is detailed from the early 60’s, continuing into Yom Kippur through Yemen “areas of interest” with very revealing insights on how missions were authorized and flown. The subsequent intelligence data harvest of some missions makes later political decisions described in the “The Long Farewell” chapter almost baffling. While I appreciate that there is always another side to any story, highly successfully missions losing to political cost-cutting enthusiasm seems reminiscent of baby and bathwater analogies. The conclusion effectively summarizes the stunning successes of the SR-71 and related projects, and ends with a cynical hope that the right decision was made to ground the Blackbird for good.

I highly recommend Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, especially if you are considering modeling a Blackbird. The photography and color renderings are excellent and the book will be a superb resource. But whether or not you use this book as a build reference, the details of the design, the workings of the engines, and the actual flight operations are amazing, even more so when one considers that this aircraft was successfully flown in “slide rule” days without the benefit of modern computer modeling. I very much enjoyed the read.

Thank you again to Osprey Publishing for providing this book for review. To the folks in the IPMS Reviewer Corps, thank you for giving me the review opportunity, and especially thanks for all the filtering, edits and other tech wrestling you do to make the Reviewer Corps excel.