Key Points – The A-12 Oxcart, developed by Lockheed’s Skunk Works for the CIA in the early 1960s, was the single-seat, Mach 3.29 (at 90,000 feet) precursor to the USAF’s more famous SR-71 ...

The CIA's A-12 was able to produce higher-resolution photography, but the SR-71 became the successor because it was designed with side-looking radar and cameras. This ability meant the SR-71 could ...

Basically, the Blackbird could carry a lot more spy gear and electronic countermeasures than the A-12 could. What Specifically could the SR-71 carry that the A-12 couldnt? Here's a quick breakdown.

The SR-71 Blackbird spy plane could fly faster than Mach 3, more than 2,000 miles per hour. This allowed it to easily avoid ...

The A-12 is visually similar to its better-known successor, the SR-71. It has a long fuselage with hard chines and blended delta wings topped by two inward-canted vertical stabilizers.

The A-12 (pictured below) contained most of the technology that would go into the SR-71, so a basic description of the technology roughly fits both. It first took to the air on April 1962.

The A-12 force kept flying successfully, but was retired in 1968, when the SR-71 Blackbird took its place. Of the final 15 A-12s produced by Lockheed, five were lost and two pilots were killed.

The SR-71 used the same J58 engines as the A-12. The first flight of the SR-71 was in December 1964, and a total of thirty-two aircraft were built, with twelve lost to accidents and none to enemy ...

The SR-71 Blackbird may be among the most iconic airframes of the Cold War, but this incredibly fast design wasn’t always intended to serve only as a high-flying set of eyes.

The SR-71 was in a class by itself. No other airplane could go as high, as fast, ... No current jet has exceeded Mach 3.5, only the SR-71 and A-12 could reach that speed.

During the Cold War, the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane could fly higher and faster than any other – and 55 years after its first flight, it still does.