Experimental "Enterprise"

Look at the first two pics from the lockheed x-7 section ( somwhere in the middle of the page) and tell me if it looks familiar to you

www.hitechweb.szm.sk...

All they need is the disk on it and they are all set to boldly go where no man has gone before

Whats up with that thing with under the B-52 it looks like just like Sr-71 engine. But with no room for a pilot what the heck is that thing a missile? I wish that site was in english.

make a google on the project's names (they are in english)

as for the thing you are asking it's some kind of an ram or scramjet test vehicle that has been tested on the back of a SR-71 too

ShadowXIX
Whats up with that thing with under the B-52 it looks like just like Sr-71 engine. But with no room for a pilot what the heck is that thing a missile?

Its the D-21 drone (UAV), they flew some over russia and china back in the SR-71's prime (and lost a few as well).

It was also made by Lockheed, They had there own carrier craft called the M-21, which was a derivative of the SR-71 which was a derivative of the A-12 (If ya ask me I would of just put a A, B, or C, after the original name, but they slapped a new name on every derivative ).

and Yes, it did the same role as the SR-71, the reason it was built is because of the when the United States signed a treaty to end flights of manned vehicles over the Soviet Union they needed an unmanned version that could still do the mission, but wouldn't break any treaties.

There was only 2 M-21 (which is the blackbird carrier craft) ever made, and one crashed after it released a D-21 drone and the drone slammed back down into the blackbird, destroying both aircraft. The D-21 was one of the few failures that skunkworks has ever had.





[edit on 23-10-2004 by Murcielago]

Also most of the D-21 was classified until the early to middle 80's.

I think one of the M-21's are on display some place out west in the US - maybe either at Boeing or SAC HQ.

=-Rich

Originally posted by rvfried
I think one of the M-21's are on display some place out west in the US - maybe either at Boeing or SAC HQ.

=-Rich

Yep, the last one in existence is at The museum of flight, in seattle Washington. It still has its titanium skin showing.

Actually the M-21 (also known as the M-12) was a redesignated A-12, not an SR-71. Only 4 releases were ever made, with the last one on July 30, 1966 resulting in the loss of the mothership and termination of the M-21/12 combined usage. This resulted in the project being renamed from Tagboard to Senior Bowl and the B-52 being used as the mothership. The D-21 was origionally designated the Q-12.

The D-21B versions as dropped by the B-52 were never used for overflights of the USSR. The ban on overflights after Gary Powers shootdown included unmanned overflights, and only 4 operational missions were made, all over China. Of these, only 2 drones worked well enough to complete the missions, specifically over the Lop Nor nuclear research center, tho due to technically difficulties neither camera pods were recovered and no intelligence was gained.

All in all 38 drones were made between Tagboard and Senior Bowl, with 17 being used in testing, 4 in operational flights, and the remaining 17 put into storage when Senior Bowl was cancelled in 1971 with the introduction of better spy satalites.