Baby Blackbird: Lockheed Built a Mach 3.3 Drone to Photograph China’s Nuclear Facility — All 4 Missions Failed and One Crashed in the USSR

Baby Blackbird: Lockheed Built a Mach 3.3 Drone to Photograph China’s Nuclear Facility — All 4 Missions Failed and One Crashed in the USSR

The Lockheed D-21 was a Mach 3.3 reconnaissance drone. Lockheed’s Skunk Works built it in the early 1960s. Its mission: photograph China’s Lop Nor nuclear weapons test facility. The D-21 cruised above 90,000 feet. It borrowed titanium construction and stealth shaping from the SR-71 family — earning the nickname “Baby Blackbird.” Initially launched from an A-12 Blackbird in flight, the program switched to B-52H bombers after a fatal mid-air colli…