This swayed the CIA to select Lockheed’s design, the A-12. 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 ...

But First, the A-12 Oxcart Yet, before the SR-71, there was the A-12, a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft built for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Developed at Lockheed's ...

The SR-71 Blackbirds were used in intelligence-gathering ... the Blackbird project was initially conceptualized to fulfill the CIA’s need for a new spy plane. The intelligence agency had been ...