The Lockheed Skunk Works D-21 was one of the first drones ever made with stealth capabilities.
Also one of the least known members of a family of aircraft that includes the SR-71 is the D-21 reconnaissance drone. The drone was designed to be launched from the back of a modified on the factory floor A-12, the first version of the Blackbird.
Called an M-21 the number 21 was 12 backwards M was her mother D was for daughter.
Announced recently is Vectis the latest drone made by the Skunk Works.
The name Vectis means lever or pole in Latin, and is intended to reflect the ‘leverage’ the platform offers. Skunk Works head OJ Sanchez shared. “We’ll continue to refine that, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say supersonic is what we see as needed in this space.”Sanchez described the system as somewhere in size between Lockheed’s new Common Multi-Mission Truck cruise missile and an F-16.
The Lockheed D-21 was a high-speed, high-altitude reconnaissance drone developed by Lockheed's famous Skunk Works team starting in 1962. Designed to replace the vulnerable U-2 spy plane, the D-21 required a carrier aircraft, first an A-12-based M-21 and later a B-52, to launch it at speeds necessary for its ramjet engine to operate. The drone was intended to fly deep into hostile territory, take photographs, then eject its camera module for retrieval, but the program was ultimately canceled in 1971 after a fatal accident and limited operational success.
M 21 had a range of 3450 miles maximum speed was 270 mph ceiling of 95,000 feet power plant Marquardt ramjet RJ43-MA-11 using JP-7 fuel.
Interestingly, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Ben Rich (then retired president of Lockheed’s Skunk Works) finally had an opportunity to tour Russia himself. While in Moscow, the KGB presented Rich with a gift of what they thought were the remains of a stealth fighter that had crashed in their territory. As it turned out, the wreckage was actually pieces and parts of the lost D-21 Drone!
D-21 drone locations include the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA; the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, OH; the Chinese Aviation Museum in Beijing; the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, AZ; and the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, OR, among others.
I saw one sitting out at Beale Air Force Base when I was there last year.
Written by Linda Sheffield
