Forty years after it was first flown, the SR-71 is still the fastest jet plane in the world, and when operational could survey 80,000 square miles with its advanced camera and recon equipment. From 1964 until final retirement in 1998, it flew missions over such diverse areas as Vietnam, Korea, the Soviet Union, Europe, the Middle East. The Lockheed SR-71 was an advanced, long-range Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft developed by Lockheed Skunk Works; it flew so far and fast that not a single one was shot down, as they were capable of simply accelerating to escape attack, even by heat-seeking air-to-air missile! This book takes the reader on an operational mission that only a few Air Force pilots have ever been privileged to experience. Pilot and instructor Colonel Richard Graham offers a rare cockpit perspective on how regular Air Force pilots and navigators transformed themselves into SR-71 Blackbird crews, turning their unique aviation talents to account in an unprecedented way. Graham details, as no other pilot can, what an SR-71 mission entails, from pre-flight briefing, wearing the pressure suit, using surveillance equipment, to returning to base.