Lockheed M-21 & D-21 | When the CIA wants more

The Lockheed A-12 was an outstanding aircraft with incredible speed, altitude and strategic range. But what if even this is not enough? It's time to get acquainted with the Lockheed M-21 and the D-21 supersonic drone.

The Lockheed M-21/D-21 are a pair of high-speed reconnaissance aircraft created by Lockheed in the early 1960s based on the A-12 Archangel project.
The project involved the creation of the M-21 carrier aircraft, which was supposed to act as a carrier for the D-21 high-speed unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. The drone was capable of flying at speeds over Mach 3.3 at altitudes of about 27 kilometers.

The project was implemented, however, the tests showed the extreme complexity and danger of the implementation of this concept (the tests were mostly unsuccessful, and one of the launches ended in the crash of the carrier). After abandoning the M-21 carrier, the drone was modified and launched from the B-52 Stratofortress carrier. The launches were carried out in real conditions and conducted reconnaissance of the territory of China, but these flights were unsuccessful. The program was terminated in 1971.

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00:00 - Spy on spy
00:50 - A new Mach 3 idea
03:12 - The Q-12 drone
06:07 - The M-21 and the D-21
08:03 - Testing
09:10 - parade of absurdity
11:22 - Cancellation of the project