In this book, expert author Paul Crickmore leads the reader deeper than ever before into the 'Black World' of the A-12 and SR-71 top-secret reconnaissance mission. For the first time, detailed accounts from CIA and USAF pilots bring to life the experience of flying highly classified missions in the Blackbird, whilst Allied and former Warsaw Pact fighter pilots describe their efforts to intercept the spy-plane. Travelling more than a mile every 2 seconds and flying fifteen miles above the earth's surface, the SR-71's performance capacities were truly awesome. This book draws on hundreds of newly declassified Top Secret documents and the author's own key military contacts to provide the most detailed information available on the SR-71.