Surveillance Aircraft
In the Museum: Predators and Dragons
Stops on a tour through america's hangar
July 2008 |
By Rebecca Maksel
The U-Deuce
The secret to a spyplane's eternal youth is a new suite of gadgets installed on a classic chassis.
March 2005 |
By William E. Burrows
Send in the Global Hawk
In combat trials, the RQ-4A unmanned reconnaissance aircraft showed intelligence analysts what it means to have eyes like a Hawk.
January 2005 |
By John Croft
Expert Witness
The EWO and the MIRV: Cold war talk for an RC-135 crew's lucky day.
November 2003 |
By Robert L. Brown
Restoration: Mach 2 Heavyweight Champion
The North American RA-5C Vigilante.
November 2002 |
By Robert F. Dorr
Predator: First Watch
Lesson learned: never send a man to do a machine's job.
May 2001 |
By Linda Shiner
Alone and Unarmed
As unpiloted craft take over the reconnaissance mission, an intelligence insider looks back on the work that set recce pilots apart.
March 2000 |
By Dino A. Brugioni
The Coldest Warriors
Tales from the corridors of an agency so secret that officially it didn't exist.
January 2000 |
By William E. Burrows
The Real X-Jet
From Transformers to the X-Men, the Blackbird is still Hollywood's favorite futuristic jet. Here's the real story of its birth.
March 01, 1999 |
By William E. Burrows
That New Black Magic
In the early years of the cold war, enter Kelly Johnson and an clean sheet of paper--long enough to accommodate an 80-foot wingspan.
January 1999 |
By William E. Burrows
The Last of the Mohawks
Grumman's triple-tail, bug-eyed, heat-seeking camera platform.
March 1997 |
By John Sotham
