This book is a reprint of the original A-12 Declassified with some updates. At Mach 3.2, the A-12 Blackbird was the fastest aircraft in the world when it first flew in 1962. Four decades later, it still is. The A-12 was designed from the beginning to be a pure surveillance plane for the CIA, capable of shooting nothing but high-resolution film. It excelled in that role, although some details of its performance and missions remain classified. Now, using CIA connections and a lot of persistence, the authors used the Freedom of Information Act to unveil and declassify much of the information found in this book. Find out why the SR-71 was chosen as the successor to the A-12, and learn about the previously top-secret capabilities and missions these aircraft accomplished.