Word: blackbird
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...fastest, highest-flying and most elusive manned aircraft in existence. So fast does the sophisticated spy plane move that when a pilot starts a 180° turn over Cuba, he completes it halfway to Bermuda. By emitting ECM, or electronic countermeasure radio frequency signals, the Blackbird can efface its image from watching radar screens...
...obscured by cloud cover, the job is given to SR-71s, which have cloud-penetrating infrared sensors and cameras that can take pictures at a scanning rate of 100,000 sq. mi. per hr., making it possible to monitor military targets anywhere in the world. Most important are the Blackbird's ELINT-electronic intelligence-gathering functions that are also known as "ferreting." SR-71s can detect hidden objectives by interpreting electronic signals at extremely high altitudes. In addition, Blackbirds carry a long-range, side-looking radar (SLAR) that can spy deep into foreign countries without actually crossing their frontiers...
...that could change. Entering the Soviet arms inventory is a new SAM called Gammon that the U.S. Air Force estimates has the capability of catching up with an SR-71. A major concern of U.S. defense authorities: if the Gammon is shipped to Havana, it could be bye-bye, Blackbird, over Cuba...
...more information on a particular area is needed, aircraft can be called upon to supplement the satellite. The needle-sleek Lockheed SR-71 (Blackbird), which flies more than three times as fast as sound at above 85,000 ft., makes occasional photo-reconnaissance runs over Cuba. The old standby, the, U2, also goes on photographic and electronic "ferreting" missions, but it remains almost 20 miles high and well outside Cuban airspace to keep from being shot down...
Quite simply, William Ober, M.D., writes better, more delightfully and with greater flexibility than most professional critics. Borrowing from Wallace Stevens, he readily admits that there is more than one way of looking at a blackbird. The bird, of course, never looks back; the causes of art remain aloof, and there is no known cure for genius...