Fascinating read about the secrecy surrounding the Blackbird

"You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn) 10/06/2016 at 13:51 • Filed to: Blackbird, planelopnik

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Designer Lockheed and the Air Force treated the project with intense secrecy, and when still totally classified, the CIA recorded any hints that reporters, analysts or civilian plane watchers might have as to the jet’s existence. It didn’t matter who suspected it. If airport cab drivers were spreading rumors about secret doings at Lockheed, the agency wanted to know. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

It is pretty amazing how much industry insiders were able to figure out just based on a few seemingly unconnected data points. Just from seeing which vendors were visiting Lockheed, the fact that Kelly Johnson was hard to get a hold of and the continuing development of an air to air missile after the only known platform capable of launching it was canceled was enough to give some insiders the information they needed to determine that Lockheed was working on something special indeed. Not only were some insiders able to figure out that Lockheed was working on something special, they were able to make some pretty good guesses regarding its capabilities.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 10/06/2016 at 14:25

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I worked with a retired Air Force technician who helped set up the guidance system and camera’s on the SR71. He said he worked on the plane for a couple of months and then he heard they were doing a test flight. He wanted to see it fly and they told him he couldn’t, because that was classified. Even though he now knew every nut and bolt on that plane.