In article ,
"Darkwing" theducksmail"AT"yahoo.com wrote:

"Gatt" wrote in message
...


We lost three out of 50 due to accidents.

I heard 12, including the one that's on display at the Boeing Museum of
Flight. This very fascinating site seems to indicate 20:
http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/srloss~1.htm

Still....

I have a feeling that a lot of the spying we do now is with drones, stealth
and otherwise. Who cares if they crash or get shot down, no family to
notify. Slick Willy's selling out of America not withstanding, I think the
US military had other aircraft fill the SR71 spot even though the SR71 is an
amazing aircraft. Besides the B2 and F117 are incredible
aircraft...conceived 20 years ago, can you imagine the stuff they are
playing with now that we have not seen!


I can understand the AF program to retire the Blackbird. When it was
operational, IIRC, it was "the most expensive system in the AF
inventory." I can believe that -- just the support infrastructure
(tankers, special fuel, special maintenance, spares, training,
equipment, etc.) had to be exorbitant!

Then in AF thinking, it couldn't even deliver a weapon to a target!

Yes, I can believe that satellites, TR-2s and drones, etc. can perform
most of the recon mission, at much lower cost and exposure.