#spy planes

[nocternalrandomness]

The Beale Blackbirds

(Lockheed photo by Eric Schulzinger)

[stone-cold-groove]

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird in flight.

[archaeologicalnews]

Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial archaeology

For millennia, people known as the Marsh Arabs lived in wetland oases fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq. But as those marshes became a hotbed of rebellion in the early 1990s, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein systematically drained them—driving out the people and drying up an ancient way of life. It’s hard to know exactly how many were displaced, but a new study, first reported in Secrecy News, reveals a tool archaeologists and anthropologists can use to find out: declassified Cold War–era images snapped by U.S. Lockheed U-2 spy planes. The high-resolution photos could prove a boon for reconstructing sites destroyed by development and war in recent decades.

Investigating lost historical sites and artifacts is a major challenge for archaeologists, says Emily Hammer, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author on the new study. In northern Iraq, for example, an ancient canal system in the Neo-Assyrian capital of Nimrud has been paved over by roads and topped with housing projects. Read more.

[nocternalrandomness]

Habus in the fog

[stone-cold-groove]

A pair of Lockheed SR-71 Blackbirds at altitude.

[nocternalrandomness]

”A Blackbird and the Dragon Lady”

[karagin22]

[usdefenseinformation]

Here's The Spy Planes of U.S. Airforce as Airliners to Fool Enemy