Lockheed D-21: Cold War Spy Drone

[Mike H.]

Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Lockheed D-21: Cold War Spy Drone” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/lockheed-d-21-cold-war-spy-drone/.

 

[Diamondback]

The only survivor of the two M-21 launchers is here in Seattle. Kelly Johnson personally spiked the program after ray Torick died in the loss of 941.

 

[ClemY]

That has to be a pretty expensive program if they are going to destroy the drone after jettisoning it's guts.

 

[Diamondback]

The expensive parts were all on the recovery pallet, and they were meant for only the riskiest targets. Whole bunch cheaper to lose a D-21 against the Chinese nuke test site at Lop Nor than a manned SR...

Torick's loss hit Kelly hard, he was quoted as saying "continuing this isn't worth losing more planes and crews." Consider that Kelly Johnson was a man of intense pride and ego who couldn't easily be backed down from a challenge...