Manned & Un-manned Reconnaissance Aircraft CIA SR-71 Blackbird - Built by Lockheed The SR-71 was a spy plane of the A-12 family, which was designed and built in the fifties and sixties by Lockheed's Skunkworks. It's the fastest manned plane in human history... (The objective was to ) ...  fly very fast and very high over an area of interest, and photograph it. All planes have a service ceiling, which is the maximum height that it can fly at; above this, the air is too thin and the engines stall. No plane was able to fly to the height - 17 miles - or the speed - Mach 3.2+ - of the Blackbird; it was unshootdownable. Over 4,000 missiles have been launched against it, without any successes. So who needs defensive weapons or stealth? Not the blackbird. The enemy might have known it was there, but there was nothing they could do about it. Article  & photo copied from: www.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?   CIA U-2 Lockheed > On July 4, 1956 - the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted its first U-2 over-flight over the Soviet Union.   On Sept. 8, 1956 - a CIA U-2 aircraft flown by the Taiwan AF (ROCAF) performing an over-flight was shot down by a Chinese SA-2 aircraft near Peking, China. On May 1, 1960 - a CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers, flew a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, was shot down over the Soviet Union (the USSR) near Sverdlovsk.  He was captured and later put on trial for espionage. In 1962, Mr. Powers was exchanged for Soviet KGB agent Rudolf Abel.   AIR FORCE C119 (The Flying Boxcar) AIR FORCE C130-A Hercules     AIR FORCE C130-A Hercules    AEP-3 Aries Surveillance Aircraft The Navy's EP-3E Aries II belongs to an elite group of highly classified reconnaissance spy planes belonging to the US. The EP-3E Aries II is a principal long-range electronic surveillance aircraft, described by one expert as "a really big flying tape recorder". It's one of the most sensitive aircraft in the US fleet. It's totally designed to intercept communications anywhere in the world. It is packed with sensitive receivers and antennae capable of intercepting and analyzing military and civilian radio, and other electronic communications including e-mails, faxes, and telephone conversations. The crews included Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Russian linguists to monitor voice data. All the information received is fed for analysis into a huge on-board computer which sends information back to defense officials at the Pentagon in Washington.  II. THE CHINESE PLANE THAT DOWNED THE EP-3 ARIES SURVEILLANCE AIRCRAFT Chinese F-8 The above photo is a Chinese F-8 Aircraft, similar to the one which collided into and caused the downing of the US Navy EP-3E Aries II spy plane. PRESS HERE TO SEE A MOVIE OF THE  SEQUENCE OF EVENTS WITH THE EP-3E ARIES. Inside a EP-3 Aries The EP-3E is a sophisticated surveillance aircraft outfitted with state-of-the-art computers, cryptological equipment and sensors that are designed to monitor military communications deep within a country's borders. According to intelligence experts, even the slightest compromise of the plane's computers and equipment will likely help China further refine its information warfare capabilities.   The above picture is of Cryptologic Technician 2nd Class Josef Edmonds  1.  Ensign Richard Bensing, USN, Brandon, Florida 2.  Aviation Electricians Mate 3rd Class Steven Blocher, USN,      Charlotte, North Carolina 3.  Cryptologic Technician Seaman Bradford Borland, USN,      Hometown not listed 4.  Aviation Electricians Technician 2nd Class David Cecka, USN,      Leavenworth, Washington 5.  Lt. (j.g.) John Comerford, USN, Palos Verdes Estates,      California 6.  Cryptologic Technician Operator 1st Class Shawn Coursen,      USN, Valdosta, Georgia 7.  Cryptologic Technician Collection Seaman Jeremy         8.  Cryptologic Technician Interpretive 1st Class Josef Edmunds,      USN, Davis, California 9.  Cryptologic Technician Interpretive 2nd Class Brandon Funk,      USN, Showlow, Arizona 10.  Aviation Electricians Technician 2nd Class Scott Guidry,        USN, Satellite Beach, Florida 11.  Cryptologic Technician 2nd Class Jason Hanser, USN,        Billings, Montana 12.  Lieutenant Patrick Honeck, USN, La Mesa, California 13.  Lt. (j.g.) Regina Kauffman, USN, Warminster, Pennsylvania 14.  Aviation Machinist's Mate Senior Chief Nicholas Mellos,        USN, Ypsilanti, Michigan 15.  Aviation Electricians Technician 2nd Class Ramon Mercado,        USN, Moreno Valley, California 16.  Lieutenant Shane Osborn, USN, Norfolk, Nebraska 17.  Lt. (j.g.) Richard Payne, USN, No hometown listed 18.  Cryptologic Technician 2nd Class Kenneth Richter, USN,        Staten Island, New York 19.  Lieutenant Marcia Sonon, USN, Lenharstville, Pennsylvania 20.  Lt. (j.g), USN, Goodland, Kansas 21.  Aviation Machinist 2nd Class Wendy Westbrook, USN, Rock        Creek, Ohio 22.  Cryptologic Technician 3rd Class Rodney Young, USN, Katy,        Texas 23.  Sgt. Richard Pray, USMC, Geneseo, Illinois 24.  Senior Airman Curtis Towne, USAF, Haywood, California   INTELLIGENCE SPACE SATELLITE     UNMANNED RECON. / INTEL. / ATTACK AIRCRAFT   RQ-1 Predator Pier II Plus Global Hawk A Global Hawk UAV that returned from Iraq on Monday under its own power. ( Iraq to Edwards AFB in CA) - It's actually over 250 missions That's a long way for a remotely-piloted aircraft Think of the technology (and the required quality of the data link to fly it remotely). Not only that but the pilot controlled it from a nice warm control panel at Edwards AFB. It can stay up for almost 2 days at altitudes above 60k. Remember that when Global Hawk is on a killing mission in Iraq or Afghanistan , the "pilot" is sitting at a console at Edwards AFB in CA.

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