page_title: Lockheed D-21
section_title: Aircraft on display
hierarchical_section_title: Lockheed D-21 / Aircraft on display
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of SR-71 (right) and D-21 drone (left) at Pima Air &amp; Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona
context_page_description: The Lockheed D-21 is an American supersonic reconnaissance drone. The D-21 was initially designed to be launched from the back of an M-21 carrier aircraft, a variant of the Lockheed A-12 aircraft. The drone had maximum speed in excess of Mach 3.3 at an operational altitude of 90,000 feet. Development began in October 1962. Originally known by the Lockheed designation Q-12, the drone was intended for reconnaissance deep into enemy airspace.
  The D-21 was designed to carry a single high-resolution photographic camera over a preprogrammed path, then release the camera module into the air for retrieval, after which the drone would self-destruct. Following a fatal accident when launched from an M-21, the D-21 was modified to be launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. Several test flights were made, followed by four unsuccessful operational D-21 flights over the People's Republic of China, and the program was canceled in 1971.
context_section_description: D-21B #510 - Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington (mounted on remaining M-21 #60-6940)
  D-21B #522 - Pacific Coast Air Museum, Sonoma County, California
  D-21B #524 - National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
  D-21B #525 - Blackbird Airpark, Palmdale, California
  D-21B #527 - Chinese Aviation Museum, Beijing, China
  D-21B #528 - Grissom Air Museum near Peru, Indiana
  D-21B #530 - Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) on Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona.)
  D-21B #533 - Pima Air & Space Museum (adjacent to Davis-Monthan AFB), Tucson, Arizona
  D-21B #534 - Evergreen Aviation Museum, McMinnville, Oregon
  D-21B #537 - March Field Air Museum, March Air Reserve Base, Riverside, California
  D-21B #538 - Southern Museum of Flight, Birmingham, Alabama
  D-21B #539 - Beale Air Force Base, near Marysville, California
caption: SR-71 and D-21 at the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona
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