Very detailed insights into one the best aircraft ever to be designed and flown. It was written shortly after the Habu disappeared from the USAF inventory and is much more obtuse than it's successor books. I enjoyed the internal vignettes written by former Habu crew. It adds credibility to the story. A very technical book in places, personal stories in others. The book ends with the bureaucratic demise of "the program." ( )

This is a dense, technical book. If you are looking for an introduction to the SR-71, then you would probably be better served looking elsewhere. If, however, you want to dig into the details of the aircraft (like, for example, the details of pre-flight preparations for the aircraft) then this is an excellent book. You dig into details of this incredible machine, such as that the fuel tanks had to be purged of oxygen before flight using nitrogen and more nitrogen was pumped into the fuel tanks as they emptied (at the extreme temperatures that the SR-71 reached due to its incredible speed, oxygen could spontaneously ignite; also, as the aircraft reduced altitude, the fuel tanks would collapse if they had been filled with lower-density, high-altitude air).

The writing is nothing special, but that isn't the reason to read a book like this. Graham provides an extremely compelling and credible account of what it was like to operate this aircraft. An excellent choice for students of military operations and aviation buffs. ( )