Business Insider's April 20 article by Jemien Brimello
Lockheed engineers designed the D-21 spy drone in the 60s of the 20th century to carry out reconnaissance missions that were too dangerous for piloting an aircraft, the spy drone developed by Lockheed in the 60s of the 20th century crashed in China, and China recently launched a supersonic drone for the first time, which is very similar to the Lockheed D-21.
On March 20, 1971, a specially modified B-52 bomber from the 4200th Support Squadron of the U.S. Air Force took off from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam with a unique aircraft under its wings.
The plane, shaped like a dart and painted black, is a D-21 supersonic reconnaissance drone. It will be the fourth drone to conduct aerial reconnaissance at the Lop Nur nuclear test site in northwestern China, and despite its advanced status, it turned out to crash in the country it was trying to monitor.
The D-21 UAV, manufactured by the famous Lockheed Corporation, was the most advanced unmanned aircraft of its time. Designed to bridge the gap between emerging satellite technology and manned reconnaissance flights, the drone's development process has been fraught with ambition, urgency and tragedy.
Had it not been for the appearance of a strikingly similar Chinese drone at the recent military parade, the D-21 drone would have ended up buried in the annals of aviation history and forgotten forever. This delta-shaped drone is similar in size and also needs to be launched by a mothership. However, Chinese engineers claim that Chinese drones can fly farther than the D-21, can fly up to 30 miles into the atmosphere and reach speeds of up to Mach 6.
Here's what we know about high-flying Chinese spy drones and the D-21 on which they may be based.
Urgently needed
The origins of the D-21 began in 1960 when Francis Gary Powers and his U-2 spy plane were shot down by Soviet surface-to-air missiles over the Soviet Union. The incident prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to halt all manned reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union in order to avoid future casualties and embarrassment.
However, the need to monitor Soviet military bases remained critical, and while reconnaissance satellites began to be launched into space, the technology was still in its infancy. Although satellites can operate in orbit for several days, they carry a limited amount of film and have limited repositioning capabilities, making it impossible to launch in short bursts of time in an emergency compared to manned aircraft.
The successor to the U-2, the A-12, is being developed and will be faster and fly at higher altitudes. However, as a conventional aircraft, it still had to be manned, and neither the White House nor the CIA were willing to risk capturing another pilot, especially if it meant losing a more advanced aircraft in the process.
Therefore, before the satellite project matured, the CIA needed a stopgap measure. In 1962, the CIA approached Lockheed's Skunk Works division, which manufactured the U-2 and A-12, for such a solution.
High altitude and high speed
Lockheed's solution was to create an unmanned high-altitude high-speed reconnaissance aircraft with similar performance to the A-12, but much smaller. Originally designated the Q-12, the drone has a delta-wing design with a wingspan of 19 feet and a length of 42 feet.
It is powered by a Marquardt RJ43-MA-20S4 ramjet engine that runs through the entire fuselage. The engine produces 11,500 pounds of thrust, allowing the drone to reach a top speed of Mach 3.3 and fly at an altitude of 95,000 feet. At the same time, the D-21 has a range of more than 3000 miles.
Thanks to the ramjet engine, the drone must be launched from the mothership as soon as it reaches a speed at which the ramjet engine can be activated. The modified A-12 was considered the best option. The jet was renamed the M-21, and its fuselage would carry the drone renamed D-21, which would be released once it reached a speed at which it could start a ramjet engine.
After release, D-21 will use the internal navigation system to fly to the area of interest on a pre-set route, where it will take photographs.
Once the shooting is complete, the D-21 flies to the designated area, ejects the film cartridge, and then self-destructs. At the same time, the film cartridge would be snatched by JC-130B aircraft waiting in the air during a parachute jump, or recovered by a Navy ship.
The first carry test was carried out on December 22, 1964, and the first separation and flight test was carried out on March 6, 1966, and was known as the "Tag Plate Project". This was followed by two more largely successful trials.
But on the fourth flight test, conducted on July 30, the D-21 collided with the M-21 after its release, destroying both aircraft, and the tragedy ended. Pilot Bill Parker and Launch Control Officer Ray Torrick successfully ejected, but Torik's flight suit may have been torn during the ejection process, causing the two to fall into the water as they landed in the sea, causing him to drown.
After the crash, it was decided that it was too dangerous to use the M-21 as the parent aircraft. In its place is a modified B-52H, which can carry up to two UAVs under its wing. Since the bomber could not reach the flight speed required to start the D-21 turbojet engine, a 44-foot-long rocket booster was installed under it. Once released, the booster will ignite, bringing the D-21 to the desired speed, and then disengage after its spoiler jet engine is activated.
Premium bowls
The new system, now known as the "Senior Bowl Project," was tested several times between September 1967 and early 1969 with mixed results. On June 16, 1968, the D-21 conducted its first fully successful test, flying about 3,000 miles at an altitude of 90,000 feet.
Despite the low success rate, the drone was approved for limited service in 1969. The D-21 drone took off from Andersen Air Force Base on a mission to monitor China's Lop Nur nuclear test site, where China detonated its first nuclear weapon five years ago.
However, while the results of the experiments were mixed, all the missions failed.
The first mission, on November 9, 1969, was probably the worst. After launching from the mothership and reaching Lop Nur, the D-21 lost contact and disappeared.
In fact, the drone flew all the way to the territory of the USSR and crashed into the wasteland of Siberia. Using the found wreckage, Soviet engineers developed a plan for a reverse-engineered imitation called "Voron", but the project never went ahead.
After more than a year of further testing and preparation, the second mission was completed on December 16, 1970. D-21 was successfully launched, arrived at Lop Nur, took photographs, and reached the return point, but the parachute of the film barrel did not deploy properly after the ejection and was lost at sea.
The same was true for the third mission on 4 March 1971. The parachute of the film canister was successfully deployed, but the JC-130B failed to recover the film canister before it splashed into the water. A Navy destroyer attempted to salvage a floating film can, but accidentally collided with the film can, causing the film can to sink.
The fourth and final mission two weeks later failed completely, and D-21 crashed en route to Lop Nur in southwestern China's Yunnan province. The Chinese side found the drone and put it on display at the China Aviation Museum in Beijing.
With the "Advanced Bowl" leading to four operational failures and the cost of at least $2.5 million per drone, the D-21 program becomes difficult to justify, especially as satellites become more advanced.
As a result, the project was canceled in July 1971.
Of the 38 D-21s manufactured, 21 were intended for testing or operation. The remaining D-21s were put into storage and eventually sent to the scrap yard at Davis-Monson Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.
In addition to the crashed aircraft at the China Aviation Museum, 11 D-21s are on display in the United States.
Chinese imitation?
The D-21 largely faded from public memory until 2019, when China unveiled a similar-looking drone at a military parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1.
This drone is designated the WZ-8 and has a delta wing design that is about 37 feet long and has a wingspan of 22 feet. Instead of a jet engine running through the entire fuselage, it was powered by two rocket engines.
Like the D-21, the WZ-8 must be launched by the parent aircraft during flight - in particular, the H-6M, which is a modification of the H-6 strategic bomber that carries cruise missiles on external hard points.
According to Chinese media reports, the WZ-8 can fly at an altitude of up to 160,000 feet and a speed of up to Mach 6. According to reports, its sensor suite includes a daylight optoelectronic sensor and a synthetic aperture radar.
Documents leaked from U.S. intelligence sources last year reportedly show that China "almost certainly" has created its first combat-ready WZ-8 unit.
A document purportedly from the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency said that the unit was stationed at Lu'an airfield and its tasks could include high-altitude reconnaissance flights over the coast of South Korea and almost all of Taiwan.
According to this document, the drone will be released from a mothership near the northern or eastern coast of China, return and land at a Chinese coastal airfield after performing a mission, and then load back into the H-6M bomber and return to Lu'an. The document says the WZ-8 is capable of flying up to Mach 3 at Mach 100,000.
It is also assumed that the WZ-8 can be used to track American aircraft carrier battle groups in the Pacific Ocean in real time.
Subsequent reports confirmed that there was at least one WZ-8 at Lu'an Airport. The base, which reportedly houses the 10th Air Regiment of the 29th Bomber Division of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force, has been undergoing massive upgrades since at least early 2019.