In 1981 North Korea the communist regime of Kim il sung started flexing its military muscles with the aim to invade South Korea
Fearing an invasion of democratic South Korea by North Korea the U.S and its allies desperately need intelligence about missile sites, Anti-aircraft missiles, the order of battle and where are their forces deployed
For that mission, the U.S choose the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spy plane
It can fly at a speed of Mach 3 at an altitude of greater than 80,000.
The Blackbird was the world’s best spy plane at that time
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On August 26,1981 Pilot Maury Rosenberg and his reconnaissance specialist, Ed McKinn was flying over DMZ (demilitarized zone ) between North and South Korea.
During their third pass over DMZ North Korea fired a soviet made guided missile at SR-71.
The missile was 60 seconds away from impact.
The pilot tries to outmaneuver the missile by turning his plane to the right, going away from North Korea.
As they started the turn the missile didn’t change its course
It exploded probably within a mile and a half of Blackbird.
At Mach 3 it’s equivalent to 2-3 seconds from the impact
The enemy didn’t have the time to recalculate the target coordinates and redirect the missile.
