A Cryptologic Veteran's Analysis of Dark Eagles

Reviewed by George McGinnis

2 March 1997

Did you ever wonder how, or why, the various spy planes were created? Have you ever heard of a place called Groom Lake? Did the aircraft known as Aurora actually exist?

Aircraft such as the U2, the Blackbird, and the various unmanned vehicles, were created at our time of crisis with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Most were intended for Soviet overflights, but some were intended, and used for, overflights of various other countries such as China and Cuba. Unmanned, and manned, vehicles were used during the Desert Storm war with Iraq. One unmanned vehicle was actually shown live on TV as it followed a river in downtown Baghdad.

This book will answer most of your questions about the so-called DARK aircraft; aircraft which were conceived, manufactured, and flown without the knowledge of the public. In most cases they were flown with impunity over countries which tried unsuccessfully to down them with missiles, and aircraft. The U2 and Blackbird are good examples of this genre. The planes collected photographic, and electronic, data and were of great value to the American government.

Author Peebles has clearly done his homework for this book, and it shows. Recommended reading if you want to know how billions of dollars were spent on aircraft that did their jobs well, and at the same time pushed the threshold of aviation to its limits.


Publishing Information

Dark Eagles, by Curtis Peebles. Presidio Press, Novato, CA. ISBN 0-89141-535-1, 1995, 344 pages, $24.95.