The fate of the D-21 that had disappeared on the first operational flight was finally revealed in February 1986 when an official from the CIA returned a panel to Ben Rich that he had been given by a Soviet KGB agent. The drone had self-destructed over Siberia and the Soviets had recovered the wreckage. The Tupolev design bureau reverse-engineered the wreck and produced plans for a Soviet copy, named the Voron (Raven), but it was never built.

The attached photos show the uploaded D21s in the cargo bay of the C-17. We took a bunch of pictures that day, but I regret that these are the only two I have. Since the D21 still looked futuristic, we thought the red floodlighting in the cargo bay would make for a dramatic picture.

You'll see in the photos that the D21s still have their environmental sealants applied from the Bone yard. All of that was later stripped after their arrival at Ames-Dryden.

Anyhow, this is just a small bit of D21 history that most folks don't know about. I thought you might find it interesting and I hope you enjoy the photos.

Mike Wood, Lt Col, USAFR

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