FACT: In the new movie “Iron Man,” defense-contracting billionaire and engineering genius Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) designs and builds a suit capable of individual flight (highly engineered control surfaces powered by an “arc-reactor” – it is Hollywood after all). During his first test flight, zooming straight up from Malibu and stressing the system to its max, he asks his onboard computer, “What’s the altitude record for the SR-71?” His computer responds back, “85,000 feet,” whereupon he zooms past that ceiling.
ANALYSIS: Funny moment, and excellent movie. In its honor, below I’m going to give you access to a remarkable, recently declassified document describing one of America’s boldest Cold War technical achievements. If you’ve ever run (or wanted to run) a high-tech company or program, like Tony Stark in the movie, you’ll appreciate the startling scope of the work – and if you’ve recently worked in DoD or the Intelligence Community you’ll marvel at how they did it “in the good old days.”
Filed under: Government, innovation, Intelligence, R&D, Technology | Tagged: A-12, A12, Air Force, aircraft, airplane, airplanes, Area 51, astronaut, astronauts, Blackbird, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, Clarence Kelly Johnson, computer, computers, Defense, Defense Department, DIA, DoD, DVTC, Eisenhower, espionage, F-117, Government, history, IC, Intelligence, Intelligence Community, Iron Man, ISR, Kelly Johnson, Ken Collins, Langley, Lockheed, Lockheed Martin, management, managing, Michael Hayden, Microsoft, military, NASA, news, OXCART, Pentagon, pilot, pilots, project management, R&D, reconnaissance, Robert Downey Jr., science, secrecy, secret, SharePoint, Skunk Works, Soviet, Soviet Union, space, space program, spacecraft, spies, spy, spying, SR-71, stealth, tech, Technology, Tony Stark, UFO, USAF, VTC | 2 Comments »
blacklisted from Harvard for hundreds of years. Well the times are changing.”
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else’s compute capacity, web apps, services, storage, etc. Some others, however, as Amazon and others roll out their branded ability to do that reach, are beginning to call these “clouds” — I prefer to think about them as distinct platforms enabling cloud computing, but that’s starting to become a hazy definition. 
Obama uses sans serif Gotham. McCain uses sans serif Optima. Only Clinton uses a serif, New Baskerville. According to the 
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