While producing the SR-71, Grooms Lake (Area 51) would post a full scale model on top of a 60 foot post to check it's radar return.
The military knew the orbital location of russian spy satellites. So they would remove the models before the satellites could get images on the super secret Sr 71.
What the US military didn't know was how advanced the Soviets thermogenic imagery systems were.
The Russians were able to get a good idea about the SR 71 simply due to the heat differential on the dry lake bed of Grooms Lake because of the shadow it cast an hour before due to the high heat retention of the dry salt lake bed.
Weird shit. This was in the 70s. Can't imagine the shit they do now.
The military knew the orbital location of russian spy satellites. So they would remove the models before the satellites could get images on the super secret Sr 71.
What the US military didn't know was how advanced the Soviets thermogenic imagery systems were.
The Russians were able to get a good idea about the SR 71 simply due to the heat differential on the dry lake bed of Grooms Lake because of the shadow it cast an hour before due to the high heat retention of the dry salt lake bed.
Weird shit. This was in the 70s. Can't imagine the shit they do now.