North Korea Tried To Kill the Mach 3 SR-71 Spy Plane

On August 27, 1981 a story appeared in The New York Times, “MISSLE IS FIRED BY NORTH KOREANS AT U.S. SPYPLANE NEAR THE DMZ.” As the story reported, a day earlier the North Koreans did try in vain to shoot down an aircraft that likely few Americans had ever even heard of at that point. More interesting perhaps than the fact that the plane was targeted was that the newspaper of record was able to share such detailed information about the aircraft at the time.