A reconnaissance aircraft is a manned military aircraft designed, or adapted, to carry out aerial reconnaissance.
The majority of World War I aircraft were reconnaissance designs. Aerial reconnaissance was mostly carried out by versions of standard fighters and bombers equipped with cameras until the Cold War, when the United States developed several dedicated reconnaissance designs, including the U-2 and the SR-71. Today much of the strategic role has passed over to satellites, and the tactical role to unmanned aerial vehicles.
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