Development of the A-12 (inc Area 51 history) on CIA site

[Lianachan]

Here (http://www.cia.gov/csi/kent_csi/docs/v15i1a01p_0001.htm) is a very good read for anybody who's interested in aviation, the military or government secrecy as it covers the complete life cycle of a plane which "did not exist" for a long time - covering design, development, testing, service, retirement and legacy.

Apologies if it's old hat. I just refound my bookmark to it today, and thought I'd share.

[Eoanthropus Dawsoni]

That was very interesting.

[Waarthog]

Good article. Interesting to see this from the CIA/Government point of view. A good source of the Lockheed perspective is in the book Skunk Works, by Ben Rich, Kelly Johnson's handpicked successor. The CIA article has some details that were not in Rich's book and is a good complement to it.

[hhEb09'1]

Funny (from that link (http://www.cia.gov/csi/kent_csi/docs/v15i1a01p_0001.htm)): The President announced "A-11"s at Edwards, although the cover story hadn't quite been fulfilled yet.
Caught by surprise, they hastily flew two Air Force YF-12A's to Edwards to support the President's statement. So rushed was this operation, so speedily were the aircraft put into hangars upon arrival, that heat from them activated the hangar sprinkler system, dousing the reception team which awaited them.

[Hutch]

We have an A-12 outside the Space and Rocket Center here in Huntsville (I think it is a YF-12A, but am not sure). To see that plane and realize it's design was done in the 1950's and flew in 1962, well over 40 years ago--and the bloody plane looks like something we haven't even invented yet....

I often wonder what the Skunk Works has been working on for the last 40 years that we don't know about yet... :o

[Obviousman]

Thanks for that link. I found it very informative.

Who else thinks that the document on the web was OCR-scanned? I saw plenty of things I first thought were spelling errors, but then realised that they were the type of mistakes that OCR sometimes makes.

[ngc3314]

We have an A-12 outside the Space and Rocket Center here in Huntsville (I think it is a YF-12A, but am not sure). To see that plane and realize it's design was done in the 1950's and flew in 1962, well over 40 years ago--and the bloody plane looks like something we haven't even invented yet....



Alabama has the odd distinction of hosting three A-12s, if the designations at www.sr-71.org are accurate (and they do have the tail numbers). One is outside the Southern Museum of Flight near the Birmingham Airport (and thus may be viewed free, along with a whole row of plane sincluding F-104, Mig-15, F-102, C-47, and a Hawkeye with wings folded in a particularly gawky-looking way), while the third is on display next to the battleship USS Alabama in Mobile. Kind of weird - the only state with more is California with 9, but that sort of makes sense.

[Obviousman]

...and a Hawkeye with wings folded in a particularly gawky-looking way...

Is there a pic? I'm wondering why you refer to it like that.

[ngc3314]

...and a Hawkeye with wings folded in a particularly gawky-looking way...

Is there a pic? I'm wondering why you refer to it like that.

Ah, now that I look at a couple of my pictures, it's not an E-2 Hawkeye, but an earlier E-1 Tracer. There's a photo of one with folded wings here (http://www.shanaberger.com/images/S2F_5.htm). What I found so unusual is that, to make them fit, the starboard wing folds up and slightly forward, while the port wing folds slightly backward. The one I saw is equipped with some leading-edge wing pods that add to the effect when folded back over the fuselage.

[Obviousman]

Okay. Yes, the E-1 has the bulging radome to consider also, so I thought you might have misidentified.

http://www.airventure.de/NASPclapics/NASPclaS2Tracker.jpg

When you said "gawky", I immediately thought of the Gannet, a British aircraft. It's wing fold is... ungainly.

http://www.warbirdalley.com/images/Fairey-Gannet-AS4.jpg

[genebujold]

Interesting!

But what the heck does the CIA mean by, "And it became the progenitor of a similar but somewhat less sophisticated reconnaissance vehicle called the SR-71, whose existence is well known to press and public."

"...somewhat less sophisticated???"

Sounds to me like a few bones thrown to the opposition to say, "hey, we still have tricks up our sleeve."

Yeah, right.

The SR-71 was significantly advanced over the A-12, primarily, but not including, automated engine control inflight (to prevent the dreaded 1.2-second engine flameout-yaw-uncontrollable crash syndrom), among many other improvements.

[Nicolas]

JFYI, The "A-12" we're talking about here is the first member of the YF-12A/Sr-71 "Blackbird" family, and has nothing to do with the "A-12 Avenger" craft which made it upto a full scale airplane but never flew. The aircraft is now a museum piece, and some cokpit elements (made in >1 batches) have been sold on Ebay.

[publiusr]

We have an A-12 outside the Space and Rocket Center here in Huntsville (I think it is a YF-12A, but am not sure). To see that plane and realize it's design was done in the 1950's and flew in 1962, well over 40 years ago--and the bloody plane looks like something we haven't even invented yet....



Alabama has the odd distinction of hosting three A-12s, if the designations at www.sr-71.org are accurate (and they do have the tail numbers). One is outside the Southern Museum of Flight near the Birmingham Airport (and thus may be viewed free, along with a whole row of plane sincluding F-104, Mig-15, F-102, C-47, and a Hawkeye with wings folded in a particularly gawky-looking way), while the third is on display next to the battleship USS Alabama in Mobile. Kind of weird - the only state with more is California with 9, but that sort of makes sense.

We have the old Sea Dart here too.

[ngc3314]

We have an A-12 outside the Space and Rocket Center here in Huntsville (I think it is a YF-12A, but am not sure). To see that plane and realize it's design was done in the 1950's and flew in 1962, well over 40 years ago--and the bloody plane looks like something we haven't even invented yet....



Alabama has the odd distinction of hosting three A-12s, if the designations at www.sr-71.org are accurate (and they do have the tail numbers). One is outside the Southern Museum of Flight near the Birmingham Airport (and thus may be viewed free, along with a whole row of plane sincluding F-104, Mig-15, F-102, C-47, and a Hawkeye with wings folded in a particularly gawky-looking way), while the third is on display next to the battleship USS Alabama in Mobile. Kind of weird - the only state with more is California with 9, but that sort of makes sense.

We have the old Sea Dart here too.

The one in front of the San Diego Aerospace Museum? Saw that for the first time a few weeks ago - gives a real "how the future was supposed to be" feeling. Another "seemed like a good idea at the time" project, as far as I can tell. It could be made to work, but the mission apparently wasn't worth it.