Archangel 12 Airplane - The Lockheed A-12 is a Mach 3+ high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft built by the Lockheed Skunk Works for the United States Secret Service (CIA) based on a design by Clark "Kelly" Johnson. The aircraft was built as the A-12, the 12th in a series of internal design experiments for the aircraft, internally codenamed "Archangel". In 1959 it was selected as the winner of Project GUSTO over the Fish and Kingfish Conveyor design and was developed under Project Oxcart.
CIA officials initially preferred the conveyor design for its smaller radar cross section, but the A-12's specifications were slightly better and its projected cost was much lower. The companies' track records proved decisive The assembly line work on the B-58 was plagued by delays and cost overruns, but Lockheed produced the U-2 on time and under budget. In addition, Lockheed experimented with running "black" missions
Archangel 12 Airplane
The A-12 was produced from 1962 to 1964 and flew from 1963 to 1968. It is the Air Force's two-seat YF-12 prototype, the M-21 launcher for the D-21 drone, and the SR-71 Blackbird, a slightly longer variant that can carry heavier fuel and camera loading. The A-12 began flying in 1967 and her last mission was in May 1968; The program and aircraft were retired in June The program was officially launched in the mid-1990s
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A CIA official later wrote: "Oxcart was chosen at random to perform this R&D and subsequently worked on the A-12. The aircraft itself was given this name."
As the CIA's Project Rainbow failed to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) of the U-2, initial work began within Lockheed in late 1957 to increasingly target the Soviet Union. Designer Kelly Johnson said: "In April 1958, I remember having a long discussion with [CIA Deputy Director] Richard Bissell about whether or not to track the U-2 plane. We agreed. The satellites were obsolete for spy planes. be one round in addition before that."
The design was named "Archangel" after the U-2 program under Project Gusto, which was known as "Angel". As the aircraft's design evolved and configuration changes occurred, the internal Lockheed designation changed from Archangel-1 to Archangel-2. These designations soon became known as "A-1", "A-2", etc. for the design under development
This design reached the A-11 stage where the program was revised the A-11 was competing against an assembly line proposal known as the Kingfish for nearly identical performance. However, the Kingfish contained several features that significantly reduced its RCS, which was favorable to the board. Lockheed responded with a simple upgrade to the A-11, adding double-span fins instead of a single right-angle one and adding some areas of non-metallic materials. It was designated the A-12 On January 26, 1960, the CIA ordered 12 A-12 aircraft.
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Because the A-12 was so far ahead of its time, many of the new technologies had to be imported specifically for the Oxcart mission and were in service for several days. One of the biggest problems Ginners faced at the time was working with titanium
In his book Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, B. Rich says that our supplier, Titanium Metals Corporation, had only a limited supply of the precious metal, so the CIA scoured the world and used third parties and rubber. company. Succeeded in buying base metals from the Soviet Union - one of the world's leading exporters. The Russians have never known how they cooperate in building planes to spy on their own country.
Prior to the A-12, titanium was only used in high-temperature exhaust shields and other small parts directly involved in supporting, cooling, or shaping high-temperature areas of the aircraft, such as those exposed to the most kinetic heat from airflow. The leading edge of the A-12, however, is mainly made of titanium. Titanium is very hard and difficult to machine, which made curved tongues difficult to create with available methods. This made it difficult to form the leading edge and smooth surface of the wing A solution was found by simply machining small 'flakes' of material of the desired shape and gluing to the underlying frame which was more linear. A good example is on the wings; The underlying framework of spars and strings formed a grid, leaving triangular slits in the leading edge that were filled with fillets.
Moving to the A-12, another improvement to the RCS was to replace the fuselage with a new radar-absorbing composite of iron ferrite and silicon laminates, both combined with asbestos to absorb radar returns and make the aircraft more stealthy.
Remote Sinsing History Aerial Photography 1914 1960
After development and production at the Skunk plant in Burbank, California, the first A-12 was transferred to the Burr Lake Test Facility (Area 51).
On April 25, 1962, Lockheed test pilot Louis Schalk took control of his first (unofficial and announced) flight.
The first official flight took place on April 30, and on May 4, 1962, it went subsonic, reaching a speed of Mach 1.1 at 40,000 feet (12,000 m).
The first five A-12s flew in 1962, initially powered by Pratt & Whitney J75 engines capable of 17,000 lbf (76 kN).
Pratt & Whitney J58 P 4 Archives
Separate the J75-equipped A-12s and release each to reach speeds of about Mach 2.0. On October 5, 1962, with the newly developed J58 gene, the A-12 flew with one J75 gene and one J58 gene. By early 1963, the A-12 was flying with the J58 gene, and in 1963 these J58-equipped A-12s achieved speeds of Mach 3.2.
Collins ejected safely and wore a standard flight suit, avoiding unwanted questions from the truck driver who picked him up. He called Area 51 from a police station on the highway.
The response to the crash underscored the mystery and importance of the mission.In news reports and public records, the CIA identified the aircraft as the Republic F-105 Thunderchief.
Two nearby farmers were told the plane had a nuclear weapon and prevented them from reaching the crash site;
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Local lawyers and family have been strongly warned to keep quiet about the accident. Each was also paid $25,000 to do so; The project used such cash payments to avoid external investigations into its activities The project was well funded; Contract security guards were paid $1,000 a month with free on-site housing, and Las Vegas chefs were available 24 hours a day for steak, Maine lobster or other requests.
A total of 18 aircraft were built through the production program. Of these, 13 were A-12s, three were prototype YF-12A interceptors for the US Air Force (not funded by the OXCART program), and two were M-21 reconnaissance aircraft. One of the 13 A-12s was a special training aircraft with a second seat located behind the pilot and elevated to allow the instructor to see forward. Known as the "Titanium Goose," the A-12 trainer retained the J75 powerplant for tire life.
Three more A-12s were lost in subsequent tests On July 9, 1964, "Section 133" crashed on final approach to the runway when the rudder froze at 500 feet (150 m), sending it into a smooth sustained roll to the left at 200 knots ( 230 mm; 370 km/h) Let's start Lockheed test pilot Bill Parks could not pass the choice At about 45 degrees and at 200 feet (61 m) he ejected and flew sideways out of the aircraft. Although he was not very high off the ground, his parachute opened and he landed safely
On December 28, 1965, the third A-12 was lost when "Section 126" crashed 30 seconds after takeoff when the aircraft became uncontrollable, followed by numerous maneuvers and ejections. Mele Vojvodic was scheduled to take flight number 126 on a performance flight that included a Radvos Beacon test with a KC-135 tanker and managed to land safely 150 to 200 feet (46 to 61 m) above the ground. Post-crash investigations revealed that the main cause of the accident was a key defect; A flight line electrician incorrectly connected the stability enhancement system's wire harness connections on the yaw and pitch rate gyroscopes to the control servos, meaning that the control inputs that control the pitch changes also control the aircraft. Inputs that direct yaw to the left or right changed the plane's bank angle The inquiry criticized the electrician's negligence but also pointed to a failure to monitor the input and that the design of the plane allowed for a faulty connection in the first place.
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The first fatal accident in the Oxcart program occurred on January 5, 1967, when "Section 125" crashed, killing CIA pilot Walter Ray while en route to a test site. The exact cause of the damage could not be determined and it was considered likely that a fault in the fuel gauge led to the fuel spill.
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