The A-12 Oxcart at Area 51 Area 51, a top-secret military installation hidden in the desert northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, has been the testing ground for the United States’…
By 1962, Kelly Johnson had done at least a few studies on using the A-12 as a carrier for a QF-104 Starfighter The A-12 was the result of the military’s…
A-12 pilot Jim Eastham dropped the nose down a bit to see if he could at least reach Mach 3.0. Out of nowhere, Jim hit good air and in the…
Code-named “Nice Girl,” the recon fly-off between the A-12 and the SR-71 took place between October 20 and November 3, 1967 Unofficially referred to as the “Blackbird,” the SR-71 is…
Originally intended for launch from the Lockheed A-12, the D-21 was forced to find a replacement carrier due to technical issues that resulted in a deadly accident The Lockheed D-21…
The NASA YF-12 Blackbird research program was ambitious; the plane, unless it was grounded for extensive maintenance or modification, flew on average once every week The images in this post…