CIA Releases A-12 OXCART Documents

ATS has a lot of information posted about the A-12 over the years.

So I was curious to see...

Did anyone notice the CIA recently released new information on the A-12 OXCART ?

September 24, 2007

This release, containing approximately 1,500 pages of material, consisting of about 350 documents, maps, diagrams, and photographs will provide researchers on aviation and intelligence with significant additional detail about the design and development of the A-12.

Any interesting tibits you researchers found in the doc's yet?

Nobody?

I thought that Black Sheild Route One 1996 was interesting.

So was the Oxcart Facts 1972

Also the Evaluation of the first 6 Black sheild missions. Paticularly the part about Eastman Kodak, and the image resolution at various heights.

And the A- 11A PERFORMANCE SUMMARY has lots of hard data.

[edit] -- Fixed links.

[edit on 10/4/07 by makeitso]

So mach 3.2 and 95k feet,eh? That's pretty amazing. I'm not to fancy with the test planes but is the a-11a basically the same thing as the a-12?

Also I was lucky enough to see the only 2 seat trainer in Los Angeles it was pretty sick looking

I also really like the oxcart facts page just a lot of data on the plane really cool and great post!

*kicks avatar* sr-71 under spruce goose wing *drools*

[edit on 10/4/2007 by racerzeke]

[edit on 10/4/2007 by racerzeke]

So mach 3.2 and 95k feet,eh?

Its outta this world. Incredible for the date! I really liked the fact page too.



[edit on 10/4/07 by makeitso]

Is the 400 - Bad Request another code name for the A-12?

is the a-11a basically the same thing as the a-12?

I'm hoping someone smart will post what the difference is.

The A11 was a test aircraft which evolved into the A11-a. The A-11a was powered by J-93's rather than the J-58's used on the A12 and SR-71.
The J-93 was also used on the XB-70 and was considered to have a lower thrust to weight ratio than the J-58.
What is interesting is that the J-58 programme appears to have been in jeopardy, hence lockheed using the J-93 for testing. Luckily the J-58 did eventually reach production.
The document also points out that the J-93 used two fuels, JP-150 for primary and HEP for Afterburning. Surely this would have made refuels much more complex?

Cheers

Robbie

reply to post by stratsys-sws


Thanks

I was hoping someone would help out with that. I noticed the 2 different fuels, but wasn't sure if they both used it or not.

I'm not very knowlegeable about the systems, but looking at the hard data is absolutely fascinating for some reason.

The A-11 and A-11A were design studies. The aircraft were never built. Kelly Johnson was pushing this concept because it had high performance, but the CIA insisted on low radar cross-section, so Johnson came up with the A-12 design that was eventually built.

The A-12 served as the basis for the YF-12A, M-21, and SR-71. The YF-12A was publicly surfaced by president Lyndon B. Johnson in March 1964 in order to maintain the blanket of secrecy surrounding the A-12.Because of their simialr appearance, unautorized sightings of an A-12 would have been attributed the the YF-12A. The YF-12A was also less stealthy than the A-12 due to its all-metal construction (it lacked the plastic edge treatments of the productions A-12) and its radar nose.

To make matters more confusing, Kelly Johnson asked the president to call the airplane "A-11" because that was the designation of the first non-anti-radar concept. It was a pointless subterfuge and has resulted in a great deal of official and unofficial misuse of the term "A-11" over the past 43 years.

Ohhh right....never knew they weren't built, cheers Shadow!

Did you notice that later on in the documents there is a report of damage caused by SAM fragments to an a-12 flying over vietnam! I know it wasn't a direct hit but it just shows it was physically possible, even back then to hit an A-12.

Great documents and well worth the time in reading them!

Cheers

Robbie

reply to post by racerzeke


WHEN I SEE PEOPLE TRY TO QUOTE THE SPEED OF AN SR-71....I LAUGH.
REMEMBER...ITS ADVERTISED SPEED IS 3.0 plus....
LET'S SEE...IN 50 YEARS OR SO, THE TRUTH OF ITS REAL SPEED
MIGHT BE KNOWN.
OH DID I MENTION THAT I FIXED MACH METERS ON A CERTAIN AIRCRAFT THAT TEND TO BLOW A FUSE AT A CERTAIN MACH SPEED, CAUSING THE MACH METER TO
LOCK IN THE SPEED THAT IT WAS TRAVELING....