They've got
a few A-12s around Alabama. They're really rather purdy planes, but I'll admit that I thought it was an SR-71 before I got close enough.
Basically an SR-71 without a backseat
A-12 was to be a fighter interceptor to replace F-104 but at Mach 3.5 it would take a couple states (or countries) to turn around if you had to go back for something missed. Anyway that's what I was told.
BTW: My 1963 A-12 story was a friend of mine who worked for Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) was doing a deer count from a Cessna in a mountain range just north and west of the ranch. He's flying along and an A-12 at subsonic flew past him. He happened to be at a meeting (
NDOW has an interest in wildlife on the patrolled side of the fence) a few months later. He related the incident and described the strange plane (
This is still 1963 remember) to a Colonel who was representing the Groom facility and he said the Colonel's face got ashen and in a concerned voice whispered, "Please don't tell anyone about that!"
You see a lot of interesting things exploring on the BLM side of the fence, I once saw a B-1 (not a B-1B) playing tag with an Aardvark riding in a canyon east of the range that includes the ranch. This was 1975 and I didn't figure out what I had seen until a year or so later when "future design was announced. I was in this canyon and had rode up on a little knoll maybe 300 feet above the valley floor. I was looking around and heard the noise and actually was looking out and down as they flew by. One never knows what you'll see out there.
Great, middle and high school all over again.
Facebook
Twitter