Mach 12 Speed - The Lockheed A-12 is a high-altitude, Mach 3+ reconnaissance aircraft built for the United States Ctral Intelligce Agcy (CIA) by Lockheed's Skunk Works, based on a design by Clars "Kelly" Johnson. The aircraft is designated the A-12, the 12th in a series of internal design efforts for the "Archangel", the aircraft's internal code name. In 1959 it was selected from Convair's FISH and Kingfish projects as the winner of Project GUSTO and was developed and operated under Project Oxcart.
CIA officials initially preferred the Convair design for its smaller radar cross-section, but the A-12's specifications were slightly better and its estimated cost was much lower. The companies' respective results proved decisive. Convair's work on the B-58 was plagued by delays and cost overruns, while Lockheed produced the U-2 on time and under budget. In addition, Lockheed had experience managing a "black" project.
Mach 12 Speed
The A-12 was produced from 1962 to 1964 and flown from 1963 to 1968. It was the predecessor to the USAF YF-12 two-seat interceptor prototype, the M-21 launcher for the D-21 drone, and the SR-71 Blackbird, a slightly longer variant, that are capable of carrying heavier fuel and camera loads. The A-12 began flying missions in 1967 and its last mission was in May 1968; the program and the flights were withdrawn in June. The program was officially unveiled in the mid-1990s.
The Top Secret D 21, The High Speed, High Altitude Spy Drone Air Launched From The Back Of A Mach 3 A 12 Aircraft
A CIA official later wrote: "Oxcart was chosen from a random list of code names to denote this R&D and all subsequent work on the A-12. The aircraft itself began to be called that as well.'
After the CIA's Project Rainbow failed to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) of the U-2, initial work began at Lockheed in late 1957 to develop a follow-on aircraft to fly over the Soviet Union. Designer Kelly Johnson said, "In April 1958, I remember having long discussions with [CIA Deputy Director of Plans] Richard Bissell on the subject of whether there should be a continuation of the U-2 planes. We agreed . . . that one more round would have to go before satellites rendered airborne reconnaissance obsolete as secret intelligence."
Under Project Gusto, the projects were called "Archangel", after the U-2 program that was known as "Angel". As the aircraft design evolved and configuration changes occurred, Lockheed's internal designation changed from Archangel-1 to Archangel-2, and so on. These names for the developing designs soon became known as "A-1", "A-2", etc.
These projects had reached the A-11 stage when the program was revised. The A-11 competed with a Convair offering called the Kingfish with roughly similar performance. However, Kingfish includes a number of features that significantly reduce RCS, which is considered beneficial to the board. Lockheed responded with a simple update to the A-11, adding twin canted fins instead of one at right angles and adding a number of areas of non-metallic materials. This was designed for the A-12. On January 26, 1960, the CIA ordered 12 A-12s.
Speed Racer Diorama With Mach 5 Shooting Star Collector Figure 18 X 16.2 X 12 Cm Resin: Amazon.de: Toys
As the A-12 was well ahead of its time, many new technologies had to be brought in specifically for the Oxcart project, with some remaining operational on day one. One of the biggest problems for engineers at the time was working with titanium.
In his book Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, B Rich states: "Our supplier, Titanium Metals Corporation, had only a limited supply of the precious alloy, so the CIA conducted a worldwide search and, with the help of third parties and shell- companies, managed to buy the base metal unnoticed from one of the leading exporters in the world - the Soviet Union. The Russians never had any idea how they actually contributed to the creation of the plane that was hastily built to spy on their homeland .
Prior to the A-12, titanium was only used in high-temperature exhaust fairings and other small parts directly related to the maintenance, cooling, or shaping of high-temperature areas of aircraft, such as those subject to the greatest kinetic heating from the airflow, such as as wing leading edges. However, the A-12 is primarily constructed of titanium. Titanium is quite hard and difficult to machine, making it difficult to shape into curves with available techniques. This makes it difficult to shape wing leading edges and similar surfaces. The solution was found by only machining small "slices" of the material to the desired shape and gluing them to the base, which was more linear. A good example is on the wing; the main frame of spars and stringers formed a grid, leaving triangular slits along the leading edge that were filled with fillets.
With the transition to the A-12, another RCS improvement was made by replacing the fins with new radar-absorbing composite materials made of iron ferrite and silicon laminate combined with asbestos to absorb radar returns and make the aircraft more stealthy.
Boeing's New Hypersonic Aircraft Concept Reaches Speeds Of Mach 5
After development and production at the Skunk Works in Burbank, California, the first A-12 was transferred to the Groom Lake Test Facility (Area 51).
On April 25, 1962, he took off on his first (unofficial and unannounced) flight with Lockheed test pilot Louis Schalk at the controls.
The first official flight took place on 30 April and a subsequent supersonic flight on 4 May 1962, reaching speeds of Mach 1.1 at 40,000 ft (12,000 m).
The first five A-12s, in 1962, initially flew with Pratt & Whitney J75 engines capable of 17,000 lbf (76 kN)
Speed Racer Mach V
Pressure each, allowing J75-equipped A-12s to reach speeds of approx. Mach 2.0. On October 5, 1962, with the newly developed J58 engines, the A-12 flew with one J75 engine and one J58 engine. By early 1963, the A-12 was flying with J58 engines, and by 1963 the J58-equipped A-12 was achieving speeds of Mach 3.2.
Collins ejected safely, wearing a standard flight suit and avoiding unwanted questions from the truck driver who picked him up. He called the 51 Precinct from a Highway Patrol office.
The reaction to the crash illustrates the secrecy and importance of the project. The CIA referred to the aircraft as the Republic F-105 Thunderchief in news articles and official records.
Two nearby farmers were told the plane was carrying a nuclear weapon to deter them from approaching the crash site;
Pursuit Of Speed: Boom Supersonic To Develop Mach 2.2 Airliner
And local law enforcement and a passing family were strongly warned to keep quiet about the crash. Each was also paid $25,000 cash for it; the project often uses such cash payments to avoid outside inquiries about its operations. The project received sufficient funding; contract guards were paid $1,000 a month with free housing on base, 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 program's production cycle. Of these, 13 were A-12s, three were YF-12A interceptor prototypes for the US Air Force (not funded under the OXCART program), and two were M-21 reconnaissance drone vehicles. One of the 13 A-12s was a special training aircraft with a second seat located behind the pilot and raised to allow the instructor pilot to see forward. The A-12 trainer known as the "Titanium Goose" retained the J75 powerplants for its deck life.
Three more A-12s were lost in later tests. On 9 July 1964, "Article 133" crashed while making its final approach to the runway when the pitch control servo froze at an altitude of 500 ft (150 m) and an airspeed of 200 knots (230 mph; 370 km/h ) causing it to begin a smooth, steady turn to the left. Lockheed test pilot Bill Park was unable to overcome the roll. At an angle of about 45 degrees and an altitude of 200 feet (61 m), he ejected and was ejected sideways from 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 "Article 126" broke up 30 seconds after takeoff, after which a series of sharp spins and pitches followed very quickly, rendering the aircraft uncontrollable. Mele Vojvodic was to take flight number 126 on a performance check flight that included a radio beacon test with a KC-135 tanker and was able to eject safely from 150 to 200 feet (46 to 61 m) above the ground. A post-accident investigation found that the main cause of the accident was a maintenance failure; a flight line electrician had mistakenly swapped the wiring connecting the stability enhancement system's roll rate and pitch gyroscopes to the control surface servos, meaning that the control inputs that commanded pitch changes counterintuitively caused the aircraft to rotate, and the control inputs that commanded left or right yaw were changed instead bank angle of the aircraft. The investigation criticized the electrician's negligence, but also noted as contributing factors a lack of oversight of the maintenance activity and the fact that the aircraft's design allowed for the swapped connection in the first place.
Bulletseeker Speed Radar Mach 4
The first fatality in the Oxcart program occurred on January 5, 1967, when "Article 125" crashed, killing CIA pilot Walter Ray, when the plane ran out of fuel while descending to the test site. An exact cause of the loss could not be determined and it is considered most likely that a fuel metering error resulted in fuel
Mach speed calculator, speed mach 3, mach 6 speed racer, lew's mach speed stick, mach speed, mach 5 speed racer, mach 1 speed stick, speed racer mach gogogo, 1 mach speed, define mach speed, speed racer mach 4, mach 5 speed
0 Comments