Blog 46: 8/6/23: the Heavenly Watcher- the Legacy of the A-12 Archangel
Welcome back to another thrilling blog on Brooke In The Air, I hope you're all doing well this weekend. This week we are going back to the bread and butter of the channel, and focusing on thrilling and amazing aircraft.
This week in particular, we're analyzing the guardian and watchdog of the skies, the heavenly watcher, the A-12 Archangel!
The aircraft was first designated A-12, as the 12th in a series of internal Lockheed design efforts for "Archangel", the aircraft's internal code name. In 1959, it was selected over Convair's FISH and Kingfish designs as the winner of Project GUSTO, and was developed and operated under Project Oxcart.
BIRTH & ORIGIN
The CIA's representatives initially favored Convair's 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' respective track records proved decisive. Convair's work on the infamous B-58 Hustler had been plagued with delays and constant cost overruns, whereas Lockheed had produced the U-2 on time and under budget, instantly winning then favor with the U.S. government. In addition, Lockheed had significant experience running a "black" project.
The A-12 was produced from 1962 to 1964 and flew from 1963 to 1968. It was the precursor to the twin-seat U.S. Air Force YF-12 prototype interceptor, M-21 launcher for the D-21 drone, and the SR-71 Blackbird, a slightly longer variant able to carry a heavier fuel and camera load and by far the A-12’s more famous big brother. The A-12 began flying missions in 1967 and its final mission was in May 1968; the program and aircraft were retired in June. The program was officially revealed in the mid-1990s.
With the failure of the CIA's Project Rainbow to reduce the radar cross-section (RCS) of the U-2, preliminary work began inside Lockheed in late 1957 to develop a follow-on aircraft to overfly the Soviet Union. Designer Kelly Johnson said, "In April 1958 I recall having long discussions with [CIA Deputy Director for Plans] Richard Bissell over the subject of whether there should be a follow-on to the U-2 aircraft. We agreed ... that there should be one more round before satellites would make aircraft reconnaissance obsolete for covert reconnaissance."
Lokheed’s Preliminary design (winner) known as the Archangel-1
Sketch of the Preliminary A-11, direct predecessor to the A-12, the finalized design.
Under Project Gusto the designs were nicknamed "Archangel", after the U-2 program, which had been known as "Angel". As the aircraft designs evolved and configuration changes occurred, the internal Lockheed designation changed from Archangel-1 to Archangel-2, and so on (see below). These names for the evolving designs soon simply became known as "A-1", "A-2", and so on. The CIA program to develop the follow-on aircraft to the U-2 was code-named Oxcart though the design itself continued to be known as Archangel.
These designs had reached the A-11 stage when the program was reviewed by the CIA and a select panel subcommittee of Congress. The A-11 was competing against a Convair proposal called Kingfish, of roughly similar performance. However, the Kingfish included a number of features that greatly reduced its RCS, which was seen as favorable to the board. Lockheed responded with a simple update of the A-11, adding twin canted fins instead of a single right-angle one, and adding a number of areas of non-metallic materials. This became the A-12 design. On the 26th of January 1960, the CIA ordered 12 A-12 aircraft.
SECRETIVE ACQUISITION
Archangel 2 preliminary design sketch
Because the A-12 was well-ahead of its time, many new technologies had to be invented specifically for the Oxcart project with some remaining in use in present day. One of the biggest problems that engineers faced at that time was working with titanium.
In his book Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, designer and aviation engineer Ben Rich stated, "Our supplier, Titanium Metals Corporation, had only limited reserves of the precious alloy, so the CIA conducted a worldwide search and using third-parties and dummy companies, managed to unobtrusively purchase the base metal from one of the world's leading exporters – the Soviet Union. The Russians never had an inkling of how they were actually contributing to the creation of the airplane being rushed into construction to spy on their homeland." Thus, the titanium used to create the Archangel was ironically gleaned from the USSR.
Before the A-12, titanium was used only in high-temperature exhaust fairings and other small parts directly related to supporting, cooling, or shaping high-temperature areas on aircraft like those subject to the greatest kinetic heating from the airstream, such as wing leading edges. The A-12, however, was constructed mainly of titanium. Titanium is quite rigid and difficult to machine, which made it difficult to form into curves given available techniques. This made it difficult to form the leading edges of the wing and similar surfaces. The solution was found by machining only small "fillets" of the material with the required shape and then gluing them onto the underlying framework which was more linear. A good example of this titanium fitting is on the wing: the underlying framework of spars and stringers formed a grid, leaving triangular notches along the leading edge that were filled with fillets.
With the move to the A-12, another impromptu improvement in RCS (radar cross section) was made by replacing the fillets with new radar-absorbing composite materials made from iron ferrite (IF) and silicon laminate (SL), both combined with actual asbestos to absorb radar returns and make the aircraft more stealthy.
After development and production at the Skunk Works, in Burbank, California, the first A-12 was transferred to the Groom Lake test facility (commonly known as Area 51). On the 25th of April, 1962 it was taken on its first (unofficial and unannounced) flight with Lockheed test pilot Louis Schalk at the controls. The first official flight took place on 30 April, and subsequent supersonic flight on 4 May 1962, reaching speeds of Mach 1.1 at 12,000 m.
ENGINE DECISION
The first five A-12s, in 1962, were initially flown with Pratt & Whitney J75 engines capable of 17,000 lbf (76 kN)[citation needed] thrust each, enabling the J75-equipped A-12s to obtain speeds of approximately Mach 2.0. On the 5th of October, 1962, with the newly developed P&W J58 engines, an A-12 flew with one J75 engine, and one J58 engine for direct comparison and evaluation. By early 1963, the A-12 was flying with dual J58 engines, and during 1963 these J58-equipped A-12s obtained speeds of Mach 3.2.
INTRIGUE
In 1963, the program experienced its first loss when, on May 24th, the aircraft named "Article 123" piloted by Kenneth S. Collins crashed near Wendover, Utah. Collins safely ejected and was wearing a standard flight suit, avoiding unwanted questions from the truck driver who picked him up. He called Area 51 from a highway patrol office. The reaction to the crash illustrated the secrecy and importance of the project. The CIA called the aircraft a Republic F-105 Thunderchief in news articles and official records. Two nearby farmers were told that the aircraft was carrying atomic weapons to dissuade them from approaching the crash site; and local law enforcement and a passing family were strongly warned to keep quiet about the crash. Each was also paid $25,000 in cash to do so; the project often used such cash payments to avoid outside inquiries into its operations.
The project received ample funding: contracted security guards were paid $1,000 monthly with free housing on base, and chefs from Las Vegas were available 24 hours a day for steak, Maine lobster, or other requests.
THE D-21
The production-model of the Lockheed D-21 Supersonic Reconnaissance Drone
To put it simply, the Lockheed D-21 is an American transoceanic supersonic reconnaissance drone. The D-21 was initially designed to be launched from the back of an M-21 carrier aircraft, a variant of the Lockheed A-12 aircraft, though B-52 Stratofortress bombers were eventually usedvas carriers as well.
The D-21 drone had maximum speed in excess of Mach 3.3 while at an optimum operational altitude of 90,000 feet. Development began in October 1962. Originally known by the Lockheed designation Q-12, the drone was intended for reconnaissance deep into enemy airspace without risking valuable American pilots.
DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
Early A-12 in a test flight.
In June 1964, the last A-12 was delivered to Groom Lake, from where the fleet made a total of 2,850 test flights. A total of 18 aircraft were built through the program's production run. Of these, 13 were A-12s, three were prototype YF-12A interceptors for the U.S. Air Force (not funded under the OXCART program), and two were M-21 reconnaissance drone carriers. One of the 13 A-12s was a dedicated trainer aircraft with a second seat, located behind the pilot and raised to permit the instructor pilot to see forward. The A-12 trainer, known as "Titanium Goose", retained the J75 power plants for its entire service life.
Three more A-12s were lost in later testing. On 9 July 1964, "Article 133" crashed while making its final approach to the runway when a pitch-control servo device froze at an altitude of 500 ft (150 m) and airspeed of 200 knots, that is 370 km/h, causing it to begin a smooth steady roll to the left. Lockheed test pilot Bill Park could not overcome the roll.
At about a 45-degree bank angle and 61 m altitude he ejected and was blown sideways out of the aircraft. Although he was not very high off the ground, his parachute opened and he landed safely.
On the 28th of December in 1965, the third A-12 was lost when "Article 126" crashed 30 seconds after takeoff when a series of violent yawing and pitching actions was followed very rapidly with the aircraft becoming uncontrollable. Mele Vojvodich was scheduled to take aircraft number 126 on a performance check flight which included a rendezvous beacon test with a KC-135 Stratotanker and managed to eject safely 46 to 61 m above the ground.
A post-crash investigation revealed that the primary cause of the accident was a maintenance error; a flight-line electrician had mistakenly swapped the connections of the wiring harnesses linking the yaw- and pitch-rate gyroscopes of the Stability Augmentation System (S.A.S.) to the control-surface servos, meaning that control inputs commanding pitch changes counterintuitively caused the aircraft to yaw and control inputs commanding left or right yaw instead changed the aircraft's pitch angle.
The investigation criticised the electrician's negligence, but also noted as contributory causes failures in the supervision of maintenance activity and the fact that the aircraft's design allowed for the swapped connection in the first place.
PURPOSE
Although originally designed to succeed the U-2 overflying the Soviet Union and Cuba as a high-speed high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, the A-12 was never used for either objective. After a U-2 was shot down in May 1960, the Soviet Union was considered too dangerous to overfly except in an emergency (and overflights were no longer necessary, thanks to reconnaissance satellites) and, although crews trained for flights over Cuba, U-2s continued to be adequate there.
The Director of the CIA decided to deploy some A-12s to Asia. The first A-12 arrived at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa on 22 May 1967. With the arrival of two more aircraft on the 24th of May, and three days later on the 27th of May this unit was declared to be operational nearly a week later on their 30th of May, and it began Operation Black Shield on 31 May. Pilot Mel Vojvodich flew the first Black Shield operation, over North Vietnam, photographing surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, flying at 24,000 m, and at about Mach 3.1.
During 1967, from the Kadena Air Base, the A-12s carried out 22 sorties in support of the Vietnam War. During 1968 further Black Shield operations were conducted in Vietnam. Additional sorties were also carried out during the Pueblo Crisis with North Korea. Basically, Black Shield was the codename given to A-12 reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam.
A typical route profile for a mission over North Vietnam as a major aspect of Operation Black Shield, included a refueling shortly after take-off, south of Okinawa, the planned photographic pass or passes, withdrawal to a second aerial refueling in the Thailand area, and return to Kadena. Its turning radius of 138 km was so obtuse and wide, however, that on some mission profiles it might intrude into Chinese airspace during the turn.
The last part of the mission, when the A-12 Archangel landed, the camera film was removed from the aircraft, boxed and sealed, then sent by special courier aircraft to the processing facilities.
The A-12 Archangel on dis[lay at the USS Intrepid Sea, Air, and Land museum in New York City, USA.
Film from earlier missions was developed at the Eastman Kodak plant in Rochester, New York. Later an Air Force Center in Japan carried out the processing in order to place the photointelligence in the hands of American commanders in Vietnam within 24 hours of completion of a mission.
On the 28th of October, a North Vietnamese SAM site launched a single, albeit unsuccessful, missile. Photography from this mission documented the event with photographs of missile smoke above the SAM firing site, and with pictures of the missile and of its contrail. Electronic countermeasures equipment appeared to perform well against the missile firing.
TWILIGHT OF THE ARCHANGEL
There were a number of reasons leading to the retirement of the A-12, but one major concern was the growing sophistication of Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites that it had to contend with over mission routes.
For example, in 1967, the Archangel was tracked with acquisition radar over North Vietnam, but the SAM site was unsuccessful with the Fan Song (FNR-75 launcher) guidance radar used to home the missile to the target.
The SA-2 'Guideline' missile was an early missile design intended to counter lower-flying and slower subsonic aircraft such as the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and Convair B-58 Hustler. In response to faster, higher-flying designs like the XB-70 Valkyrie, the Soviets had begun development of greatly improved missile systems, notably the SA-5 'Gammon'. The Soviet Air Defence Forces imor in Russian, Protivo-Vozdushnaya Oborona, abbreviated as PVO, cleared the SA-5 for service in 1967; if it had deployed to Vietnam in time, it would have provided an additional risk to the A-12. One more risk in a growing list.
BLACK SHIELD ENDS
The final Black Shield mission over North Vietnam and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) was flown on 8th of March, 1968. Good quality photography was obtained of Khe Sanh and the Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnamese border areas. No usable photography was obtained of North Vietnam due to adverse weather conditions. There was no indication of a hostile weapons reaction and no ECM systems were activated. After all this, it would thus be easy to conclude that the A-12 Archangel and the entire Oxcart program including the SR-71 was a waste of nearly a decade of taxpayer dollars.
FINAL OPS
North Korea
In 1968, three missions were flown over North Korea. The first mission occurred during a very tense period following seizure of the Navy intelligence ship Pueblo on 23 January. The aim was to discover whether the North Koreans were preparing any large scale hostile move following this incident and to actually find where the Pueblo was hidden. The ship was found anchored in an inlet in Wonsan Bay attended by two North Korean patrol boats and guarded by three Komars. Chinese tracking of the flight was apparent, but no missiles were fired at the Archangel.
The second mission on 19 February 1968, was also the first two-pass mission over North Korea. The Oxcart vehicle photographed 84 primary targets plus 89 bonus targets. Scattered clouds covered 20 percent of the area, concealing the area in which the USS Pueblo was photographed on the previous mission. One new SA-2 site, of a suspected many such sites, was identified near the village of Wonsan.
Even before the A-12 became operational, its intended purpose of replacing the U-2 in overflights of the Soviet Union had become less likely. Soviet radar systems increased their blip-to-scan ratios, which rendered the A-12 vulnerable. In any event, President Kennedy had stated publicly that the United States would not resume such missions. By 1965, moreover, the photoreconnaissance satellite programs had progressed to the point that manned flights over the Soviet Union were unnecessary to collect strategic intelligence.
The A-12 program was ended on 28 December 1966 – even before Operation Black Shield began in 1967 – due to budget concerns and because of the SR-71, which began to arrive at Kadena in March 1968. The twin-seat SR-71 was heavier and flew slightly lower and slower than the A-12. Though even the heralded SR-71 had numbered days.
A-12 Archangels in storage at Lockheed’s Palmdale, California facilty.
The deployed A-12s and the eight non-deployed aircraft were placed in storage at Lockheed’s Palmdale, California facility. All surviving aircraft remained there for nearly 20 years before being sent to museums around the U.S. On the 20th of January in 2007, despite protests by Minnesota's legislature and volunteers who had maintained it in display condition, the A-12 preserved in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was sent to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia to be displayed at the George Bush Center for Intelligence.
VARIANTS
Three versions in all were created from the original A-12 Archangel.
M-21 Drone Carrier
The A-12 carrying the D-21 Drone Recon aircraft. Model is dubbed the M-21, photographed here by a KC-135 tanker operator as the M-21 takes on fuel at high altitude.
B-model D-21 drone, slung under the ordnance pylons of a B-52 heavy bomber. Photographed here from a KC-135 Stratotanker as the B-52 takes on fuel.
The M-21, a two-seat variant, carried and launched the Lockheed D-21, an unmanned, faster and higher-flying reconnaissance drone. The M-21 had a pylon on its back for mounting the drone and a second cockpit for a Launch Control Operator/Officer (LCO) in the place of the A-12's Q bay. The D-21 was autonomous; after launch, it would fly over the target, travel to a predetermined rendezvous point, eject its data package, and self-destruct. A C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft would catch the package in midair. The M-21 program was subsequently canceled in 1966 after a drone collided with the mother ship at launch. The D-21 lived on in the form of a B-model launched from a pylon under the wing of the B2 bomber. The D-21B performed operational missions over China from 1969 to 1971, but was not particularly successful.
Training Version
The A-12 training variant (60-6927 "Titanium Goose") was a two-seat model with two cockpits in tandem with the rear cockpit raised and slightly offset. In case of emergency, the variant was designed to allow the flight instructor to take control.
YF-12 Prototype Interceptor
The YF-12 program was a limited production variant of the A-12. Lockheed convinced the U.S. Air Force that an aircraft based on the A-12 would provide a less costly alternative to the recently canceled North American Aviation XF-108, since much of the design and development work on the YF-12 had already been done and paid for. This version did not do well at all and was soon shut down and scrapped.
FAILURES AND MISHAPS
Ultimately, six of the fifteen A-12s were lost in accidents, with the loss of at least two pilots and an engineer.
These included:
24 May 1963: 60-6926 (named Article 123) crashed near Wendover, Utah. The aircraft was flying a subsonic engine test flight when it entered a cloud, pitched up, and went out of control; the CIA pilot ejected successfully. The investigation found that cloud vapor had formed ice in the pitot tube, causing the airspeed indicator to show an erroneous reading. The aircraft pitched up sharply and entered an unrecoverable stall. The pilot was wearing a standard flight suit for this low-altitude flight, and did not look suspicious to the truck driver who recovered him or the highway patrol office where he was taken. The press was told that a Republic F-105 Thunderchief had crashed.
9 July 1964: 60-6939 (named Article 133) was lost on approach to Groom Dry Lake due to a complete hydraulic failure.
28 December 1965: 60-6929 (named Article 126) was lost on take-off from Groom Lake due to incorrect installation of the Stability Augmentation System (SAS).
30 July 1966: 60-6941 (Article 135), one of the two drone carriers, an M-21, was lost during a test flight off the California coast. The pilot, Bill Parks, and launch control engineer Ray Torrick ejected safely, but Torrick drowned. Article 135 was operating 300 miles from the California coast to carry out a test launch of a D-21. The aircraft was flying at Mach 3.2+ when the crew made sure that the Marquardt engine on the D-21 had the required airflow. The drone was launched but the D-21 engine failed to start and it slammed down on the launch pylon causing the mother ship to pitch up. The pressure from the Mach-3.2 airflow "ripped the fuselage forebody from the wing planform". The crew were unable to escape at this high speed but managed to eject as the forebody tumbled towards the sea. The pilot was picked up by helicopter from the sea but the engineer drowned.
5 January 1967: 60-6928 (named Article 125) was lost during a training flight. The pilot, Walter Ray, ejected but failed to separate from his seat and was killed. Due to a faulty fuel gauge, Article 125 ran out of fuel 70 miles from the Groom Dry Lake base airstrip (Area 51). The pilot glided to a lower altitude to perform a controlled bailout but could not separate his parachute from his ejection seat.
5 June 1968: 60-6932 (Article 129) was lost off the Philippines during a functional check flight. The pilot, Jack Weeks, was killed.
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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS (TechSpecs)
Gleaned from the official A-12 Flight operations manual
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Capacity: 1,100 kg payload, mostly recon equipment
Length: 30.96 m
Wingspan: 16.94 m
Height: 5.64 m
Wing area: 166.8 m2
Max takeoff weight: 53,070 kg
Max landing weight: 24,000 kg
Fuel capacity: 8,818 imp gal; 30,980 kg of JP-7 at 6.45 lb/US gal 7.75 lb/imp gal; 0.773 kg/L
Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney JT11D-20B (J58-1) Afterburning turbojet, 20,500 lbf (91 kN) thrust each dry, 32,500 lbf (145 kN) with afterburner
Aircraft Performance~
Maximum speed: Mach 3.3
Supersonic cruise: Mach 3.1
Range: Given range of 2,500 nmi (2,900 mi, 4,600 km)
Service ceiling: 85,000 ft (26,000 m) or higher
Rate of climb: 11,800 ft/min (60 m/s)
Wing loading: 65 lb/sq ft (320 kg/m2)
Thrust/weight: 0.56
Thank you for joining me on this episode of Brooke In The Air! I’ll be taking a short hiatus while I have surgery, then i’ll be back with more including a flight and trip overseas to Germany! Remember to like, comment, and subscribe to my YouTube channel! And I’ll see you in the air!
A-12 on Display at the Los Angeles County Science Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA
