The follow-on aircraft was an A-12 OXCART developed by the CIA and is proof of all the innovation and aeronautical engineering great in the Cold War spell. Conceived to suit the need of the United States for an aircraft that could both travel at great speed and high altitude, carry out observation and reconnaissance without being detected by Soviet air defenses, the A-12 spawned Lockheed’s Skunk Works. Legendary engineer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson led this secretive unit, designing what is to become the A-12. Lockheed had been given the contract for OXCART way back in 1959. It had been as technically challenged as it was lucrative. Lockheed labored hard to conquer these problems, and in the process, won breakthrough advances in titanium fabrication, lubricants, jet engines, fuel, navigation, flight control, electronic countermeasures, radar stealthiness, and pilot life-support systems.
Years of unrelenting testing by some of the best CIA and Lockheed test pilots saw the A-12 finally declared in full operational status in 1965. At altitudes of 90,000 feet, the design could maintain flight at a speed of Mach 3.2. Given such an impressive performance, A-12 provided its service in only one reconnaissance operation: OP BLACK SHIELD took place from May 1967 to May 1968. During that period, a detachment of six pilots and three A-12s based at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, flew 29 missions over East Asia, supplying critical intelligence for U.S. military activities in Southeast Asia, conducted as a result of the Vietnam War.
The operational use for the A-12 was plagued by technical difficulties, political sensitivities, and competition coming from imaging satellites, such as Corona, that provided narrower swaths of lower resolution and less-timely imagery but were far less vulnerable to anti-aircraft missiles and far less inflammatory in provoking enemy nations. The development of the SR-71 only further undermined the need for the A-12 fleet, which was already unsuited to the revised USAF mission. President Johnson, then, ordered the retirement of the A-12 in 1968.
The A-12 could accommodate full pressure suits for pilots, with instructions for immediate emergency use affixed to the suit sleeves in case of ejection. A pilot had to be under six feet in height and weigh less than 175 pounds to comfortably sit inside the tiny cockpit. The only recce mission executed by the aircraft evidenced the complex photographic capability of its camera. The cameras of the A-12 could take panorama-stereo shots, rapidly processed by photointerpreters.
In 2007 the U.S. One of the A-12s was transferred to the CIA for public display. Commonly referred to as Article 128, the account is an aircraft serial number 60-6931. The aircraft first flew on October 3, 1963, and was the first operational A-12 certified to fly at those speeds faster than three times the speed of sound. It would go on to tally 453 hours on 232 test and training flights before being retired in favor of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers on May 28, 1968, as one of two A-12 aircraft that gave chase to the location’s first aircraft that collided with the Pacific Ocean on January 5, 1968. Article 128 was moved to CIA Headquarters in August 2007 and officially presented as part of the CIA’s 60th anniversary celebration in September 2007. The aircraft was mounted on three pylons, simulating its operational flight attitude at.
The A-12 OXCART thus stands as that rare success born of collaboration between the Intelligence Community and the Defense Department and private industry, which turned a national strategic asset that soared above the expectations of its adversaries into reality. The former A-12 and SR-71 test pilot Colonel Ken Collins has been quoted as saying, “The A-12 is the pride of the CIA and everyone associated with it, as it should be. We risked our lives and careers daily for the success of the A-12. It was an amazing success due greatly to the CIA management.”
The A-12 OXCART bequeathed a legacy of being an aeronautical engineering pioneer, marking the speed and altitude records for an air-breathing piloted jet craft. Its story is an interesting chapter in the chronicle of Cold War reconnaissance and technological innovation.