archangel aircraft

Archangel Aircraft - The Lockheed A-12 is a Mach 3 or higher high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, built by Lockheed's Skunk Works for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), based on a design by Klaas "Kelly" Johnson. The aircraft was designated his A-12, his twelfth in a series of internal design efforts with the aircraft's internal codename "Ark Angel". In 1959, winning Convair's FISH and Kingfish designs, he was named the winner of Project GUSTO, developed and operated under Project Oxcart.

CIA representatives initially favored the Conveyor design because of its lower radar cross section, but the A-12 had better specifications and a lower expected cost. The company's individual performance proved decisive. Convair's work on the B-58 was plagued by delays and cost overruns, but Lockheed built his U-2 on time and on budget. In addition, Lockheed has experience in carrying out "black" projects.

Archangel Aircraft

The A-12 he built from 1962 to 1964 and flew from 1963 to 1968. It was the U.S. Air Force's two-seat YF-12 prototype interceptor, his M-21 launcher for D-21 drones, and the predecessor to the SR. - 71 Blackbird, a slightly longer variant capable of carrying heavier fuel and camera loads. The A-12 began his flight mission in 1967 and completed its final mission in May 1968. The program and aircraft were retired in June. The program was formally announced in the mid-1990s.

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One CIA official later said, "Oxcart was assigned to his R&D from a randomly selected list of Kodams, who later all worked on his A-12. The aircraft itself was so called." writing.

After the failure of the CIA's Project Rainbow to reduce the U-2's radar cross section (RCS), preparatory work began in late 1957 within Lockheed to develop a follow-on aircraft to fly over the Soviet Union. Designer Kelly Johnson said, "I remember having a long discussion with [the CIA's Deputy Director of Planning] Richard Bissell in April 1958 about whether there should be a follow-on to the U-2 plane. “Before satellites render reconnaissance aircraft unusable for stealth reconnaissance, we need to take the next step.”

At Project Gusto, the design was nicknamed "Archangel" after his U-2 program, previously called "Angel". As the aircraft design evolved and its configuration changed, Lockheed's internal designation changed from his Archangel-1 to Archangel-2 and so on. These names for designs in development soon became known as "A-1", "A-2", etc.

These designs have reached his A-11 stage where the program is evaluated. The A-11 competed with a conveyor proposal called the Kingfish that performed nearly as well. However, Kingfish includes several features that significantly reduce RCS, which seems to work in the board's favour. Lockheed responded with a simple update to the A-11, adding twin canted fins instead of right angles and adding areas of non-metallic materials. This became the design of the A-12. On January 26, 1960, the CIA ordered 12 of his A-12 aircraft.

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The A-12 was so ahead of its time that it had to introduce a lot of new technology, especially for his Oxcart project, some of which is still in daily use today. One of the biggest problems facing engineers at the time was working with titanium.

In his book Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, B Rich says: , was inexplicably able to purchase base metals from the world's leading exporter, the Soviet Union. did not.

Prior to the A-12, titanium was used in hot exhaust fairings and other small parts directly involved in supporting, cooling, or forming hot zones in the aircraft, such as wings. cutting edge. However, the A-12 is primarily titanium. Titanium is relatively hard and difficult to machine, making it difficult to form curves that offer a practical technique. This makes it difficult to form the leading edge of the wing and similar surfaces. The solution was found by simply machining a small "fillet" of material into the desired shape and gluing it to the underlying structure in a more linear fashion. A good example is wings. The spar and stringer substructure forms a grid, leaving triangular notches along the fillet-filled leading edge.

With the transition to the A-12, another improvement to the RCS was made by replacing the fillet with a new radar-absorbing composite made from iron ferrite and silicon laminates. Both combined with asbestos to absorb return radars and make the plane more stealthy. .

Thrush (iomax) S2r T660 Archangel

After being developed and produced at Skunk Works in Burbank, California, the first of his A-12s were transferred to the Groom Lake test facility (Area 51).

On April 25, 1962, Lockheed's test flight was piloted by his pilot Louis Schalk and made its first (unofficial and unannounced) flight.

His first official flight took place on April 30, 1962, followed by his supersonic flight on May 4, 1962, reaching speeds of Mach 1.1 at 40,000 feet (12,000 m) .

The first of his five A-12s he flew in 1962, the first he flew with a Pratt & Whitney J75 engine with a capacity of 17,000 lbf (76 kN).

Aircraft N7555a (2013 Iomax Archangel C/n 100jmh) Photo By Ingo Warnecke (photo Id: Ac920264)

Allowing his J75-equipped A-12 to achieve nearly Mach 2.0 speeds. On October 5, 1962, his A-12 with his newly developed J58 engine flew with his J75 engine and his J58 engine. By early 1963, A-12s were flying with his J58 engines, and during 1963 his A-12s with these J58s achieved speeds of Mach 3.2.

Collins made it through safely, flying standardly in his suit and avoiding unnecessary questions from the truck driver who picked him up. He called Area 51 from the Highway Patrol office.

The reaction to the crash shows the secret and importance of the project. The CIA referred to the plane as the Republic F-105 Thunderchief in news articles and official records.

Two of his farmers who were nearby were told the plane was carrying an atomic weapon to prevent it from approaching the crash site.

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Local law enforcement and passing families were strongly cautioned to keep quiet about the crash. They were also paid $25,000 in cash each. Projects often use such cash payments to avoid non-business questions. A lot of money was raised for this project. Contract guards were paid $1,000 a month and stayed free on base. The Las Vegas chef was available his 24 hours for steaks, Maine lobster and other requests.

A total of 18 aircraft were built through the production program. Of these, 13 are his A-12s and 3 are prototype YF-12A interceptors intended for the United States. Air Force (not funded under the OXCART program), and two of his M-21 reconnaissance drone carriers. His one of his 13 A-12s was a dedicated practice with a second seat behind the pilot and raised so that the instructor's pilot could see ahead. It was a machine. The A-12 trainer known as the "Titanium Goose" retained the J75 powerplant for the life of the wheels.

In subsequent attempts he also lost three of his A-12s. On July 9, 1964, "Article 133" crashed during final approach to the runway, at 500 feet (150 m) altitude and 200 knots (230 mph; 370 km/h) airspeed, the pitch control servos failed. has frozen. h) Start a smooth steady roll to the left. Lockheed's test his pilot, Bill Park, was no better than Rolle. With a bank angle of about 45 degrees and his 200 feet (61 m) altitude, he escaped and flipped the plane over on its side. He was not very high on the ground, but his parachute activated and he landed safely.

On December 28, 1965, his third A-12 went missing, and "Article 126" crashed 30 seconds after takeoff, followed by a series of purple yawns and pitching motions that were too rapid. As a result, the aircraft became uncontrollable. Mele Vojvodich checks his performance, including testing his rdezvous beacon on a KC-135 tanker. I was able to inject. A post-crash investigation revealed that maintenance errors were the primary cause of the accident. A flightline electrician accidentally changed the connections in his harness, the wires linking his gyroscope to the control surface servos for the yaw and pitch rates of his stability augmentation system. yaw and control. An input that commands left or right yaw will in turn change the pitch angle of the plane. The investigation criticized the negligence of the electrician, but also pointed to the cause of the failure to manage maintenance activities and the fact that the aircraft's design allowed for the replaced connections in the first place.

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The Oxcart program's first fatality occurred on January 5, 1967, when "Article 125" crashed and the plane ran out of fuel at the test site, killing CIA pilot Walter Ray. The exact cause of the loss could not be determined and it is believed that a fuel metering error most likely led to the loss of fuel.

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