In the cutthroat game of Cold War military superiority, the demand for cutting-edge defense technologies tended to stretch the limits of the possible. One such wonder of technological innovation was the Lockheed YF-12A, a high-altitude Mach 3+ interceptor meant to protect America from supersonic bomber threats. Built from the A-12 surveillance plane, the YF-12A was a reflection of aeronautical engineering’s heyday.
It emerged from Lockheed’s clandestine skunk works under the supervision of the famous Clarence L. It was nicknamed the YF-12A when the first of three test aircraft flew on August 7, 1963. The YF-12A was announced in part to cover up the secrecy of its predecessor, the A-12. By blaming any CIA/Air Force A-12 sightings over Nevada’s Area 51 on the famous Air Force YF-12As based at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the A-12 could be kept hidden. The aircraft was first revealed publicly on 30 September 1964 at Edwards.
The YF-12As set a speed record of 2,070.101 miles per hour (3,331.505 km/h) and an altitude record of 80,257.86 feet (24,462.60 m) on 1 May 1965 in flight testing. The novel weapon system had encouraging results, with six successful deployments of the AIM-47 missiles. The seventh failed, however, as a result of a gyro malfunction on one of the missiles. Notwithstanding this, the final missile fired from the YF-12 at Mach 3.2 scored a hit against a JQB-47E target drone 500 feet (150 m) in the air, removing a 4 feet (120 cm) portion from its tail.
The Air Force considered it a success and was going to order 96 aircraft with an initial budget of $90 million for further testing. But on 23 November 1967, Secretary of Defense McNamara reallocated funds to the F-106X program, much less successful. The AIM-47 Falcon missile was later developed further and became the AIM-54 Phoenix missile for use with the F-14 Tomcat. Moreover, the AN/ASG 18 radar was replaced by the AN/AWG-9 and APG-71, improving its capability to track multiple targets.
One of the three YF-12As, AF Ser. No. 60-6934, was destroyed by fire in a landing accident at Edwards AFB on 14 August 1966. Its rear section was salvaged and mated with the front section of a Lockheed static test airframe to form the one-of-a-kind SR-71C.
YF-12A, AF Ser. No. 60-6936, was lost on 24 June 1971 when an in-flight fire due to a burst fuel line; both pilots ejected safely north of Edwards AFB. YF-12A, AF Ser. No. 60-6935, is the only surviving YF-12A. It was pulled from storage in 1969 for a collaborative USAF/NASA study of supersonic cruise technology and subsequently shipped to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio on 17 November 1979.
Though the YF-12A no longer fills the skies, its tale reflects a time in which the stakes of air supremacy couldn’t be greater, and the limits of ingenuity did not exist.
