@@nicholasmaude6906 mcnamara was one of the scumbags responsible for so many lives lost w/o a proper victory in Vietnam. He handcuffed OUR forces, didn't care about the PEOPLE, just the damned balance sheets. And did so much damage to our nation in so many ways. Along with his boss lbj...
It was because of Vietnam and how nightmarishly expensive it was. If not for over extending/escalating Vietnam, we would have probably also had Abrams tanks in the mid 70s.
@@BobbyB1928 The reason why Vietnam was a horribly expensive fuckup was due to the interference from McNamara and his micromanaging boss president Johnson.
“Look Down, Shoot Down” capability is generally applied to systems that can lock-on to low-level targets with some degree of filtering the associated ground-clutter. 15,000 ft sure ain’t low-level so I think you’ve got a little over-excited…
I was lucky to see one way back in the 80's at Farnborough international Airshow. Back then you could not get near enough to touch one always a security around it. It also only took to the Air almost as the final Aircraft to fly that year. I always remember other spectators looking at me and my friend and saying do you have ear defenders. Of course not they just laughed😮 We soon found why they had asked. Once those Jets reach full power and the Afterburners kicked in everything was shaking and it was still some distance away from where we were all gathered waiting for it to pass. Let's say it was impressive especially in typical overcast in the late afternoon. You could see all the shockwaves in the Afterburn cones. Once Air born I think they did one or maybe two flyby's before setting off for a planned mission. At that point the Plane was still highly secret. One of those memories you never forget. Just like the first time you see an F117 Stealth plane I count myself lucky to have the legendary jet Planes from Lockheed , and also Flying P38 Lighting which was later lost in a crash. Lockheed have made some of the greatest aircraft ever built what is more amazing is all of those Aircraft has some input from Kelly Johnson who has to be one of aviations greatest designers. I still need to see a real Starfighter yet . That should be possible because I have been living in Germany for over 15 years now and there has to be at least one in a museum here somewhere. I think another reason the Fighter Version of SR71 was lacking from historical accounts was the high amounts of secrecy surrounding these black projects I think the first time I ever read anything related to an interceptor version of the SR system was in the 90's around the same time that the SR 71's operations were been wound down if my memory serves me correctly, but another really great upload thanks.
I work at Titanium metals corporation. We call it Timet these days. It was bought by a larger company years ago so it’s part of a conglomerate that makes all sorts of metals and metal parts for aerospace. It’s come a long way since the 60’s. We aim to make the highest quality metal for discs inside engines. They shut down 3/4s of the plant during Covid. Instead of starting from with rutile we now import raw titanium sponge metal from Japan and elsewhere. All that’s left is the melt shop in Henderson, NV. They’re building another plant in Ravenswood, WV
Correct! Now I'm wondering if this shot was actually taken at Eglin, or did he mean to say Edwards AFB in California. In context, both are plausible. Edit: Addressed somewhat later in the video. Interesting news to me. Hadn’t ever thought of any members of the Blackbird family coming to Florida without NASA markings.
I think the reason why people don't get as misty eyed with the YF-12 as we get with the Avro Canada Arrow, the XB-70 Valkyrie and TSR-2, and other could have been birds is because of the SR-71 Blackbird. With the Arrow, she was broke up scrapped, her plans were destroyed, her engineers poached by NASA on the afternoon of the project's cancellation; TSR-2 is now in the RAF Museum at RAF Cosford; and the last Valkyrie is in a museum somewhere in the US. None saw service, unwanted warriors discarded at the last second. But not the Blackbird, she got her chance to prove how fast she could go and how useful she could be. A very good video and very interesting. 6/7 kills in firing tests for the 60s is very good.
My uncle was a back seater on the YF-12. He had some awesome stories. He was a test engineer for Hughes and later retired as chief scientist for the company.
@@mdbryan9525When the air's so thin, the amount of thrust you need is shockingly low. For another example, the U-2 used about 1/10 the fuel it needed on take-off to maintain maximum speed at 70,000 feet. It would take you 15,000 lbs of fuel to get up there, but once you did the engine would sip gas to the tune of ~500 lbs per hour.
@@mdbryan9525 I assume that’s an altitude “thin air” maths equation thing i.e. not much air resistance in the upper stratosphere but not enough oxygen to burn enough fuel to produce much thrust. Go lower to get more oxygen and you do get more thrust, but now you’re in denser “draggier” air, plus your fuel consumption becomes unsustainable. Maybe someone with actual high altitude flight or engineering experience can add to that…?
The only issue with this being made into an interceptor is the extreme maintenance it took to keep them flying. It wouldn't have been able to maintain mission readiness at an acceptable level. Other than that, It had everything else.
There's also the fact that it takes a really long time to prepare the Blackbird family for takeoff. Preflighting both the jet, *_and_* the crew. It's not quite as long and involved as an astronaut getting ready to go into space, but it's a lot more complicated than simply putting on a helmet and jumping into the cockpit. I shudder to think about how difficult it would be to keep a squadron of these things on alert, ready to scramble at a moment's notice. The time, manpower, money and resource requirements would be *_insane._*
The cost of keeping them flying only applies if it would have become the only Interceptor. SAC's multi-Fighter Interceptor umbrella would have kept the YF-12 at the back of the multi-stage Interceptor activation and response to threats. That's the Genius of the Old USAF system. The new one plane standardized system really falls apart in that respect. However the New system is optimized for Fleet Maintenance across all of the US Military branches as evidenced by the F-35 program.
@@celmer6your theory has a terminal flaw in that it takes hours to preflight and post-flight members of the Blackbird family, so having them on a permanent state of readiness as interception vehicles would’ve been a huge drain on all resources, airframe costs included of course. The only solution would’ve been to dumb-down the sophistication at the cost of mission degradation, or simply buy an impractical and inviable small number of units (F22 - we’re looking at you as a modern day example).
@neilturner6749 the terminal flaw is on your end. The YF-12 doesn't need to be in a constant state of readiness because there's other interceptor's in the lineup. The YF-12 would only need to be activated as needed for the comprehensive defense scenario. Think about the Escalation of Force ladder 🪜. You don't call out the Fuckin National Guard over a Purse Snatcher. You don't pull out a F1 race car to catch a Ford Pinto and you don't call the YF-12 because you got a couple of MIG's violating your fuckin airspace. Send a couple of F-14's or F-15's or FA18's to Intercept the aircraft and determine their intentions.
When I was about 14 - 15 years old, a good friend of mine purchased and built the Revell(?) 1/72 scale model of the YF12A. It was a bit good and had 4 missiles mounted internally. The box art was a bit dramatic, if memory serves.
I remember my dad back in the 60's building a Revell model of this aircraft that could be completed as either the YF-12 or the SR-71. He couldn't decide which to do so he bought two kits and built one of each.
Excellent information on the YF-12’s system. The majority of my knowledge about Oxcart comes from Ben Rich’s “Skunk Works” book, but he was more focused on the A-12 and SR-71.
Same! It was a fantastic book but it didn’t spend very long talking about the YF-12 like I was hoping it would. Learning about their escapades with the D-21 was very fascinating though
@@nate1511 D-21 was still mostly classified when he wrote this book after GW1, and Ben Rich passed away in 1995, so unless he has further memoirs sitting in a time-lock safe, he could reveal very little information, though he did say the Soviets found pieces of a D-21 drone that went missing over Siberia.
When you inevitably do a video on the Arrow, I would seriously recommend reading "The Arrow: For The Record" (Second Edition) by Palmiro Campagna. The author uses declassified documents, letters and memos from the Canada National Archives as well as the National Research Council (NRC), which he kindly provides printed in the book. For further information on specifications, the NRC has a ton of performance specs on file from Avro Canada which are easy to access online. It may take a bit of digging and cross referencing, but both of these combined will provide the reader with an excellent insight into what happened and why. Also thank you Not A Pound, you make excellent videos and I really appreciate your work :)
The opening film of the B-47 showed it doing a Low Altitude Bombing System (LABS) run. Yes, the big 6-jet bomber actually did aerobatics to deliver nukes. This was short-lived, though, after bombers started breaking and crashing.
Who’d ever have thought that (breaking-up under low altitude g-forces) might prove to be the case, eh? 😂 I guess on a one-way nuclear strike suicide mission it wasn’t the worst end outcome - the mistake was probably in practising it during peacetime!
After hearing about "intercepted a Blackbird with a zoom climb" it's about time to hear about a Blackbird's zoom climb performance. It's understood the family required reaction control, especially up where it was headed.
You can't pull G's in a Blackbird. The inlet cones control thrust at high speed and they're extremely sensitive to disrupting airflow. That's why a Foxbat can pull 4G at high Mach Blackbird sticks to 1.5, some of those lost due to accidents were due to disruption of inlet airflow causing an engine flameout, which at high Mach in a Blackbird induces unrecoverable instability, in flight breakup and typically loss of crew.
Blackbirds don't climb that fast. It takes forever to get to altitude and accelerate to Mach 3! The climb rate is under 12,000 ft/min. They also CANNOT do high alpha maneuvering. When they had the accident with the M21 -- which is another A-12 derivative --, that plane broke its back in an abrupt pitch up after the collision with the D-21 drone. The "neck" snapped off from the wing/engine part of the body. I think I heard there were maybe 2 bolts holding the neck to the after-assembly of the Blackbird body? They kept VERY LOW angle of attack (I don't recall the figure but it was probably less than 15 degrees above horizon) when flying any model of the Blackbird. It cannot pitch like a fourth-generation fighter. It's also very G-limited. I think the max I heard the Blackbird airframe can tolerate is maybe 2.5 G's and even that depends on speed and current weight. The plane was designed for sustained high speed, sled-racing -- it was NOT a turn and burn OR max-climb aircraft! It's a misnomer to call the YF-12 a "fighter." Even the F-111 was closer to a fighter than the YF-12!
@@jasonmorahan7450One of the big improvements as the program progressed was refining over and over again the flight controls and shock cone control to keep crews from a disastrous "unstart" like you mentioned. The wildest thing to me, is that not all unstart breakups were fatal. In 1966 Bill Weaver and Jim Zwayer were testing methods to move the aircraft center of gravity further aft for efficiency benefits. In their scheduled turn, the inside (to the turn) engine unstarted so hard that the airframe disintegrated. Both crew members were thrown free, but by some miracle their parachutes still worked as intended and they drifted gently down into a cattle rancher's field. Bill Weaver walked himself away from the landing, bruised but alive. Jim Zwayer was less lucky, breaking his neck during the aircraft's rapid unplanned disassembly.
IIRC Blackbirds didn't zoom climb, but after takeoff and tanking they climbed to altitude in a supersonic climb, so they were already well north of Mach 1 before they even got to cruise altitude. As Brian Schul put it, they were faster than a rifle bullet while climbing.
Great video! I’ve always loved the YF-12. It was the definition of a game-changer that simply never was. Wish you’d talked more about the GAR-9/AIM-47, it was insane for its day. Also failed to mention the SR-71C Bastard, which can only be described as a tragedy from a channel this good. Thanks very much for giving this hotrod the attention it deserves!
For the algorithm! Beautiful presentation, you have such a great narration voice mate. I could listen to you talk about anything, but preferably the topics you talk about haha. God speed and merry Christmas to you and yours !
I worked on the SR-71 for about a year before it was cancelled in 1997. Some of the mechanics had worked before on the YF-12 and they still were disappointed that it had been cancelled. I can relate to that since I'm still disappointed that the SR-71 was cancelled. I went on to work on other aircraft, both manned and unmanned, but none of them were as cool as the SR-71.
@@zacklewis342 The SR-71 was cancelled. Clinton decided to use a line item veto to zero out the funding. It was illegal, but it had to go thru the court system to be declared illegal, so for all intents and purposes it was cancelled. We were there at work one day and the next, we had to find another job. I stuck around for two weeks packing up stuff and then that's the last I evert saw of the two planes that I worked on.
The YF-12 prototype was at Wright Patterson in the Annex In 1992 the annex was a storage Hangar you could tour because they had not built a display area yet she sat there right next to the XF-107 I ran my hand down the belly of the 107 feet long interceptor dreaming of ways to take it home with me.
Fantastic and informative video, many thanks Re the USAF museum, while Dayton, OH is not a vacation hotspot, if you find yourself in the area, it absolutely worth a visit
Always a pleasure to see you have a new video out, knowing it will be measured, balanced between interest and technical detail and presented in clear, steady tones. Do keep up your good work, it is appreciated.
I like the comparison diagrams between the planes, I'm hoping they're more or less to scale because it'd be interesting to see how similar (or dissimilar) the sizes of these various interceptors were.
A very good account of this project. I remember building a kit of one of these, years ago, when I was a kid and always wondered why these were not produced and taken into service.
1:30 mark we see an F-106 flying with an externally mounted Falcon Missile. That is very, very rare to see and was not an operational configuration as far as I can tell. It must have been some form of test.
When talking of the ventral strakes, no mention was made about the fuselage mounted fin being hinged to fold to the left when the gear was selected DOWN, and unfolding to vertical when gear selected UP.
Given that titanium had to be used in the airframe construction to cope with the high temperatures resulting from air friction at Mach 3+ speeds, what was the nose cone constructed of to enable the use of the AN/APG Radar? As far as I am aware, all aircraft with nose-mounted radar use a composite nose cone.
Some form of ceramic? Many ceramics can be dielectric, and they certainly handle high temperatures. The actual composition is probably still classified most secret.
Not being able to stand ready alert because the wings leak fuel until they’re hot and having to be aerial refueled after takeoff is a big tortoise and hare problem. Sure, the hare is fast, but it’s gotta actually race to be competitive.
@@WALTERBROADDUS You keep saying that. But remember, if you have no defense against bombers, then bombers become a viable threat again. Even today they are still a threat, actually, since they are a recallable option, unlike missiles.
Isn’t that the artwork on the thumbnail that of the Revell kit? After about 50 years I still have a nose cone for the SR71 version lying around from that. The friend I got it from went for the YF interceptor. Classic kit. 😁
If you would be able to throw your sources into the description it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you once again for the wonderful piece of military history:)
One problem though, Having watched many vids on the sr71\A12 and pilot interviews, the prep time for the pilots took hours not to mention the plane itself and the immediate refueling. Would this not negate the advantage if it took an extraordinary amount of time to launch it.
I think your “negate the advantage” is one of the most understated things I’ve seen commented for a while. Some might say “catastrophically unworkable” as an alternative!
A lot of that was for the radio silent recon navigation autopilot system. Crew could be readied for flight a lot quicker, and even moreso for the shorter flight time of intercept duty, as opposed to the all day flight of a recon mission.
@@archdornan4389 I have seen the quick reaction systems in play where you have to get the plane off the ground before the missile warheads impact the base, there is no reasonable way you are going to launch multi plane sorties of A-12 interceptors in that window. Just getting into a space suit and prebreathing O2 much less getting into the plane and get it started, that was an ordeal in itself. I love the plane, I wish we still had them, but they are the antithesis of jump in and go.
This is a perfect study in the Paretto distribution-the last 20% of capability will run 80% of the cost. Mig-25, tu-28,su-15, f-106, f-104, A-5 all had similar mach-1.5-2.5 performance about 50-60% of the a-12 and were in service for decades, and no one batted an eye at their cost
That thumbnail photo looks like it's of the old Revell, 1/72 scale YF-12 plastic kit, "box art" from the 1960s. Anyway, interesting story on this forgotten interceptor and thanks for sharing!
Fascinating video! I never knew the Vigilante leveraged so much of the F-108 design. The internal cannon idea on the YF-12 is also fascinating, I wonder how a 20mm projectile would handle a combined muzzle velocity of over 4,000mph at 75,000ft?
Not only does the last YF-12 reside at the USAF Museum, it's parked on display right under the nose of the last XB-70 Valkyrie. Extremely worth the visit
How about a video on the Avro Arrow. It was so ahead of its time and a threat to the US aircraft industry that the CIA said that the Canadians would sell it to the USAF. The rest is history. Even the factory jigs were destroyed. Nothing remained of the program......Another great video😊😊😊
28 днів тому+1
A threat to the US aviation industry but not for the soviet ICBMs, interesting for a white elephant of a plane that would have been very expensive to intercept the handful of maritime patrol bomberd the USSR had to launch 😊
I recommend you watch this video again. It will help dispell the half truths and myths that have helped you and many others form that rather common misconception. Don't get me wrong, it would have been a cool airplane. Yes politics played a part. The US wanted to sell their designs and sort of needed to do so to afford the dizzying array of cold war jets they were ordering. Primarily the US was promising something much, much better in the form of this aircraft. A similar situation to what plagued Carter with the B-1, already obsolete by stealth technologt. The Arrow was also only marginally better, not "so ahead of its time" than existing aircraft such as the F-4 while being ridiculously expensive. Yes political promises don't always come to fruition. Canada couldn't afford the Arrow if the US didn't buy some. That was never going to happen with far superior projects in the pipeline. As distasteful as it sounds, diefenbaker made the right call, although it could have been handled much better.
Good Evening Really enjoy your videos. However, in your comparison chart you missed one. The Avro Arrow. I may be miss remembering but in one of the documentaries I have watched over the years it was mentioned that one of the reasons the US pushed for its cancellation was the fact that if it lived up to its specifications it could potentially intercept the SR-71. I would be very interested in seeing you do a review of the Arrow. Thank you again for your excellent work
Impractical as an intercrptor. Crew had to be in pressure suits. Too long to get airborne. Would havevhad to have used a CAP like the old nuke bombers.
I'm actually really surprised those things didn't just explode. Given the SR-71's notorious leaking fuel issue.... and the heat the hull underwent... it seems like the weapons would either cook off or get doused in fuel or even fumes in the weapons bay and explode when the weapon deployed.
Quite aside from the expense needed to build, the complicated operational procedures known to be required for SR-71 flights show just how difficult this aircraft would have been to operate. It's probably a good thing the fighter was never proceeded with, but it could have provided the basis for more SR-71 airframes or possibly for a nuclear strike version.
Really enjoyed the video NaP - a question I had while watching was how a YF-12 might stand alert. Its well known that the SR-71 would leak fuel at normal temperatures on the ground, pilots needed to don bulky pressure suits to fly, and had preflight medical exams the day prior to a mission - all things that would work against an ADC interceptor standing short nuclear alerts. In your research did you find any evidence that the Air Force had considered how the YF-12 might function as an interceptor? If you did, would love to know what their conclusions were
Oh 100% the GAR-9s it shot went hypersonic. A rocket motor firing at 70,000+ feet with a starting speed of Mach 2? Hypersonic in seconds. Wonder how they’d deal with the heat.
I'm sure that it has been pointed out, but Eglin A.F. Base is in the Florida panhandle between Tallahassee and Pensacola. I think that you meant Edward's in California
You have sadly mis-charactorized the F-108. North American stated that the F-108 would cruise and fight at Mach 3 speeds with a 1,000 nautical mile radius on internal fuel as well as having a combat ceiling in excess of 77,000 feet and zoom-climb ceiling over 100,000 feet. Additionally, the basic Blackbird would have had to of been greatly redesigned to account for the difference in mission sets. In particular, accommodations for the crew. Interceptors, due to the nature of their mission, would sit on alert and then scramble when needed. The F-108 would use escape capsules like the XB-70, allowing for a shirt sleeve environment. The SR-71 requires a full pressure suit and an hour of pre-breathing O2, not exactly suitable for a scramble. The real loss, was not putting the B-70 into production and the capabilities that go with it.
Not sure if you recall, but in your Meteor NF video from a while back, you mentioned considering a video comparing the Javelin to the Delta Dagger as the prime "second generation" jet interceptors. Is this still on the slate?
There is a difference: the TSR-2 cancellation ended Britain as an independent world power we never built a combat aircraft again; from then on we became a mere subsidiary of the US. The cancellation of the YF-12 and the XB-70 was a blip in the aerospace dominance of the USA.
How could you say that in front of my beloved Hawker-Sidely Harrier! It totally is a legitimate combat aircraft with a better air-to-air record than most modern jets
@@eoinkenny3188 Perhaps I was unfair the first flight 19 November 1960 (P.1127) 7 March 1964 (Kestrel) but the production aircraft was British and a bit after the TSR-2 even if an American version (AV-8B) was later sold back to us.
@@clydecessna737I dunno Clyde, you should’ve stuck to your guns more here with almost-right Harrier fan-boy! TSR2 was in response to a 1957 MOD request to which Hawker’s entered their (losing) design P1129. You’ll notice that’s 2 numbers higher than the concept/prototype Harrier P1127. Which means TSR2 came after Harrier. Which means you win on a technicality!
A bit of context here is that, in stark contrast to the Soviet Union, the US pretty much ignored continental air defense between the early 1960s and the early 1980s. McNamara decided on banning ABMs, and the general idea was that it was wasteful to defend against bombers if the same targets could be destroyed by Soviet ICBMs, and if the US was going to launch everything in one go. Ironically, this was not true at the time - Soviet bombers could destroy US ICBMs, but Soviet ICBMs could not yet do so; and immediately after Mcnamara at the latest, the US started to proliferate flexible options for its strategic forces., which involved leaving most of the US force on the ground after the first launch. By the 1980s, Soviet ICBMs _could_ now destroy the US ICBM force - but there was nevertheless renewed emphasis on bomber defense.
0:09 eglin air force base is in Florida, not California. Largest air force base on the continent. Used to be the world before they opened one in Australia.
I feel like another reason why this was never procured was the fact it's a difficult aircraft to prepare for flight don't forget on the ground the fuel tanks leak so the aircraft can stretch in flight due to kinetic heating As a reconnaissance aircraft it works because you have time to plan for the mission but something that has to be ready at a moment's notice or is sitting on the tarmac ready to take off at a moment's notice to intercept bombers the yf-12 is a poor choice Don't get me wrong the A-12 YF-12 and SR-71 are aviation technological achievements which are still beyond impressive till this day
The biggest drawback to the YF-12 that is rarely mentioned is it took 20 minutes to start its engines. This is not something you want in an interceptor.
They tried a weapon of the time air to air missile launch the aircraft out ran the missile when released and became the hunted cannons had major problems the trajectory of the bullet was erratic entering the airstream at that speed , they also tried a drone launch off its back and took out the aircraft.
@@zacklewis342 and yet the rapier was covered, and aspects of its design did go into production. The Phantom 100% WAS a dedicated interceptor from day one. I have given actual presentations to aviation groups, in person, on this very topic.
When you design an interceptor too expensive for Cold War US budgets, you know it is really out there.
The Blackbirds were truly in a league of their own.
McNamara basically cancelled the YF-12 out of petty spite to get back at Kelly Johnson.
@@nicholasmaude6906 mcnamara was one of the scumbags responsible for so many lives lost w/o a proper victory in Vietnam. He handcuffed OUR forces, didn't care about the PEOPLE, just the damned balance sheets. And did so much damage to our nation in so many ways. Along with his boss lbj...
It was because of Vietnam and how nightmarishly expensive it was. If not for over extending/escalating Vietnam, we would have probably also had Abrams tanks in the mid 70s.
@@BobbyB1928 The reason why Vietnam was a horribly expensive fuckup was due to the interference from McNamara and his micromanaging boss president Johnson.
75,000 feet.. Hitting a target at 15,000 feet.. That's called "Look WAY THE HELL down and shoot WAY THE HELL down" capability.
Had to look down only 16°.
“Look Down, Shoot Down” capability is generally applied to systems that can lock-on to low-level targets with some degree of filtering the associated ground-clutter. 15,000 ft sure ain’t low-level so I think you’ve got a little over-excited…
Imagine being too high up for the lowest airborne targets. THAT'S high.
"I see no gods up here but me"
Pretty sure you could fire a baseball and with 60,000 ft to fall it would splash the target
I finally went to Duxford this year and got to touch a SR71. Something I've wanted to do since being a child.
A quasi-religious experience, I imagine. 🙂
Fantastic! It's on my list of things of things to do before I kark it. Surely one of the most beautiful looking aircraft ever built.
@@ednigma6526It was a brilliant day out, but I only got to take in around 40% of the planes. I never imagined that they had so many.
I was lucky to see one way back in the 80's at Farnborough international Airshow. Back then you could not get near enough to touch one always a security around it. It also only took to the Air almost as the final Aircraft to fly that year. I always remember other spectators looking at me and my friend and saying do you have ear defenders. Of course not they just laughed😮
We soon found why they had asked. Once those Jets reach full power and the Afterburners kicked in everything was shaking and it was still some distance away from where we were all gathered waiting for it to pass. Let's say it was impressive especially in typical overcast in the late afternoon. You could see all the shockwaves in the Afterburn cones. Once Air born I think they did one or maybe two flyby's before setting off for a planned mission. At that point the Plane was still highly secret. One of those memories you never forget.
Just like the first time you see an F117 Stealth plane I count myself lucky to have the legendary jet Planes from Lockheed , and also Flying P38 Lighting which was later lost in a crash. Lockheed have made some of the greatest aircraft ever built what is more amazing is all of those Aircraft has some input from Kelly Johnson who has to be one of aviations greatest designers. I still need to see a real Starfighter yet . That should be possible because I have been living in Germany for over 15 years now and there has to be at least one in a museum here somewhere.
I think another reason the Fighter Version of SR71 was lacking from historical accounts was the high amounts of secrecy surrounding these black projects I think the first time I ever read anything related to an interceptor version of the SR system was in the 90's around the same time that the SR 71's operations were been wound down if my memory serves me correctly, but another really great upload thanks.
Oh Matron! I’ve been wanting to do the same to a TSR2 forever. Not sure if I’ll ever get around to it. Haven’t been in England far years. 😂
I work at Titanium metals corporation. We call it Timet these days. It was bought by a larger company years ago so it’s part of a conglomerate that makes all sorts of metals and metal parts for aerospace. It’s come a long way since the 60’s. We aim to make the highest quality metal for discs inside engines. They shut down 3/4s of the plant during Covid. Instead of starting from with rutile we now import raw titanium sponge metal from Japan and elsewhere. All that’s left is the melt shop in Henderson, NV. They’re building another plant in Ravenswood, WV
Saw the M-21 variant of the A-12 @ the museum of flight in Seattle. Incredible plane in person, Outstanding museum.
Yeah it’s a nice one, they got some unique stuff
An excellent museum, and I’m glad to have seen that aircraft in the flesh!
One minor correction. Eglin AFB is in Florida, NOT California.
Correct! Now I'm wondering if this shot was actually taken at Eglin, or did he mean to say Edwards AFB in California. In context, both are plausible.
Edit: Addressed somewhat later in the video. Interesting news to me. Hadn’t ever thought of any members of the Blackbird family coming to Florida without NASA markings.
@@MADGator tests were done over the gulf south of eglin.
I was worried when the first line was obviously wrong!
@@jeffkellyb7712yeah I was worried too since I live about an hour west in Pensacola. 😅
I heard that and I went to rewind to make sure I wasn't hearing stuff!
I think the reason why people don't get as misty eyed with the YF-12 as we get with the Avro Canada Arrow, the XB-70 Valkyrie and TSR-2, and other could have been birds is because of the SR-71 Blackbird.
With the Arrow, she was broke up scrapped, her plans were destroyed, her engineers poached by NASA on the afternoon of the project's cancellation; TSR-2 is now in the RAF Museum at RAF Cosford; and the last Valkyrie is in a museum somewhere in the US. None saw service, unwanted warriors discarded at the last second. But not the Blackbird, she got her chance to prove how fast she could go and how useful she could be.
A very good video and very interesting. 6/7 kills in firing tests for the 60s is very good.
My uncle was a back seater on the YF-12. He had some awesome stories. He was a test engineer for Hughes and later retired as chief scientist for the company.
One of the most interesting things he told me was that at maximum speed, it was only using 45% power.
@@mdbryan9525When the air's so thin, the amount of thrust you need is shockingly low.
For another example, the U-2 used about 1/10 the fuel it needed on take-off to maintain maximum speed at 70,000 feet. It would take you 15,000 lbs of fuel to get up there, but once you did the engine would sip gas to the tune of ~500 lbs per hour.
@@mdbryan9525 I assume that’s an altitude “thin air” maths equation thing i.e. not much air resistance in the upper stratosphere but not enough oxygen to burn enough fuel to produce much thrust. Go lower to get more oxygen and you do get more thrust, but now you’re in denser “draggier” air, plus your fuel consumption becomes unsustainable.
Maybe someone with actual high altitude flight or engineering experience can add to that…?
@@professorspark2361 you’ve not explained why it didn’t just go faster then…
Just an update that should be thermally deformed not thoroughly deform
The only issue with this being made into an interceptor is the extreme maintenance it took to keep them flying. It wouldn't have been able to maintain mission readiness at an acceptable level. Other than that, It had everything else.
Just to add, Mig25 was 20% slower but they built over 1100 of them while SR71 was what, 12 planes? just like B2, whole fleet is how many planes?
There's also the fact that it takes a really long time to prepare the Blackbird family for takeoff. Preflighting both the jet, *_and_* the crew. It's not quite as long and involved as an astronaut getting ready to go into space, but it's a lot more complicated than simply putting on a helmet and jumping into the cockpit.
I shudder to think about how difficult it would be to keep a squadron of these things on alert, ready to scramble at a moment's notice. The time, manpower, money and resource requirements would be *_insane._*
The cost of keeping them flying only applies if it would have become the only Interceptor. SAC's multi-Fighter Interceptor umbrella would have kept the YF-12 at the back of the multi-stage Interceptor activation and response to threats. That's the Genius of the Old USAF system. The new one plane standardized system really falls apart in that respect. However the New system is optimized for Fleet Maintenance across all of the US Military branches as evidenced by the F-35 program.
@@celmer6your theory has a terminal flaw in that it takes hours to preflight and post-flight members of the Blackbird family, so having them on a permanent state of readiness as interception vehicles would’ve been a huge drain on all resources, airframe costs included of course. The only solution would’ve been to dumb-down the sophistication at the cost of mission degradation, or simply buy an impractical and inviable small number of units (F22 - we’re looking at you as a modern day example).
@neilturner6749 the terminal flaw is on your end. The YF-12 doesn't need to be in a constant state of readiness because there's other interceptor's in the lineup. The YF-12 would only need to be activated as needed for the comprehensive defense scenario. Think about the Escalation of Force ladder 🪜. You don't call out the Fuckin National Guard over a Purse Snatcher. You don't pull out a F1 race car to catch a Ford Pinto and you don't call the YF-12 because you got a couple of MIG's violating your fuckin airspace. Send a couple of F-14's or F-15's or FA18's to Intercept the aircraft and determine their intentions.
When I was about 14 - 15 years old, a good friend of mine purchased and built the Revell(?) 1/72 scale model of the YF12A. It was a bit good and had 4 missiles mounted internally. The box art was a bit dramatic, if memory serves.
I had the same model. I'm pretty sure the box art was the same as the thumbnail for this video.
I remember my dad back in the 60's building a Revell model of this aircraft that could be completed as either the YF-12 or the SR-71. He couldn't decide which to do so he bought two kits and built one of each.
Excellent information on the YF-12’s system. The majority of my knowledge about Oxcart comes from Ben Rich’s “Skunk Works” book, but he was more focused on the A-12 and SR-71.
Same! It was a fantastic book but it didn’t spend very long talking about the YF-12 like I was hoping it would. Learning about their escapades with the D-21 was very fascinating though
@@nate1511 D-21 was still mostly classified when he wrote this book after GW1, and Ben Rich passed away in 1995, so unless he has further memoirs sitting in a time-lock safe, he could reveal very little information, though he did say the Soviets found pieces of a D-21 drone that went missing over Siberia.
When you inevitably do a video on the Arrow, I would seriously recommend reading "The Arrow: For The Record" (Second Edition) by Palmiro Campagna. The author uses declassified documents, letters and memos from the Canada National Archives as well as the National Research Council (NRC), which he kindly provides printed in the book. For further information on specifications, the NRC has a ton of performance specs on file from Avro Canada which are easy to access online. It may take a bit of digging and cross referencing, but both of these combined will provide the reader with an excellent insight into what happened and why. Also thank you Not A Pound, you make excellent videos and I really appreciate your work :)
I built a Revel kit of this plane years ago, beautiful aircraft.
Me too!
The opening film of the B-47 showed it doing a Low Altitude Bombing System (LABS) run. Yes, the big 6-jet bomber actually did aerobatics to deliver nukes. This was short-lived, though, after bombers started breaking and crashing.
Who’d ever have thought that (breaking-up under low altitude g-forces) might prove to be the case, eh? 😂
I guess on a one-way nuclear strike suicide mission it wasn’t the worst end outcome - the mistake was probably in practising it during peacetime!
@@neilturner6749 Still, it's pretty impressive that they got away with it at all!
After hearing about "intercepted a Blackbird with a zoom climb" it's about time to hear about a Blackbird's zoom climb performance. It's understood the family required reaction control, especially up where it was headed.
You can't pull G's in a Blackbird. The inlet cones control thrust at high speed and they're extremely sensitive to disrupting airflow. That's why a Foxbat can pull 4G at high Mach Blackbird sticks to 1.5, some of those lost due to accidents were due to disruption of inlet airflow causing an engine flameout, which at high Mach in a Blackbird induces unrecoverable instability, in flight breakup and typically loss of crew.
Blackbirds don't climb that fast. It takes forever to get to altitude and accelerate to Mach 3!
The climb rate is under 12,000 ft/min.
They also CANNOT do high alpha maneuvering. When they had the accident with the M21 -- which is another A-12 derivative --, that plane broke its back in an abrupt pitch up after the collision with the D-21 drone. The "neck" snapped off from the wing/engine part of the body. I think I heard there were maybe 2 bolts holding the neck to the after-assembly of the Blackbird body?
They kept VERY LOW angle of attack (I don't recall the figure but it was probably less than 15 degrees above horizon) when flying any model of the Blackbird. It cannot pitch like a fourth-generation fighter.
It's also very G-limited. I think the max I heard the Blackbird airframe can tolerate is maybe 2.5 G's and even that depends on speed and current weight. The plane was designed for sustained high speed, sled-racing -- it was NOT a turn and burn OR max-climb aircraft!
It's a misnomer to call the YF-12 a "fighter." Even the F-111 was closer to a fighter than the YF-12!
@@jasonmorahan7450One of the big improvements as the program progressed was refining over and over again the flight controls and shock cone control to keep crews from a disastrous "unstart" like you mentioned.
The wildest thing to me, is that not all unstart breakups were fatal. In 1966 Bill Weaver and Jim Zwayer were testing methods to move the aircraft center of gravity further aft for efficiency benefits. In their scheduled turn, the inside (to the turn) engine unstarted so hard that the airframe disintegrated.
Both crew members were thrown free, but by some miracle their parachutes still worked as intended and they drifted gently down into a cattle rancher's field.
Bill Weaver walked himself away from the landing, bruised but alive. Jim Zwayer was less lucky, breaking his neck during the aircraft's rapid unplanned disassembly.
A 50% survival rate is not good. But at Mach 3.5 and 80,000 feet, it's still shockingly high.
IIRC Blackbirds didn't zoom climb, but after takeoff and tanking they climbed to altitude in a supersonic climb, so they were already well north of Mach 1 before they even got to cruise altitude. As Brian Schul put it, they were faster than a rifle bullet while climbing.
Great video! I’ve always loved the YF-12. It was the definition of a game-changer that simply never was. Wish you’d talked more about the GAR-9/AIM-47, it was insane for its day. Also failed to mention the SR-71C Bastard, which can only be described as a tragedy from a channel this good.
Thanks very much for giving this hotrod the attention it deserves!
For the algorithm! Beautiful presentation, you have such a great narration voice mate. I could listen to you talk about anything, but preferably the topics you talk about haha. God speed and merry Christmas to you and yours !
I worked on the SR-71 for about a year before it was cancelled in 1997. Some of the mechanics had worked before on the YF-12 and they still were disappointed that it had been cancelled. I can relate to that since I'm still disappointed that the SR-71 was cancelled. I went on to work on other aircraft, both manned and unmanned, but none of them were as cool as the SR-71.
Cancelled and retired are two vastly different things in this context.
@@zacklewis342 The SR-71 was cancelled. Clinton decided to use a line item veto to zero out the funding. It was illegal, but it had to go thru the court system to be declared illegal, so for all intents and purposes it was cancelled. We were there at work one day and the next, we had to find another job. I stuck around for two weeks packing up stuff and then that's the last I evert saw of the two planes that I worked on.
The YF-12 prototype was at Wright Patterson in the Annex In 1992 the annex was a storage Hangar you could tour because they had not built a display area yet she sat there right next to the XF-107 I ran my hand down the belly of the 107 feet long interceptor dreaming of ways to take it home with me.
She's on proper display now, in the experimental aircraft hangar built in the main museum a couple years ago
Nothing like waking up to a new Not A Pound😁
Thank You....
Fantastic and informative video, many thanks
Re the USAF museum, while Dayton, OH is not a vacation hotspot, if you find yourself in the area, it absolutely worth a visit
Always a pleasure to see you have a new video out, knowing it will be measured, balanced between interest and technical detail and presented in clear, steady tones. Do keep up your good work, it is appreciated.
I like the comparison diagrams between the planes, I'm hoping they're more or less to scale because it'd be interesting to see how similar (or dissimilar) the sizes of these various interceptors were.
A very good account of this project. I remember building a kit of one of these, years ago, when I was a kid and always wondered why these were not produced and taken into service.
1:30 mark we see an F-106 flying with an externally mounted Falcon Missile. That is very, very rare to see and was not an operational configuration as far as I can tell. It must have been some form of test.
Your videos are one thing I always look forward to on a friday evening, thanks for another good one :)
When talking of the ventral strakes, no mention was made about the fuselage mounted fin being hinged to fold to the left when the gear was selected DOWN, and unfolding to vertical when gear selected UP.
Impressive bit of kit!
Got to love the A-12 to SR-71 aircraft and the USAF Museum. That place is incredible.
Given that titanium had to be used in the airframe construction to cope with the high temperatures resulting from air friction at Mach 3+ speeds, what was the nose cone constructed of to enable the use of the AN/APG Radar? As far as I am aware, all aircraft with nose-mounted radar use a composite nose cone.
That’s actually a very good question. One I think Skunkworks isn’t very inclined to answer.
Some form of ceramic? Many ceramics can be dielectric, and they certainly handle high temperatures.
The actual composition is probably still classified most secret.
That was the most adventurous pronunciation of Valkyrie I've ever heard.
Well the bloke that invented that word died about 2000 yrs ago, so does anyone really “know” how it should be pronounced? 😀
…Yes.
Not being able to stand ready alert because the wings leak fuel until they’re hot and having to be aerial refueled after takeoff is a big tortoise and hare problem.
Sure, the hare is fast, but it’s gotta actually race to be competitive.
The race was over before it started. Spending money on interceptors did not make sense in an ICBM World.
@@WALTERBROADDUS You keep saying that. But remember, if you have no defense against bombers, then bombers become a viable threat again. Even today they are still a threat, actually, since they are a recallable option, unlike missiles.
Amazing aircraft, excellent video
A video worthy of the craft it describes. As always. Looking forward to more from Not a Pound!
Isn’t that the artwork on the thumbnail that of the Revell kit? After about 50 years I still have a nose cone for the SR71 version lying around from that. The friend I got it from went for the YF interceptor. Classic kit. 😁
If you would be able to throw your sources into the description it would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you once again for the wonderful piece of military history:)
One problem though, Having watched many vids on the sr71\A12 and pilot interviews, the prep time for the pilots took hours not to mention the plane itself and the immediate refueling. Would this not negate the advantage if it took an extraordinary amount of time to launch it.
I think your “negate the advantage” is one of the most understated things I’ve seen commented for a while. Some might say “catastrophically unworkable” as an alternative!
A lot of that was for the radio silent recon navigation autopilot system.
Crew could be readied for flight a lot quicker, and even moreso for the shorter flight time of intercept duty, as opposed to the all day flight of a recon mission.
@@archdornan4389 I have seen the quick reaction systems in play where you have to get the plane off the ground before the missile warheads impact the base, there is no reasonable way you are going to launch multi plane sorties of A-12 interceptors in that window. Just getting into a space suit and prebreathing O2 much less getting into the plane and get it started, that was an ordeal in itself. I love the plane, I wish we still had them, but they are the antithesis of jump in and go.
Seriously installing the whole set in the B-58 as F-58 would probably have been almost as effective
This is a perfect study in the Paretto distribution-the last 20% of capability will run 80% of the cost.
Mig-25, tu-28,su-15, f-106, f-104, A-5 all had similar mach-1.5-2.5 performance about 50-60% of the a-12 and were in service for decades, and no one batted an eye at their cost
This episode was your masterpiece.
Another outstanding video. Awesome channel.
A plane for a threat that never materialized. Good thing we never made that investment.
deterrent value is still value
How come deterrent isn't valuable?
12:40 It genuinely looks like they stuck a Phantom nose cone on and declared it job done 😄
That thumbnail photo looks like it's of the old Revell, 1/72 scale YF-12 plastic kit, "box art" from the 1960s. Anyway, interesting story on this forgotten interceptor and thanks for sharing!
Eglin AFB is in Florida near Ft. Walton Beach.
Extraordinarily good presentation!
Fascinating video! I never knew the Vigilante leveraged so much of the F-108 design.
The internal cannon idea on the YF-12 is also fascinating, I wonder how a 20mm projectile would handle a combined muzzle velocity of over 4,000mph at 75,000ft?
Not only does the last YF-12 reside at the USAF Museum, it's parked on display right under the nose of the last XB-70 Valkyrie. Extremely worth the visit
Right on my birthday nice!
Well, happy birthday to you then! 🎉🥳🍾🎊🎈
Many happy returns!
Never realized how far the A-12 got. This is wild!
Elgin AFB is in Florida.
How about a video on the Avro Arrow. It was so ahead of its time and a threat to the US aircraft industry that the CIA said that the Canadians would sell it to the USAF. The rest is history. Even the factory jigs were destroyed. Nothing remained of the program......Another great video😊😊😊
A threat to the US aviation industry but not for the soviet ICBMs, interesting for a white elephant of a plane that would have been very expensive to intercept the handful of maritime patrol bomberd the USSR had to launch 😊
A threat to Canadian industry because it would have bankrupted
A lot of it's tech already was pioneered in the B-58 including look down terrain radar and honeycomb structure , the rest is more myths and dragons
Eh!
I recommend you watch this video again. It will help dispell the half truths and myths that have helped you and many others form that rather common misconception.
Don't get me wrong, it would have been a cool airplane.
Yes politics played a part. The US wanted to sell their designs and sort of needed to do so to afford the dizzying array of cold war jets they were ordering. Primarily the US was promising something much, much better in the form of this aircraft. A similar situation to what plagued Carter with the B-1, already obsolete by stealth technologt.
The Arrow was also only marginally better, not "so ahead of its time" than existing aircraft such as the F-4 while being ridiculously expensive.
Yes political promises don't always come to fruition. Canada couldn't afford the Arrow if the US didn't buy some. That was never going to happen with far superior projects in the pipeline.
As distasteful as it sounds, diefenbaker made the right call, although it could have been handled much better.
It’s turning radius is larger than some European countries
A bit like my beloved old Land Rover
Good Evening
Really enjoy your videos. However, in your comparison chart you missed one. The Avro Arrow.
I may be miss remembering but in one of the documentaries I have watched over the years it was mentioned that one of the reasons the US pushed for its cancellation was the fact that if it lived up to its specifications it could potentially intercept the SR-71.
I would be very interested in seeing you do a review of the Arrow. Thank you again for your excellent work
Eglin AFB is in Florida.
The engineering of these aircraft is mind-boggling 🤯
Impractical as an intercrptor. Crew had to be in pressure suits. Too long to get airborne. Would havevhad to have used a CAP like the old nuke bombers.
@2:11 Minor correction. The firebar is a YaK, not a Tu. Its YaK-28P firebar.
I'm actually really surprised those things didn't just explode.
Given the SR-71's notorious leaking fuel issue.... and the heat the hull underwent... it seems like the weapons would either cook off or get doused in fuel or even fumes in the weapons bay and explode when the weapon deployed.
Eglin AFB is in Florida, not California, but a small error. As always, a great in depth look at a remarkable aircraft, and the what if's
Valk-a-wry....
Very, very funny 🤣, thanks 👍
@18:30 Even though your body doesn’t absorb much in the way of radio energy, a bright enough radio source focused on you will heat you up.
Good video. I’m curious how quickly a couple F12s could have been scrambled to intercept, since they can’t just wait on the ground fully fueled?
My fav plane
Eglin AFB is in FL, not CA, ja?
Quite aside from the expense needed to build, the complicated operational procedures known to be required for SR-71 flights show just how difficult this aircraft would have been to operate. It's probably a good thing the fighter was never proceeded with, but it could have provided the basis for more SR-71 airframes or possibly for a nuclear strike version.
Really enjoyed the video NaP - a question I had while watching was how a YF-12 might stand alert. Its well known that the SR-71 would leak fuel at normal temperatures on the ground, pilots needed to don bulky pressure suits to fly, and had preflight medical exams the day prior to a mission - all things that would work against an ADC interceptor standing short nuclear alerts. In your research did you find any evidence that the Air Force had considered how the YF-12 might function as an interceptor? If you did, would love to know what their conclusions were
I've visited Snoopy. It survives on the Edwards AFB photo range.
Interested in what sort of shape it's in - decent or dilapidated?
@JackNiles-hc8yz Shame, but thanks for the info.
Seeing what Skunk Works was developing in the 1960s, one wonders what they're doing now...
Eglin AFB is in FLORIDA--not Kalifornication.
If the YF12 was made operational, almost any AAM it will be equiped can be made to go hypersonic.
Oh 100% the GAR-9s it shot went hypersonic. A rocket motor firing at 70,000+ feet with a starting speed of Mach 2? Hypersonic in seconds. Wonder how they’d deal with the heat.
I'm sure that it has been pointed out, but Eglin A.F. Base is in the Florida panhandle between Tallahassee and Pensacola. I think that you meant Edward's in California
What differs a 'coherent pulse Doppler radar' from a pulse Doppler radar?
11:31 I find the very idea of the blackbird nearly being a bomber laughably bonkers
You have sadly mis-charactorized the F-108.
North American stated that the F-108 would cruise and fight at Mach 3 speeds with a 1,000 nautical mile radius on internal fuel as well as having a combat ceiling in excess of 77,000 feet and zoom-climb ceiling over 100,000 feet.
Additionally, the basic Blackbird would have had to of been greatly redesigned to account for the difference in mission sets. In particular, accommodations for the crew. Interceptors, due to the nature of their mission, would sit on alert and then scramble when needed. The F-108 would use escape capsules like the XB-70, allowing for a shirt sleeve environment. The SR-71 requires a full pressure suit and an hour of pre-breathing O2, not exactly suitable for a scramble.
The real loss, was not putting the B-70 into production and the capabilities that go with it.
Not sure if you recall, but in your Meteor NF video from a while back, you mentioned considering a video comparing the Javelin to the Delta Dagger as the prime "second generation" jet interceptors. Is this still on the slate?
18:17, I guess it wasn't just the MiG25's radar that can kill rabbits
Oh, the potential.
There is a difference: the TSR-2 cancellation ended Britain as an independent world power we never built a combat aircraft again; from then on we became a mere subsidiary of the US. The cancellation of the YF-12 and the XB-70 was a blip in the aerospace dominance of the USA.
How could you say that in front of my beloved Hawker-Sidely Harrier! It totally is a legitimate combat aircraft with a better air-to-air record than most modern jets
@@eoinkenny3188 Perhaps I was unfair the first flight 19 November 1960 (P.1127)
7 March 1964 (Kestrel) but the production aircraft was British and a bit after the TSR-2 even if an American version (AV-8B) was later sold back to us.
@@clydecessna737I dunno Clyde, you should’ve stuck to your guns more here with almost-right Harrier fan-boy!
TSR2 was in response to a 1957 MOD request to which Hawker’s entered their (losing) design P1129. You’ll notice that’s 2 numbers higher than the concept/prototype Harrier P1127. Which means TSR2 came after Harrier. Which means you win on a technicality!
@@neilturner6749 alright, alright! Sea Harrier. Now is everyone happy?
@@eoinkenny3188😃😃
What I have never heard about the YF-12 was if it had the rapid reaction time that the SR-71 completely lacked.
No lightning on that list of Interceptors, never seem to think about our own home grown rocketship 😢
:08 Where did it happen? You combined both of the normal testing locations. Was it at Eglin AFB in Florida or Edwards AFB in California?
A bit of context here is that, in stark contrast to the Soviet Union, the US pretty much ignored continental air defense between the early 1960s and the early 1980s. McNamara decided on banning ABMs, and the general idea was that it was wasteful to defend against bombers if the same targets could be destroyed by Soviet ICBMs, and if the US was going to launch everything in one go. Ironically, this was not true at the time - Soviet bombers could destroy US ICBMs, but Soviet ICBMs could not yet do so; and immediately after Mcnamara at the latest, the US started to proliferate flexible options for its strategic forces., which involved leaving most of the US force on the ground after the first launch. By the 1980s, Soviet ICBMs _could_ now destroy the US ICBM force - but there was nevertheless renewed emphasis on bomber defense.
0:09 eglin air force base is in Florida, not California. Largest air force base on the continent. Used to be the world before they opened one in Australia.
I believe that people aren't misty-eyed about the YF-12 because ultimately the SR-71 did fly, and is seen as basically the same aircraft.
As a Floridian, I have to take great offense at the comment that Eglin Air Force Base is in California…
5:15 5 AAMs:
Sidewinder
Falcon
Sparrow
Phoenix
Phoenix being the last during the Cold War
What else am I missing here?
I feel like another reason why this was never procured was the fact it's a difficult aircraft to prepare for flight don't forget on the ground the fuel tanks leak so the aircraft can stretch in flight due to kinetic heating
As a reconnaissance aircraft it works because you have time to plan for the mission but something that has to be ready at a moment's notice or is sitting on the tarmac ready to take off at a moment's notice to intercept bombers the yf-12 is a poor choice
Don't get me wrong the A-12 YF-12 and SR-71 are aviation technological achievements which are still beyond impressive till this day
The biggest drawback to the YF-12 that is rarely mentioned is it took 20 minutes to start its engines. This is not something you want in an interceptor.
The biggest drawback is that we didn't need more interceptors.
25:42 Thought the MiG-31 was in service by 1982
So would it immediately need refueled after takeoff? Not great for an interceptor if so.
Elgin AFB is in Florida, not California
Imagine flying a plane that flew faster than most missiles.
When aliens come to Earth, they steal technology from Lockheed.
Out of the 50 of these aircraft built I can only find information on 43 Servailance and Reconnisance models.
Which ones or you missing?
They tried a weapon of the time air to air missile launch the aircraft out ran the missile when released and became the hunted cannons had major problems the trajectory of the bullet was erratic entering the airstream at that speed , they also tried a drone launch off its back and took out the aircraft.
2:12 missing the NAA Rapier, Phantom, Tomcat, etc.
Rapier never existed and the Phantom (II) wasn't an interceptor.
@@zacklewis342 and yet the rapier was covered, and aspects of its design did go into production.
The Phantom 100% WAS a dedicated interceptor from day one. I have given actual presentations to aviation groups, in person, on this very topic.
Absolute shame this masterpiece never went into full production.
Expensive, unneeded, obsolete.
@ Literally none of those apply to this one.
@@originalSPECTER why not?
schöne Maschine...🤔