The Slow Demise of the CIA's A-12
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- Опубліковано 1 кві 2021
- The companion blog to this episode is over at Medium: amyshirateitel.medium.com/the...
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I forgot to add the card of conversions at about the 2:30 mark, and I don't want to spend hours exporting another version, so here's that paragraph with other measurements!
"The U-2 was 63 feet long (19.20 meters) with a wingspan of 103 feet (31.3944 meters), had an operational altitude of 70,000 feet (21,336 meters) with a 2,000-mile range (3,218.68 kilometers), and a top speed around Mach 0.8. The A-12, by design, had an altitude of about 90,000 feet (27,432 meters), a top speed of Mach 3.2, and a range of 4,120 miles total (6,630.49 kilometers) or 3,800nm range at altitude (4372.96 miles or 7,037.6 kilometers). It was, in short, a significant improvement."
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Fighting for Space: www.amazon.com/Fighting-Space...
Breaking the Chains of Gravity: www.amazon.com/Breaking-Chain...
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The Full Cold War Aerial Espionage Series!
Part 1: • U-2: How the Spy Plane...
Part 2: • The "Invisible" U-2 Im...
Part 3: • What Really Happened w...
Part 4: • America Spying with th...
Part 5: • The CIA's A-12 was Bas...
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Music: Brittle Rille by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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Wardrobe: Vixen by Micheline Pitt. Not sponsored or anything, I just love her and her company values and want to shout out an incredible brand!
How can one Woman in her apartment put comercial documentarians to shame. Amazing work Amy.
Ken Burns ain't got shit on Amy!
JD: Answer: She's a degreed historian with a Masters, not a hack TV writer and fast-buck production studio.
@@MikeOxlong- I would assume that she stands behind her research. Its better for her and her brand to speak personally to her knowledge regardless of the context. Like the top notch historian she is, she never interjects personal opinion, just provides the facts as they occurred. That being said, without people of note that show would have been pulled long ago as it adds some level of “seriousness” to the topics that are absurd otherwise. I find that part unfortunate because the researchers don’t receive the notoriety they deserve, it all goes to the crackpot conspiracists.
@JM Coulon ,
Dying slowly, far from dead. IMHO.
Peace and Love,
j
@JM Coulon TV isn't dead, it's just changing flavors...again.
Here in McMinnville Oregon the Air & Space museum has an SR71 on display. A docent there told us about the time a former Soviet air force pilot visited. He walked up to the plane, grabbed the wing and said, "Finally caught you".
yes, a great place to visit.
Well I know that feeling, in the 80's I was an air defense gunner in the Army, two summer's ago a friend of mine that I was in the Army with back then bought a MIG23 Flogger, when I went to visit him he took me to the airport where it was at and when we walked into the hangar to see it it was one of the most surreal moments of my life, I just couldn't believe that after all these years something that I'd only ever had seen a picture of projected on a screen during aircraft recognition tests was right in front of me, I looked at my friend and said "Gimmie your gun, I feel like I should be shooting it full of holes!!!"
Then when we walked over close to it I said "Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd be this close to one if these things and it wasn't dropping bombs on me."
That was a real experience seeing one of them up close and even getting to sit in the cockpit.
He purchased it to be part of a cold war display, it was all there all the avionics and the engine but it was beyond it's service life and needed to be rebuilt or replaced to be airworthy, it was an impressive beast up close for a single seat fighter and had an absolutely massive engine for being a single seat single engine fighter, looking into the tailpipe of that thing was like looking into a cave.
@@dukecraig2402 I got up close and personal with a Mig23. As an airframe technician I was not impressed. Supersonic jets use countersunk rivets, they are supposed to sit flush to create a clean smooth skin. On that Mig23 there were loads of rivets (15 to 20%) that were so out of spec. Bent heads, countersunk too deep or too shallow. The workmanship was atrocious, shocking. I was told there were significant cracks in the engine blades, and saw with my own eyes running cracks in the titanium tailpipe pettals. The Mig23 is an impressive and powerful fighter, but the one I saw was in disrepair, yet considdered as top of the range front line fighter by our advesary and very recently operationly flown as such.
@ trespire
I thought the same thing when I saw a B-1 up close.
And the SR-71 is even worse.
@@trespire
Yea, it was one of a batch of 6 or 7 Floggers that were bought in a package deal, there was wooden crates full of spare parts that were serial numbered for each plane, the story I got was they were replacement and service parts that were manufactured for each plane as they were built, since the build quality was low compared to western standards each spare part was fit for each individual plane because they wouldn't fit on other one's, there was no interchangeability between them, literally each spare part was custom fit to each plane when they were manufactured new, servicing those planes must have a nightmare.
It was an impressive machine compared to a biplane but up close the fit and finish wasn't anywhere near western aircraft that I've been around up close, hell the fit and finish wasn't as nice as the motorcycle I rode down there on.
Pete has evaded radar detection.
Speaking of which, where is Pete Conrad the cat?!?
The whole story of the U2 all the way through the SR-71 is crazy. The manufacturing with titanium is especially wild to me as a machinist. Titanium is still difficult to deal with, and we’ve got a lot more advanced tooling and equipment than they had 70 years ago. And then you have the importation of titanium from the soviets to manufacture the planes that would be used to spy on them. 😂
Also, I love your hair and the scarf is super cute.
One thing they discovered was titanium and cadmium plated tools don't mix well with chlorinated water. The titanium parts were weakened. They had been washing spot welded parts in chlorinated water (the chlorine had been added to deal with algae in the summer months. They used distilled water after that discovery. Once thermodynamic testing got underway they discovered bolt heads were falling off as the temperature rose above 320 degrees C due to a reaction between the titanium and the cadmium deposits left behind by the cadmium plated spanners used to tighten them. There was also an issue with Pentel pens, a line drawn using a Pentel pen would eat through the titanium.
@jeff nomad I believe it also was a special alloy of titanium that US foundries were having trouble delivering in sufficient quantities at the required quality with ordinary sources. So, a spy could help fingerprint the source. Still, some crash site seekers have succeeded in finding some bits decades later.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 - horseshit,
Chlorine Chemicals Corrosion
Titanium is completely resistant to solutions of chlorine dioxide, chlorates, chlorites, perchlorates, and hypochlorites. Titanium equipment has been used to deal with these chemicals in the pulp and paper sector for a number of years, with no sign of corrosion.
@@LTV_inc then Ben R Rich and Leo Janos were wrong in "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir Of My Time at Lockheed" published in 1994. And Ben R Rich would know, after all he was the head of the Skunk Works. They were using a titanium alloy that did suffer from these problems. They also rejected about 80% of the titanium they were supplied with due to impurities.
@@LTV_inc There are quite a lot of papers regarding cadmium corroding titanium, especially when the cadmium is converted into cadmium chloride and becomes, essentially an unwanted surface treatment for the titanium that destroys the surface film which leads to stress corrosion cracks.
Never forget Jack Weeks. Out of two pilots killed he was the only one who's remains were never recovered. I got to see his backup suit in 2015 at the Roadrunner reunion. Now it's in Birmingham Alabama with one of only 3 A-12s used operationally. Worth a trip if you're ever in that kneck of the woods.
Ksp VAB soundtrack plays:
*everyone liked that*
edit: as of now, i just killed bob kerman on a tragic eva (he slammed into minmus at 82 m/s)
*checks taskbar if game is still running*
@@OldaDi haha same
@@KentuckyFriedDoge i watched since around late 2016, usually its some of the time
Wanted to watch the video, noticed the KSP soundtrack went straight for the comments, lanted here 😂
82 m/s? Those are rookie numbers. You gotta bump that up. RUD or bust.
I remember walking up to the sr-71 in McMinnville, OR at the air and space museum heart pounding, i was allowed to touch the titanium skin on the fuselage. My eyes became heavy and i had “a moment”. The amount of engineering, teamwork and sheer beauty overcame me in that moment. It is quite a site to behold.
Saw the one at the Smithsonian. Very impressive and very much larger than I'd have guessed. Still looks like it's from the future, even retired.
perfect redefinition of the channel that does not require a name change even - elegant engineering Madame - 🛸👽
Another video about the D-21 would be interesting. The information is out there but it would be nice to pull it all together. The need, the technology, particularly the engine and camera/data retrieval, development difficulties during flight test, culminating in the loss of one aircraft and one crewman, the transition to B-52 launch, four attempts at an operational mission over China, and finally a piece of one of those four drones being delivered to Ben Rich at Lockheed by a representative of the KGB!
The U-2 was an F104 with wings instead of razorblades. Long Live Kelly!!!
When I worked at Uncle Boeing, one of my mentors was artist Michael Cased, who told me he was asked where he'd like to be in five years in his hiring interview. His answer: "I want to work for Kelly Johnston!" (a competitor's brilliant designer, but not a Boeing answer.) They hired him anyway ... me some, too ... And I met and learned from guys that were teammates with Ralph "little old lady" McQuarrie, whose beautiful gouache sketches sold "Star Wars" to the world!
One of them described a trip to Australia, where he sampled (forgive me if I misspell this) a "witchitee grub" which he described as "About the size of my thumb with the consistency of a marshmallow" ...
While I consider his bravery consequential, influential, important and "LISTEN TO THIS!!!"
My friend at Boeing said, "The texture is like a marshmallow ... Doesn't taste like a marshmallow."
@@WilliamRWarrenJr
G'day,
He's right.
Witchety Grubs do not taste like Mashmallow ; they're a lot more like Chicken with Peanut Butter...
Cooked over a Campfire, on the same Shovel used to dig them out of a rotten fallen Log...
They start off white, with a Grey/Blue Head, cook them til they're browned, hold them by the Head, and bite off the Body, and then throw away the Head.
Bush Tucker.
Such is Life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
Stay
I'm disappointed by not seeing you continue the story with the SR-71 for another 27-ish years, but I understand that would be getting out of your vintage space. Another superb video, that demonstrates the difference between some of the tech channels who touch the surface of some of these stories and a professional historian who wants to show us more of the story. I enjoy some of those other videos too, with both information and entertainment, but these videos provide so much more context. Thank you.
"On time, and on budget."
That's something I've never heard of in government acquisitions.
The P-51 and P-80 were good examples.
North American and Lockheed milked those successes for all they were worth... like North American Rockwell for the Space Shuttle and Lockheed for the F-35.
Until the A-12 program, Kelly Johnson’s Lockheed Skunkworks projects had a history of on-time or earlier delivery and under-budget completion.
@@Primus54, yeah -- not so much since then. I don't know about the C-141, but the FRED proved that Lockheed was promising more than technology could deliver on-time and at or under budget. 40 years later, the C-5 FINALLY met its initial contract capabilities.
We may never know how much the F-117 program cost us, and we'll probably never know how much the F-22 and F-35 have overrun their budgets -- we already know that they haven't met their technical specs upon delivery. But Lockheed has learned one lesson well: if the program is deemed essential, the government will cough up the money . . . .
SR71, my favorite plane. Even saw it fly into Oshkosh Air Venture in 1989, 2 passes before landing with full afterburner. Quite a sight to see those mach diamonds.
Amy's retro fashion style is awesome
Hearing mention of the Cuban Missile Crisis reminds me of Drop Drills done by diving under your desk at school and squatting with your arms around your head. Oh the "Wonderful" memories of the Cold War.
Amazing - this genre is such a rich source of content - I really hope you continue to cover any espionage/experimental aircraft that came out of Edwards in the 60s and 70s.
"Seeing the plane that wasn't supposed to exist." This has been Lockheed's enduring dilemma since 1960.
My grandfather was on the original design team for the sr-71 black bird.. he has signed pictures of it and him standing in front of it with 4 other team members.. badass
My knowledge of the A-12 probably tripled with this series. Thank you.
When I was driving to work at the MacDill ARTCC in 1969-'70 it was pure luck that I got to see an SR-71 take off. Pulled the car over near the end of the runway as both ABs lit and I watched the Blackbird roll slowly at first, then faster until it rotated, tucked the LG up and.....just disappeared, like a spaceship in warp drive. WOW would be an understatement. Wright Flyer, USAF (1968-1972).
congrats on the History Channel Gig Amy!
Hell ya. What is she doing?
Given the History Channel's current offerings, this is a step down for Amy. Here's hoping she can drag up the quality there.
Great video, Amy! Thanks for explaining the connection between the A-12 and the SR-71. Also, good day and WeirdChamp to all the rando dudes who only ever comment on her appearance. 😑
This if fun hearing about all the stuff that was going on behind the scenes while I was growing up!
Thanks for clearing up the RS-71 / SR-71 stories. Another story we always heard was that the fuel tank leaks were sort of intentional - they would put in just enough fuel to get airborne and then top off the tanks in the air, then accelerate to speed which would heat the exterior of the plane causing it to expand and seal the fuel tanks. Yeah, I know, it sounds silly.
Great hair Amy! This whole series has been great to watch, very detailed, well researched and presented. I'm appreciating the higher definition camera work too - it makes it feel like I'm watching you live, which makes it all the more engaging. Great job!
Looking at the figures here, it's not really that surprising that they cancelled the A12 in favour of the SR71 - $2.1bn was nearly a 10th of the cost of the Apollo program up to the end of the 60s.
My feeling is that 'they' - McNamara and Johnson - thought the A12 had paved the way - in research terms - for the SR71, but also in your brief here I got the feeling that there was some political infighting between the intelligence agencies and the military. It's an interesting story and I wonder how much McNamara, whom I've always found an interesting figure in political history, actually resented the CIA's encroachment into surveillance overflight programs.
Excellent as always. Please keep up the good work.
While I was in the Air Force, a sergeant told us about an airman who backed a truck into one of the inlet spikes of an SR-71. As a part of his Article 15 punishment, this poor shmuck was promoted to Staff Sergeant, so that they could dock almost his entire paycheck for the next few years to pay for the insanely expensive component this dufus had irreparably damaged. Afterwards, he was promptly discharged.
Article 15 of Uniform code of military justice forbids punishment going beyond 30 days, and such punishments are minor for minor transgressions. It would be illegal to dock an airman's pay for years then drum him out of the service.
@@langhamp8912 Maybe there was a court martial, it's been over thirty years since I was told this...
@@CaptRobertApril More likely the story was just B.S.
@@CaptRobertApril And neither an Article 15 hearing nor a court-martial has the authority to promote someone. If you get an email from a Nigerian Prince offering to send you a million dollars, resist the temptation to respond.
Awesome work! You covered one of the most beautiful planes ever made in style! Wish schools could teach subjects half as good as you do. Love the hair.
We have an A-12 in front of the San Diego Air and Space Museum which I'm sure most people mistake for a SR-71.
Yep, I sure did until I read your comment! I must have seen it a dozen times and I had no idea.
really love how much effort you put in the whole 1960s thing.
Great series, Amy. Love this stuff.
Thanks for this series Amy.
Thanks, Amy. This series has been very superb!
As always, outstanding work Amy!
The issues with air-inlet spike and its positioning dependent on speed was especially challenging given that it used state-of-the-art analogue electronics to control it, no mean feet using discrete transistor electronics.
Awesome I was ready for another video!
Much all the best!
that was a great series. Please keep up the good work Amy! 🚀
Thanks for taking a deep dive into the back story of the A-12. Your video was very informative, especially on the back story political aspects of this program. I hope someday you can make a video on the spy planes that were used in the beginning days of the cold war...such as the B-29, B-50 as well the Martin Mercator and B-47....some of these were shot down and it would be interesting to learn about these missions.
Thanks for the wonderful series! It’s been amazing spending the time listening to you.
This is the first of your videos I have ever seen. I am impressed. Well done.
Always the best content! I learned so much from this one as well as the rest of the series
I've followed the A-12/SR-71 story for as long as I can remember. She has every fact I can verify dead on. I remember reading about the engine inlet cone control problems in Aviation Week ages ago and it's exactly what she described.
I did flight data reduction at EAFB in '65 gathering the flight recorder and pilot clipboard directly from the various pilots the instant the canopy was lifted. Avoiding "unstarts" was job-1 and there a lot of effort put into developing the flight envelope "computer" that controlled the spikes. Being at speed at full throttle and having one engine fail abruptly and become full drag was brutal for a pilot, occasionally knocking them unconscious.
Top notch, Amy! Really enjoyed this series. Well done!
Again Amy gives us the whole picture and in detail. Well done and this is why I subscribed a while back.
Thanks for another brilliant one Amy.
Always great videos and content. Very informative. Thank you for all you do
Hi Amy. Great video as always. Thank you 👍
As always, an exemplary & definitive job. Informative, intriguing & entertaining! Thanks Any.
I'm soooo happy you're back!!! :) I've missed you :)
You bring the best History. Thank You
Amy, thank you so much!
It is a joy to watch the product of thorough research, quality production and beautifully delivered interesting content.
Just discovered this channel and loving it! Great job!
Very interesting video! Thanks Amy.
Thank you for being you, love learning from your videos very much.
Awesome series. Thank you for making it.
Great series! I learned so much through it all. Awesome job!
Also, the tied-up scarf with the bun looks really nice. Though really, you always are on point with your ensembles.
Yay I've been hanging out for part two, thanks Amy🥰 The oxcart program gave Us the godfather of air breathing awesomeness.
A superb series. Thank you.
A-12 was such a leap in tech and its evolution into the Blackbird cemented it in aviation history. One wonders what black box projects might be going on now. I first studied the history of the A-12 years ago in Ben Rich's book Skunk Works. More recently, Annie Jacobsen's Area 51 was an excellent history.
Thank you for such a wonderful series shedding light on the often overlooked Corona and 12 Oxcart programs. Can't wait for your Ceres on the X planes this will be epic
Amy, another excellent presentation developed from your research. Your presentation is full of information I had not seen or heard before. Keep the great work coming.
Thanks! I thought I had done a deep dive on Oxcart but you still uncovered some nuggets.
Amy, I love how you focus on such an important era of space / aerospace! All of your videos give such great detail on these programs, along with context of what was going on in that era. (also really enjoyed your book on pre-NASA spaceflight development!)
Your videos are all ways great thank you
Fantastic, I keep learning from your videos.
Excellent video. Very informative. Thank you for posting.
Great series. Thank You!
This was so interesting and so much detail. Thank you
Very interesting Amy, nicely done. 👍🏻
Awesome video, one small bit of feedback, where you positioned the airflow arrows on the J58 was invariably where the shaft of the turbine is, the air flows round the small gaps at the sides.
I noticed that too, hence it's called a compressor.
That new intro, Amy, O.M.G.!!! Awesome!!
Very interesting and thought-provoking. Glad to see you delving into such serious matters. So many of the decisions made during that era were absolutely appalling in retrospect.
This series is great! Please do a piece on MOL
Great videos with great content. Always informative. Your videos keep coming up as recommended lately and I've watched several this week.
Anyway, on a closely related theme, I would really like to see you cover the RB-67 reconnaissance flights in general, but especially the one commanded by Major Willard Palm and shot down over the Barents Sea on July 1, 1960.
As always, great stuff Amy!… I am so jealous of your wall
A wonderful and nuanced analysis of a complex topic. Thank you!
First Artist on Another World... looks like a poster signed by the late Alan Bean... while the first artwork on another world was Paul Van Hoeydonck's "Fallen Astronaut" on Apollo 15 in 1971 !
Amy I love your videos! I have been watching and learning much from them. I grew up in the 1960's and 1970's and I was glued to the TV during all of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. I sure wish we had the internet and youtube back then!
I had already studied many books and videos about both NASA and CIA/Air Force ops with the A-12 and SR-71. You have many insights that I had not known about. Excellent work!
There are some wonderful videos here on youtube done by pilots that flew both the A-12 and Sr-71.
I wanted to make a brief and minor correction and I apologize in advance if this sounds snooty or trivial. Okinawa is pronounced Ohh-ka-na wa....the first syllable is a long O and Kadena is pronounced Ka-dee-na with a long E sound. At least that is how the guys I know that were stationed there pronounced it.
I was wondering if you would consider doing a video on the project Azorian or "Jennifer" about the CIA backed attempt to raise a Russian Nuclear Submarine from the Pacific Ocean floor using Howard Hughes Company as a phony front undersea mining company during the mid 1970's.
It has a lot of 1970's era high tech for the day involved in it as well as all of the clandestine Black Ops of the time of the Iron Curtain/East Germany/ Checkpoint Charlie flavor. I would love to hear what you might find about this operation.
Please keep up the wonderful work!!!
Just came across your channel and love it. I had a TK clearance as a Crypto Tech while serving in the Air Force in late the 80's. It's been a while, but I eat this stuff up. Keep up the great work. :)
Great series. Cold War stuff is pure catnip to me.
Pete approves of this message. XD
Lol to me anything aviation related is like crack cocaine to me bud😂🤣
Awesome video and I love the look. Have a awesome day.
Amy, great as Always!!! 😍😍😍😍☺️😉
Yes, those 9 layers of makeup look great
Thank you for another excelent, informative video.
Superb content ! Thank you.
As a side note, one of the test pilots that flew the Air Force's AF-12 would later walk on the Moon 50 years ago this year. That test pilot was Jim Irwin (Apollo 15 LM Pilot).
Fantastic as always
Thoroughly enjoyed this series. Is that a signed dedication to you from Alan Bean on your wall? Wow.
Great information on the programs. I am disappointed you didn't cover more on the SR-71 but stories on it are widely available.
You’re so good! Thank you! Keep it up!
GREAT SERIES!!!!
Love it SR-71 ! Love your videos! Love you! Cheers from Argentina!
2:42 - Specifically, Amy, the U-2 used the fuselage of the XF-104 prototype.
Great video. It shows the lengths our country went to in the cold war. I've seen the SR71 at the air and space museum in Dulles. I went to a lecture on the sr71 at college park air port in Maryland. There was a question and answer session with the pilot and backseater. "How fast can you go?". The pilot said they could go fast enough to melt the airplane.
Hi Amy. Thank you for the interesting videos. Have a good day eh.
Amy, I made a point to show you and your talents to my daughter. Thank you for the example.
I'd love to see a video on the Soviet Zenit spy satellites!
A video topic I would like to see is all of the simulators used in training the Apollo astronauts for the moon landing, the rendezvous and docking, and the rigs for simulating the moons low gravity during moon walks.
I am particularly intrigued by the large scale models that were controlled by the computers that ran the simulations based on the astronauts performance in the CM or LM mock up.
This was so well done, I'm quite amazed, actually. A lot of research went into this, and one must wonder how many young women or men her age even know about this stuff. I was 10 years-old when sputnik was launched and I remember the hubbub over Gary Powers. I read and watched everything I could on aviation and the Mercury Project. I later studied physics and became a pilot and even I didn't know beans about the A-12, and nothing at all about the CIA involvement. So my hat's off to you Amy, thanks.
Why the hell didn't I get a notification for this? One of my favorite channels.
Amusing to see the NACA markings on the U2. At least Hugh Dryden never got cornered into having to explain what these are.
1:55 he’s polishing the U2 down like my dad polishes the car😂