Moving the CIA A-12 to Area 51

Transporting the CIA A-12 Blackbird


Interesting story and pix. Loooong time ago.

 

This is really neat

 

They went to a lot of extra trouble to keep them secret. Wouldn't it have been easier to assemble the planes at Area 51?

 

Very cool. It's interesting that the yf12 was screened off.

 

Isn't that essentially what's going on now with JANET flights every day?

 

I was there! sort of...

I saw one of those trips when I was a 16-yr old, traveling down then hwy. 99 with my father on the way to one of his customers in Mexico. It was pure coincidence that we were driving in that area; usually the customer flew us down. Until this day, I never knew what the crate contained or why it was surrounded by so many cops! I recall we thought it was an ICBM or something.

Funny how life spins out......
Yes; loooong time ago!

 

Probably didn't have the equipment and manpower to do that kind of work.

 

Great story.

This reminds me of story or German U-boats in WWII, they took those from Kiel to black sea through rivers and roads. On road they had two trucks side by side.
Adolf Hitler's 'lost fleet' found in Black Sea - Telegraph

 

I don't think you can just pull the wings off these like you can with simpler, more conventional aircraft. (like the U2, for example) The internal structure seems to be made up all in one assembly.

 

Interesting read! And the first time I've ever seen pictures from inside Area 51 - I wonder how they managed to be allowed to release these pics, even if they show just an ordinary hangar.

 

I don't think it was actually classified "Area 51" way back when they tested this plane.

 

Wasn't it just called 'Groom Lake' then?

Don't think the feds even officially acknowledged that it existed until the 90's sometime

 

Great article!

 

Once you get the SR-71 to your destination airport, you'll need the flight manual to learn to get it in the air, so here's your ops manual.

SR-71 Online - SR-71 Flight Manual: Section 1, Page 1-4

Speed limits found here:

SR-71 Online - SR-71 Flight Manual: Section 5, Page 5-8

 

Great photos...............thanks for the link.

 

so is project aurora real or what. surely we must have something faster by now!

 

Re the name; Kelly Johnson called it for what it was, Groom Lake (after the dry lake there). Lockheed and the CIA first named it Watertown. When OXCART began, the name was updated to Paradise Ranch, (it was -and is- generally known as just "The Ranch"). The old story is they wanted to make the place sound like it would be fun and interesting with that name, and not just an isolated dry lake with hangers and related buildings. Other refs call it Dreamland, which always reminded me of a George Lucas film. Others on this board who have flown in the military will also ref it as The Box. Bob H

 

Boeing X-51 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

A pretty good little book on Area 51:

Books about Area 51 - Historical Photos & Images of Area 51 - Arcadia Publishing