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There were actually two A-12s. The Lockheed A12 was introduced in 1967 and retired in 1968. The McDonnell Douglass A12 was never built and finally cancelled in
by CalChris 7y ago
There were actually two A-12s. The Lockheed A12 was introduced in 1967 and retired in 1968. The McDonnell Douglass A12 was never built and finally cancelled in 1991.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_A-12_Avenger_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_A-12_Avenger...
The SR71 succeeded the Lockheed A12. It was hard to keep secret.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/keeping-the-sr-71-blackbird-the-worlds-first-stealth-plane-17936 https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/keeping-the-sr-71...
- baybal2 7y ago> There were actually two A-12s. The Lockheed A12 I bet this was made on purpose. USA has learned some tricks from Soviets with their "fake patterns" F-117 wasn't a fighter, and A-12 was not a CAS aircraft. Pretty much like Kirov was not really an "auxiliary craft," and Tu-22 M-1-2-3 were all nearly completely different aircraft
- toomanybeersies 7y agoThe F117 is also the USAF designation for an aircraft engine (Pratt & Whitney PW2000), used on the C-17. Someone suggested to me a few years ago that might be the reason why the F-117 was designated that way.
- catalogia 7y agoTanks are so named because during WWI, the British decided to conceal their true purpose by calling them 'water carriers.' 'W.C.' was deemed an inappropriate initialism though, so the name was changed to 'tank' as in "a tank of water."