Turning A Spy Plane Into A Mach 3 Fighter Jet - The YF-12

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Skunk works department of Lockheed, tasked with black projects throughout the cold war, was already working on A-12.

This was a project financed by that shady CIA money and made to replace U-2 eventually, with the irony being, it was actually the U-2 that outlived all the other projects to this day.

Anyway, Johnson figured that his company could fulfil the Air force requirements for a new supersonic interceptor by modifying the platform they already had available and went to the Air force officials with the idea.

They did approve the project and it was decided for 3 prototypes to be built because it was a viable, yet much cheaper option than the XF-108 program.

And so, the YF-12 came to life.

To create an interceptor out of reconnaissance aircraft was a tricky thing, so the first task was to incorporate radar and weaponry.

The nose section was slightly modified, clipping a part of the flat wing extensions to accommodate the Hughes AN/ASG-18 radar, one developed originally for the Rapier. Along with a new powerful radar, YF-12 was also equipped with an IRST, or simply an infrared sensor tracking the targets based on the heat signature.

All the cameras and other recon equipment were removed to create space for a weapons bay.

It was made out of 4 compartments, one storing weapons control system and the other 3 actual missiles.

You see, because of the aerodynamic complexity of the aircraft, it was impossible to have missiles carried externally or any other weaponry obviously, so the only option was an internal weapons bay.

AIM-47 Falcon was the main armament for the YF-12. A mid to long-range missile with the warhead large enough to shoot down a Soviet bomber. There was even an option of a smaller nuclear warhead to arm this missile too.

Talk about the overkill.

In total, 7 missiles were fired by YF-12 during testing, with only one failing to hit its target.

Another big change compared to the original design were fins on the underside of the fuselage and both of the engines respectively which were to provide stabilization during the flight, much needed because the A-12 as a platform wasn’t really the most steerable thing and with all the modifications done it just got worse.

It’s interesting to mention that the fin in the middle was so large, that it had to be folded during the take-offs and landings. Similar to what the Soviet MiG-23 had as a design choice in the future.

Also, there is a huge YF-12 and F-14 Tomcat connection, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

Before ending the design story, one more important thing to mention is that the YF-12 was a twin-seater. Apart from a pilot, there was a weapons officer to focus on combat while the pilot would steer the already complex machine.

Now, let’s answer that lingering question. What happened to the project?