El SR-71 con misiles: Lockheed YF-12

Video from the channel SkyShips en Español about Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 22:35. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary about the Lockheed YF-12, the interceptor derived from the A-12 reconnaissance aircraft within the same family as the SR-71 Blackbird. It tells the story of its origin, its differences from the A-12, its testing, its cancellation and its second life as a research aircraft.

In the late 1950s, the United States Air Force was looking for a replacement for the F-106 Delta Dart interceptor. The candidate, the North American XF-108 Rapier, designed for Mach 3, was cancelled due to its cost when U-2 flights lowered the estimated threat from Soviet bombers. Kelly Johnson, head of Skunk Works and of the CIA program, then proposed an interceptor based on the A-12 that would make use of the radar and missiles already developed for the XF-108. Lockheed went on to offer several variants and the Air Force ordered three interceptors. The YF-12 first flew in August 1963 at Groom Lake. It later moved to Edwards Air Force Base and was shown to the public after the Lyndon Johnson administration's announcement in 1964. In 1965 the Air Force requested 93 production F-12Bs, but spending on the Vietnam War and cuts by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara cancelled the order. The program was shut down in 1968.

The nose was redesigned to house the Hughes AN/ASG-18 radar with an infrared sensor. The reconnaissance equipment bays were replaced with fire control and three GAR-9 missiles, later AIM-47 Falcon, weighing 363 kg with a range of about 160 km. A weapons operator station was added along with ventral fins under the nacelles, and maximum weight rose from 53 to 63 tonnes. In 1965 it reached Mach 3.1 at around 24 km. In testing, seven AIM-47s were launched; in one launch, the aircraft was flying at 23 km and Mach 3.2 and the missile hit a target flying at 150 m. The radar gave way to the F-14 Tomcat's AN/AWG-9 and the missile to the AIM-54 Phoenix. NASA and the Air Force kept using the YF-12As to research Mach 3 flight. One was damaged in 1966 and, combined with a forward section built for ground testing, became the SR-71C, now on display at Hill. Another crashed in 1971 near Edwards. The last one flew until 1979 and is at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, at Wright-Patterson. The so-called YF-12C was actually an SR-71.