The Archangels

The combination of the shoot down of the U-2 over Russia in 1960, Russia's moving into Cuba, and the war in Vietnam placed a heavy load on national security. Secretly flown out of Area 51, the CIA's new Directorate of Science and Technology developed a stealthy spy plane that still today remains the fastest and highest flying manned plane ever.

The A-12 plane spent 18 months on a pylon situated on the dry Groom Lake during RCS, radar cross section evaluations by the CIA's special projects team at Area 51. It flew 2,850 secret flights out of Area 51 during the flight tests known as Project OXCART. From Area 51, CIA Director Helms deployed people and three planes to a CIA outpost in Kadena, Okinawa where the CIA operationally overflew North Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and North Korea during Operation BLACK SHIELD before the Air Force replacing it with the SR-71, the fourth member of the Blackbird family.

Dettagli