The First Public Acknowledgment Of The Existence Of The SR71 Blackbird

Acknowledgment of the existence of the SR71 Blackbird

The first public acknowledgment of the existence of the SR71 Blackbird came on February
29,1964. Barry Goldwater, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to run for Presi-
dent, was accusing President Johnson of being more interested in social legislation for
the Great Society than in the defense of America. LBJ, in an effort to deflect Goldwater's
criticism, decided to take some of the wraps off of what had been one of the most closely
held secrets in America. The fact that the program had been ininitiated in the Eisenhower
Administration, and brought to fruition in the Kennedy Administration didn't prevent LBJ
from claiming credit for it.
The aircraft announced by LBJ was the YF-12A. He stated that: "The performance of the
A·11 far exceeds that of any other aircraft in the world today." Cruising speeds in excess
of Mach 3, at altitudes over 70,000 feet were attributed to the new design. At the time of
the announcement, no Air Force fighter designation existed for Lockheed's revolutionary
design. Reportedly, LBJ misread 'AMI' (Advanced Manned Interceptor) as 'A-11', and this
was allowed to stand (it was known that Lockheed's designations for the design evolution
of the Blackbird ran from A·1 to A·12, which lent additional credence to the A-11 designa-
tion.) If this is true, then LBJ can claim some sort of record for misstatement, for when he
followed up his February 29 A-11 announcement with a July 25 revelation of the develop-
ment of the SR-71, he juxtaposed Reconnaissance Strike (RS·70, as the ill-fated XB-70 was
to have been operationally known.) into Strike Reconnaissance. The announcement of the
SR·71 was blatant political hay-making. The Republican Convention was in session in San
Francisco, and its speakers had criticized LBJ for concentrating on missiles rather than
developing a new manned bomber. The Republican Platform charged that the Johnson ad-
ministration had failed to initiate a single new major strategic weapon system. Since the
cancelled RS-70 had been meant to operate as a Strategic Reconnaissance strike aircraft,
it was not unreasonable to assume that it's only other companion in Mach 3 land might
not do the same. And to solidify this impression, SR: Strike-Reconnaissance, became SR:
Strategic Reconnaissance.
The first public showing of a Blackbird was in the fall of 1964, at Edwards AFB, Califor-
nia. The YF·12A was the interceptor which would guard our shores from the hordes of
Russian bombers poised just over the horizon. It was widely reported as being the follow-
on to the ill-fated North American F·10B Rapier, which was to have been the escort for our
own hordes of RS-70's. The YF·12A did, in fact, use the Hughes ASG-1B radar and the
GAR-9 missiles that had been developed for the F-10B. Three YF-12A's were in con-
spicuous evidence at various times during a test program that seemed strangely sporadic
to some aerospace reporters of that time. The press reported that other 'A-11s' were being
tested at a secret site in Nevada. (Possibly Watertown Strip at Groom Dry Lake, also
known as 'The Ranch') The YF-12 testing took place at Edwards AFB, California. In addi-
tion to the three YF-12A (serial numbers 06934, 35, 36) and the SR-71 prototype, which was
modified from YF·12A 06937, a further eight were reported to have been constructed.  In fact, there were no other YF-12s, and the reason that their test program was not pursued
feverishly was probably that the operational mission of the Blackbirds was never meant to
be anything but clandestine reconnaissance. By the time that the airplane was revealed to
the public, the test program was well advanced. Lockheed's test pilots, headed by Louis
W. Schalk, and including William C. Park, Robert J. Gilliland, and James D. Eastham had
conducted such an outstanding test program that they received, as a group, the Society
of Experimental Test Pilots' Iven C. Kincheloe award for 1964.

The sharply pointed nose of the CIA's A·12 is one of the principle differences between it 
and the SR·71. The surviving A·12s are stored at Lockheed's Palmdale facility. They carry 
no markings, but exhibit the natural metal that most carried during their operational 
careers, with Black paint applied only to the areas that attained the highest ln-Illqht 
temperatures. (John Andrews)