Homepage The Unwelcome Guest: the RAF F-105 exchange pilot who landed at Area 51 and spotted the Top Secret A-12 Blackbird

CIA

Cold War Era / Losses and Aviation Safety / Military Aviation

The Unwelcome Guest: the RAF F-105 exchange pilot who landed at Area 51 and spotted the Top Secret A-12 Blackbird

Dario Leone

Nov 22 2023

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Aviation History / Cold War Era / Military Aviation

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Ben Rich recalls when CIA financed the A-12 Oxcart with secret funds and back-door payments to Lockheed with personal checks to Kelly Johnson for more than $1 million

Aviation History / Cold War Era / Military Aviation / SR-71 Blackbird

Skunk Works Director Ben Rich recalls when CIA financed the A-12 Oxcart with secret funds and back-door payments to Lockheed with personal checks to Kelly Johnson for more than $1 million

Aug 13 2023

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North Vietnamese Air Defenses hit one Blackbird Mach 3 Spy Plane: the story of the A-12 damaged by SAM debris

Cold War Era / Losses and Aviation Safety / Military Aviation / SR-71 Blackbird

Two Blackbird Mach 3 Spy Planes were Hit by North Vietnamese Air Defenses: one A-12 was hit with shrapnel, another Oxcart was damaged by SAM debris

Aug 12 2023

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After an A-12 flight specks of insects hoisted from the atomic test explosions in Russia and China were found on the Oxcart windshield

Aviation History / Cold War Era / SR-71 Blackbird

CIA engineer recalls when specks of insects hoisted from atomic tests in Russia and China were found on an A-12 windshield after an Oxcart mission

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Aviation History / Aviation Humor / Cold War Era / Military Aviation

The story of How the U-2 got its name: Test Pilot Tony LeVier flipped off Kelly Johnson, Johnson flipped off in return LeVier and yelled, “U-2” [You Too]!

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The story of the A-12CB, the Oxcart Carrier Based Mach 3 Spy Plane that never was

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Last of only six pilots to fly the A-12 for the CIA legendary Oxcart program passed away

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Ghosts of Groom Lake: the story of the F-101 Voodoo aircraft tasked to support the then top-secret A-12 program test flights at Area 51

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Did you know? To keep the A-12 project secret CIA stored in boxes Oxcart spy planes and moved them from Skunk Works production site to Area 51

Mar 5 2023

Linda Sheffield Miller

The urban legend of the brown bag with $30 million in cash delivered to Kelly Johnson to pay for the first six CIA U-2 spy planes

Aviation History / Cold War Era / Military Aviation

The weird story of when Kelly Johnson received a bag with $30 million in cash to pay for the first six CIA U-2 spy planes

Feb 10 2023

Linda Sheffield Miller

Blackbird Vs Oxcart: the story of project Nice Girl, the recon fly off between the SR-71 and the A-12 and why the Blackbird was chosen over the Oxcart

Aviation History / Cold War Era / Military Aviation / SR-71 Blackbird

SR-71 Vs A-12: project Nice Girl, the recon fly off between the Blackbird and the Oxcart and why the SR-71 was chosen over the A-12

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CIA

The Unwelcome Guest: the RAF F-105 exchange pilot who landed at Area 51 and spotted the Top Secret A-12 Blackbird

Thanks to our partners

British Secret U-2 operations and the RAF pilots who flew the Dragon Lady on CIA’s behalf during the Cold War

The story of how the US secretly tested the A-12 Mach 3 Spy Plane RCS during the Cuban Missile Crisis

First U-2 pilot recalls when the only U-2 pilot to fly over Moscow nearly died and crashed into Red Square after he almost bit his poison cyanide pill in half

Skunk Works Director Ben Rich recalls when CIA financed the A-12 Oxcart with secret funds and back-door payments to Lockheed with personal checks to Kelly Johnson for more than $1 million

Two Blackbird Mach 3 Spy Planes were Hit by North Vietnamese Air Defenses: one A-12 was hit with shrapnel, another Oxcart was damaged by SAM debris

CIA engineer recalls when specks of insects hoisted from atomic tests in Russia and China were found on an A-12 windshield after an Oxcart mission

The story of How the U-2 got its name: Test Pilot Tony LeVier flipped off Kelly Johnson, Johnson flipped off in return LeVier and yelled, “U-2” [You Too]!

The story of the A-12CB, the Oxcart Carrier Based Mach 3 Spy Plane that never was

Last of only six pilots to fly the A-12 for the CIA legendary Oxcart program passed away

Ghosts of Groom Lake: the story of the F-101 Voodoo aircraft tasked to support the then top-secret A-12 program test flights at Area 51

Did you know? To keep the A-12 project secret CIA stored in boxes Oxcart spy planes and moved them from Skunk Works production site to Area 51

The weird story of when Kelly Johnson received a bag with $30 million in cash to pay for the first six CIA U-2 spy planes

SR-71 Vs A-12: project Nice Girl, the recon fly off between the Blackbird and the Oxcart and why the SR-71 was chosen over the A-12

That time an Air America UH-1D Huey shot down a North Vietnamese An-2 Colt Biplane

Carmine Vito was the only U-2 pilot to fly over Moscow: five Soviet MiGs launched to intercept his flight got lost or collided

Tagboard Flyers: the story of the B-52 bombers that carried the D-21 Mach 3 ramjet-powered reconnaissance drones

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