Three YF-12A prototypes were built to demonstrate the platform’s capability as a high-speed interceptor that the United States could count on to hunt down and destroy Soviet bombers. The first ...

Three YF-12A prototypes were built to demonstrate the platform’s capability as a high-speed interceptor that the United States could count on to hunt down and destroy Soviet bombers. The first ...

Not just a recon bird and not only a fighter-interceptor, the YF-12A was designed to do it all. And it did it all very well. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney J58 engines, this bird could operate ...

The aircraft actually revealed in Air Force photos that day was the YF-12A, the interceptor version of the CIA’s still-secret A-12 and the Air Force’s SR-71 spy aircraft. Seven months after ...

Today, the YF-12A remains the closest the United States ... In 1953 the Air Force began development of a new interceptor that would protect the United States and Canada from Soviet bomber attacks.

The panel's discussion focused on the Air Force YF-12 interceptor jet ... pilot Jim Eastham was at the stick of the two-cockpit YF-12A on its maiden flight out of Area 51. President Lyndon ...