SR-71 Rustbird...

[Warbirdnerd]

The SR-71 in Huntsville looks pretty rough...

Found and linked the picture from here:
http://keiththomsonbooks.com/blog/2015/ ... tbird-2015

[wendovertom]

OUCH - is that recent? Maybe the USAF display program needs to have it come out to Wendover! We had a A-12 "oxcart" crash a few miles southeast of the airfield in the 60's - close enough tie right??!!

Tom P.

[Dan Jones]

Is that rust or a red oxide primer coming through? Kinda looks like the latter from here.

[sandiego89]

The SR-71 in Huntsville looks pretty rough...

If I may operate in rivet counter mode for a minute I believe it is actually an A-12.....ex- CIA single seater- close sister to the SR-71

I bet the original, special, paint was removed before being trucked to museums when taken out of storage in Palmdale....

She does look a bit rough....

[GregP]

The nose is not an A-12; it is SR-71 or more properly, RS-71 that Lyndon Johnson messed up when he annouced it. If you Google SR-71 and A-12, the difference is clear.

[Tim Savage]

It is an A-12

Serial No. 60-6930

[p51]

The plan is to mount that bird atop a pole out by the corner of the property facing the highway off ramp to there.
Right now, its sitting in what used to be the parking lot at the front of the visitor center. If you ever watched the movie, "Space Camp" from 1986, you saw the exact spot in the sequence when all the characters arrive for camp, when Tom Skerritt tells Tate Donovan to move his Jeep out of a parking space that isn't his. The nose of that A-12 is almost touching that parking space.

[sandiego89]

The nose is not an A-12; it is SR-71 or more properly, RS-71 that Lyndon Johnson messed up when he annouced it. If you Google SR-71 and A-12, the difference is clear.

Greg, it is an A-12. http://roadrunnersinternationale.com/article127.html

Easiest way to tell is the lack of a rear seat crew member- note no rear seat window or hatch in the #1 post warbirdnerd posted. YF-12 and SR-71 all had two crew positions, and you would readily see that window/hatch from this angle. Other more subtle differences, but the single seat is the giveaway.

Perhaps you are thinking of the third sister in the family- the YF-12? 3 built. They had the cut down chines.

[eze240]

Definitely an A12.....single seat, A12 nose is supposedly slightly narrower....probably not rust seen in the picture. I'm not sure, but I don't think all the A12's were painted solid black, like the SR' s. This one was probably painted with red primer and a cheap black paint when it was sent to Huntsville.

[GregP]

If it is an A-12, why doesn't it have an A-12 nose?

[StangStung]

It does have an A-12 nose, because it's an A-12



SR on left, A-12 on right.

[StangStung]

Also this, which is from the CIA website:

[Stephan Wilkinson]

Titanium doesn't rust.

[GregP]

My apologies. I was think of the YF-12 and YF-12A nose, not the Oxcart family.

[k5083]

Titanium doesn't rust.

That's what I was thinking; we must be looking at something other than iron oxide there. Primer? Funky titanium corrosion? Anyway maybe the plane's condition is not as bad as it looks.

August