Meet the A-12 Oxcart, an aircraft purpose-built for high-altitude reconnaissance. Developed for the CIA, it was designed to fly faster and higher than other aircraft of its time.
Meet the A12 Oxcar, the CIA's secret weapon that was tested in the middle of the Nevada desert in a place you might have heard of, Area 51. [music] >> The A12 flew at Mach 3.2, which is three times the speed of sound at 90,000 ft.
[music] Lockheed Skunk Works engineers had to invent new materials from scratch, including titanium alloys, special fuels, and a futuristic engine just to keep it from melting at those speeds.
>> And the whole point, replace the U2 spy plane after one was shot down in 1960.
The CIA needed something nothing could catch.
>> In May 1967, the A12 was assigned its only covert mission, Operation Black Shield.
>> 29 flights over East Asia during [music] the Vietnam War, gathering critical intelligence. These were highresolution photos processed hours within landing, >> and its legacy still shaping aerospace engineering today. Come see the spies behind the mission >> and the machines that made it possible.
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