Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 6
274
to proceed with antiradar studies, aerodynamic structural tests, and engineering designs. This research and all later work on the A-12 took place under a new codename. Project OXCART, established at the end of August 1959 to replace its more widely known predecessor, Project GUSTO.¹⁶ The CIA’s project manager for OXCART was John Parangosky, who had long been associated with the U-2 program.
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EFFORTS TO REDUCE THE A-12’S RADAR CROSS SECTION
During the spring of 1959, Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works crew—which then numbered only 50—had begun building a full-scale mockup of the proposed aircraft. The mockup was to be tested for its radar cross section by Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier (EG&G) in cooperation with the Scientific Engineering Institute at a small testing facility at Indian Springs, Nevada. Lockheed objected to this site because its pylon would not support the full-scale mockup and because the facilities were in full view of a nearby highway. On 10 September 1959, EG&G agreed to move its radar test facility to the former U-2 testing site at Area 51 of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Nevada Proving Grounds.¹⁷
When the new radar test facility with its larger pylon was ready, Johnson put the A-12 mockup on a specially designed trailer truck that carried it from Burbank to Area 51. By 18 November 1959, the mockup was in place atop the pylon, and radar testing could begin. These tests soon proved that Lockheed’s concept of shape, fuel additive, and nonmetallic parts was workable, but it would take more than 18 months of testing and adjustment before the OXCART achieved a satisfactory radar cross section.
It was in the course of this radar testing that the OXCART received its characteristic cobra-like appearance. Edward Purcell and Franklin Rodgers had come up with a theory that a continuously curving airframe would be difficult to track with a radar pulse because it would present few corner reflectors or sharp angles from which pulses could bounce in the direction of the radar. To achieve the continuously curving airframe, Kelly Johnson added thin, curved extensions to the engine housings and leading edges of the wings and
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¹⁶ Parangosky interview (S); *OSA History*, chap. 20, pp. 19-21 (TS Codeword).
¹⁷ *OSA History*, chap. 20, p. 22 (TS Codeword).
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25