About that picture in Footmunch's A&M Complete...

[ThudBlunderQ8 0]

I've been reading the Footmunch pages in A&M Complete, and saw on this pic:

of the YF12A prototype what appear to be 3 white stencil markings under the forward cockpit window.  Any idea what these might signify?  Drone launches, perhaps?

[Supah 0]

Or test flights possibly, maybe even recon sorties Cool to see the armed version around BTW. Big radar nose and AIM-54's .... one wonders how effective it would have been

[Shashman 0]

I reckon the A-12 would be on a par with the TU-128 Fiddler, size-wise at least

[FSPilot 0]

I've been reading the Footmunch pages in A&M Complete, and saw on this pic:

http://jpcolliat.free.fr/f12/yf12/yf12_99.jpg

of the YF12A prototype what appear to be 3 white stencil markings under the forward cockpit window.  Any idea what these might signify?  Drone launches, perhaps?

Drouges shot down? IIRC, the YF12A was the fighter version of the SR-71, so I doubt they're for recon missions flown.

[ThudBlunderQ8 0]

I think I've been able to answer my own question - though whether anyone else would be interested is a moot point.  Had I bothered to do a Google first, I'd have found pictures like these:

the D21 drone:

..as launched by the original member of the A12/ YF12/ SR71 family, modified from A12 to M12 for the task:

..although sadly the project lead to the death of the M12's Launch Operator when the D21 hit his cabin on separation at Mach 3.  The D21 was then integrated into B52 ops for a handful of launches before being withdrawn.

Whilst

this page gives the total number of drone shoot-downs the trial YF12As made.  Which is probably what those stencils are, then...

Ah - the '60s, when people were flying to the moon, fighters could do Mach 3 and supersonic transport was becoming available for civilians!  Couldn't see it happening now, could you?!

[GoOB 0]

Ah - the '60s, when people were flying to the moon, fighters could do Mach 3 and supersonic transport was becoming available for civilians!  Couldn't see it happening now, could you?!

The nuclear stand off's, the arms race, the Vietnam war. Gotta love the 60's  

[Shashman 0]

Let's not forget the mini skirts, invention of the bikini, sexual liberation, sexual promiscuity.... *sigh* good times I'm sure

[Major Fubar 0]

I could be waaay off target (jets aren't a specialty of mine) but I thought it looked like a Blackbird:

[edc 0]

I think the SR-71 Blackbird was originally going to be a fighter/intercepter(I assume ThudBlunder's pic is of one of the ones used in that program), and later became the spy plane.

[pajama 0]

Hehe...M12(D21?) is shown in action in one of the Metal Gear Solid 3 (English) trailer

And I thought that whole pod crap was made up

I'll grab a pic ASAP...

...crap, WMP won't let ya take pics  

K, got the vid instead...its the GC 2004 one...

Click Here for Video

[ThudBlunderQ8 0]

I really must get a life!  I too thought, like Supah, that the missile shown was an AIM-54.  Wrong!  A shufti at

shows the AIM-54 on the right, with its predecessor the AIM-47 on the other side of the very-relaxed looking serviceman.  Or to be even more pedantic, the XAIM-54 and the XAIM-47.  It was the latter missile that the YF12 used in the drone shoot-downs; in service, the F12B would've apparently been armed with AIM-47Bs with folding wings to solve weapons-bay storage-space problems.

Must get out more...

Oh, and if you think the 60s were bad, GoOB, how about MY decade - the 50s?!  Korea, Arms Race, McCarthyism - in comparison the 60s were brilliant.  Mind you, the 40s have their detractors - something to do with Messrs Hitler, Stalin.. perhaps there really is no time like the present, eh?  At least dentistry has continuously improved throughout.