Aeronautics: A Swift Black Bird

President Johnson had hardly revealed the existence of Lockheed’s supersonic A11 last February before the plane and its mission were grounded in controversy. Across the U.S., aviation experts argued that the A11 was built to fly so high (100,000 ft.) and so fast (up to 2,500 m.p.h.) that it could only have been conceived as a successor to the U2, the slow-speed (500 m.p.h.) reconnaissance plane that flew into so much trouble over Russia. But last week the A11 was publicly shown and flown. And the experts quickly reconsidered their judgment. From spearlike nose to flaring, double-delta wing, the A11 is all interceptor, all meanness and muscle.

Like Black Marbles. The Air Force trundled not one, but two A-11s onto the runway at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., had a third one disassembled in side an Edwards hangar for close-up observation. From the side, the swift ship looks like a stretched-out version of the X-15 rocket ship. From the front, the effect is just as strange; two bulbous engine nacelles above the razor-thin wing look like black marbles perched precariously on a strand of wire; the thin vertical tail surfaces, canted noticeably inward, jut upward like giant insect antennae.

On its maiden public flight the A11 clearly demonstrated the agility and speed that will be the hallmark of to morrow’s interceptor. But even more to the point, the A-11’s role as a fighter plane was obvious to those who inspected it on the ground. There were bomb-bay doors in the craft’s belly that hid a covey of four-vaned air-to-air AIM (Air Intercept Missile) missiles.

A Killer on Target. Developed for the Air Force by Hughes Aircraft, the 12½ ft. AIM can knock down either aircraft or missiles, and goes about its work at a top speed of 2,000 m.p.h. The AIM drops clear of its parent aircraft, then ignites and zooms off toward its target.

To silence any further doubt about the A-11’s role, the Air Force gave out a brief performance profile of the A11 as interceptor: the two-man (pilot and fire-control officer) plane, for example, can fly from Minneapolis to the northern tip of Hudson’s Bay in an hour, and still have enough fuel to return to base. On target, the A11 is all killer, can make a second pass at an enemy bomber in one-fourth the time needed by a more maneuverable but slower F-106. Plans are now to use the plane for an assault on the Russian-held world speed record (1,665.89 m.p.h.), and the big black bird has already been redesignated the YF-12A (Y for prototype, F for fighter), which means it may soon go into production as a tactical U.S. Air Force fighter.