YF-12A

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PUMAPAUL
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Joined:Sat Jun 24, 2017 4:37 am
YF-12A

Post by PUMAPAUL » Sat Jun 24, 2017 5:47 am

I am admired since no payware YF-12A has ever been released for FSX / P3D. Since you have created two gorgeous renditions of the other 2 "Blackbirds" it is natural to think that your next attempt will be the third and barely known "Blackbird".
The YF-12A is a never materialized project for a Mach 3+ interceptor badly needed by the Air Defence Command in the Cold War, in USA. It had to match speed and range to intercept Soviet bombers as soon as they were detected by NORAD.
The whole interceptors fleet of the USAF was designed in the times when bombers had to position themselves right over the target to release free-fall weapons. The bombing concept changed in the late 'fifties and promoted the creation of weapons launched at a long distance from their targets. The so-called "stand-off weapons".
As stand-off weapons could be launched from the carrier bombers at an alarming distance from their targets, new technology to shot them down before they launched their weapons began to be perceived as necessary, taking account that traditional interceptors wouldn't have neither the time nor the range to reach bombers with their weapons still inside them.
Some believe that the whole F-12 project was a courtain to hide the real purpose of the definitive SR-71, but the idea of a really effective interceptor to defend the homeland from the concept of stand-off weapons was a real and perceived ecological niche long time waiting for a plane to cope with it. In fact, USA had projects, like the F-103 and the F-109 hypersonic interceptors that never reached prorotype status
Reaching altitudes on the range of 80,000 ft and getting to their refuel positions far beyond the arctic circle at hypersonic speeds, the eventual F-12B could loiter until SAGE assigned them their potential targets and direct it to shot them down well beyond the max. launch distance for the stand-off missiles.
For that purpose, the YF-12A (a pre-production model for testing the basic idea) would make use of 4 AIM-54 Phoenix missiles (whose later development would become the standard long range missile for the US Navy) making use of four weapons bays, roughly the same bays the SR-71 used for its reconnaisance equipment.
The definitive F-12B remained just in a early mock-up stage when political reasons turned the hypersonic interceptor down.
The YF-12A is an astonishing aircraft. It set six world records in an only day, in the mid-sixties. If Soviets closed the USA project with their contemporary and unexpensive Mach 3 MiG-25, it could only reach that speed during very short periods of time, while the F-12 was designed for sustained Mach 3+ periods from the start, using the airframe and the J-58 engines of their sister Blackbirds, coupled to a state-of-the-art fire control system including comprehensive active and passive sensors.
Three flying YF-12As were built. One was lost during an approach, other reached NASA and flew development flights to study hyoersonic flight, becoming an authentic "flying wind tunnel" capable of getting wind speeds of Mach 3+; an impossible deed for the ground-based wind tunnels. The third is preserved in a museum.
It would be great having those three YF-12As in my fleet and a "What if" F-12B with full Tack-Pack possibilities, allowing imagination to make a guess of how would have looked that plane had it ever become a production active plane.
Hoping that my idea could render frutition,
PUMAPAUL.

DBushell
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Re: YF-12A

Post by DBushell » Sun Jun 25, 2017 7:25 pm

Hi,

It's always a possibility!

Best regards,

David.
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DBushell
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Location:Mildenhall, Suffolk, UK
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Re: YF-12A

Post by DBushell » Wed Sep 05, 2018 7:10 pm

You never know!
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