From Gusto to Oxcart, Pt. IV

By Scott Schwartz

The Titanium Goose - the only two seat trainer varient of the Lockheed A-12 ever built, is now on display in Los Angeles. (Photo courtesy of Kowloonese)Well, modifying the A-12 to accept the “temporary” Pratt & Whitney J75 caused even more time and money.  Nevertheless, the A-12 prototype was shipped in pieces to the test site on Feb. 28, 1962.

Perhaps a harbinger of things to come was the fact that, upon re-assembly, fuel began to pour from the aircraft. This was not one of the “normal” leaks, but rather, it was the result of fuel tank sealants failure to bond to the titanium. The repairs took more than one month to complete.

And so it was that on April 25, 1962, the first high-speed taxi tests were to begin.  The plan was to taxi at high speed, lift off momentarily, and then come right down.  Well, the taxiing was no problem.  However the lift off was rather exciting, for once the aircraft left the ground, it began to behave very erratically – yawing and pitching seemingly of its own accord.  Test pilot Lou Schalk struggled to land the aircraft, finally touching down in the desert dust – nowhere near the runway.

Someone’s failure to properly load the fuel turned out to be the problem.  This resulted in a center of gravity that was too far to the rear of the aircraft.

Well, the first flight that was supposed to be a “flight” occurred on April 30, 1962.  Since this flight was observed by CIA and USAF representatives, it was a good thing that things went well.  Roughly a week later, Schalk flew the aircraft at supersonic speed for the first time.  Clearly, the program was moving along; by December of 1962 another five A-12s were delivered, and the tests continued.  At that point all of the aircraft were powered by the J75 engines. However, all but one – a two-seat trainer variant of the A-12 (known as the “Titanium Goose”) – were eventually re-fitted with the J58 engines. 

But, deliveries of the J58 engines were slow, and problems with the airplane kept appearing.

There is no doubt that the A-12 was a wildcat of an airplane to build and to fly.  And, it was awesome – even a little frightening – to those who had the necessary clearance to witness the aircraft taking off.  During the 1960s, Richard Helms, who was a CIA official, upon feeling the ground under his feet shaking and witnessing the visible shock waves emanating from the A-12’s engines, referred to the airplane as “the hammers of Hell.”

Speaking of hammers, one particular problem with the airplane tended to “hammer” pilots – almost literally.  This occurred when the airplane’s pitch or yaw angle reduced the airflow into one engine momentarily. This caused the affected engine’s thrust to drop to near zero.  This phenomenon – known as an “un-start” – occurred only momentarily.  But, during the 10 seconds that it took for the move-able inlet control units to resolve the problem, the pilot would be slammed all over the inside of the cockpit, and the “un-starts” usually occurred while the aircraft was flying at speeds of mach 2.4 to 2.8.  Obviously, violent yawing of the aircraft at these speeds was something to be avoided.

Several months after the Blackbird’s first successful test flight, test pilot Bill Park stormed into Skunk Works engineer Ben Rich’s office and dropped his dented flight helmet in Rich’s lap. While Rich was working on the problem pilots still had to contend with it while flying the aircraft.  In some cases, the “un-starts” were occurring up to 20 times within 10-minute periods.  In order to remedy an “un-start” in flight, the pilot had to figure out which engine was effected and then reduce power in the other engine.  Once that was done, he had to re-ignite both engines.  All of this, by the way, while being slammed around in the cockpit, and while the aircraft was dropping toward earth.  In one case, a pilot experienced an “un-start” while flying over West Virginia.  During his efforts to re-start both engines, the aircraft had plunged to 30,000 feet before re-lighting.  Once the engines suddenly came alive the aircraft created a sonic boom, which caused a factory’s chimney to crumble, crushing two workers to death!

The “un-start” problem was never eliminated, despite the pressure being placed on engineer Ben Rich.  In fact, test pilot Bill Park demanded that Rich fly in the A-12, in order to experience an “un-start” first hand.  Skunk Works boss Kelly Johnson enthusiastically supported this idea and ordered Rich to “suit-up” and “get out there” in order to fix the problem.  Of course, in order to fly at 90,000 feet and above, Rich had to be checked out in a compression chamber, while wearing a pressure suit.  Oh, and a simulated ejection at 90,000 feet was part of the program, as well.  As soon as the door to the compression chamber was closed, Rich began screaming to be let out.  Wearing the suit, with its heavy helmet, as well as being shut inside this chamber, was just too much for the engineer, and he experienced an attack of claustrophobia.  So much for experiencing an “un-start” first hand. 

So, the “un-start” problem was never actually eliminated.  Whether this was due to Rich’s not having flown in the Blackbird is not clear. But, Rich did design an electronic control unit that would, in the event of an “un-start”, automatically reduce power to the “good” engine (Rich referred to this as a “sympathetic un-start”) and then re-ignite both engines simultaneously.

Problems with the A-12 notwithstanding, it was clear that the aircraft could potentially be used in applications other than reconnaissance.

To be continued.

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