BLACKBIRD PILOT WILL ATTEND YF-12 TRIBUTE.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer PALMDALE - Aviation enthusiasts will celebrate Saturday the 40th anniversary of the first flight of what was to be an interceptor version of the famous Blackbird blackbird, common name in North America of a perching bird allied to the bobolink, the meadow lark, the oriole, and the grackle and belonging to the family Icteridae. The European blackbird, Turdus merula, is a thrush. spy plane. The Blackbird Airpark air·park n. A small airport typically located near a business area or industrial park. - the nation's only display of the two other Blackbird types, the SR-71 and the older but similar CIA-operated A-12 - will host the anniversary event from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the 2,000-mph YF-12A prototype, designed to shoot down Soviet bombers but never produced. ``There's no formal ceremony,'' said Doug Nelson, curator of the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum, which operates the airpark. ``It's a relaxed, informal event.'' Former Lockheed test pilot James Eastham, who piloted the first flight of the YF-12A, will talk to visitors and sign autographs at Blackbird Airpark, on Avenue P at 25th Street East. Other Blackbird crew members are also expected to be on hand to share experiences and to sign autographs. Admission is free. Former SR-71 pilot Rich Graham will sign copies of his books ``SR-71 Revealed: The Inside Story'' and ``SR-71 Blackbird “SR-71” redirects here. For other uses, see SR-71 (disambiguation). The Lockheed SR-71 was an advanced, long-range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed YF-12A and A-12 aircraft by the Lockheed Skunk Works. : Stories, Tales and Legends.'' Pete Merlin, author of ``Mach 3+: NASA/USAF Y-12 Flight Research, 1969 to 1979'' will also be on hand to autograph copies of his monograph. Weather permitting, the cockpits of the airpark's SR-71 and U-2 aircraft will be open for display. Similar in appearance to the more well-known SR-71 spy planes, but with a rounded nose that housed a radar dish to track enemy bombers, the YF-12A was intended to be a two-seat fighter-interceptor armed with high-speed air-to-air missiles Noun 1. air-to-air missile - a missile designed to be launched from one airplane at another missile - a rocket carrying a warhead of conventional or nuclear explosives; may be ballistic or directed by remote control . Presented to the public at Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. in September 1964, the plane was tested by the Air Force until late 1966 or early 1967 and by NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. into the 1970s. The YF-12 never went into production. The unarmed SR-71s served as spy planes until 1990. Three YF-12 aircraft were built, but only one, now at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 8,023 acres (3,247 hectares), W Ohio, NE of Dayton; est. 1917. One of the largest airport installations in the world, it is the air force's main research and development base, and the headquarters of the in Ohio, remains today. One YF-12 crashed and the other was modified into an SR-71. The Blackbird Airpark contains an A-12, an SR-71A, a rare U-2D and a ramjet-powered D-21 unmanned drone. More than 278,000 people have visited the airpark since it opened to the public in November 1991. The airpark has received visitors from all 50 states, Europe, Africa, and Russia and Ukraine. |
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