Images via U.S. Navy, Google Earth and Virtual Globetrotting
In our popular article Top Secret Aircraft That Officially Do Not Exist, we featured the retro-futuristic looking A-12 Avenger II, designed as a stealth attack aircraft for the U.S. Navy. The programme was scrapped before the first prototype had been developed, although two full scale mock-ups were built. But what became of them? The triangular craft had been displayed previously, but clearly hadn’t found their way to a museum… Those discerning online urban explorers over at Virtual Globetrotting have partially answered this question. One of the mockups can be seen in a junk-filled corner of a Fort Worth air base.
Images via Virtual Globetrotting and Google Earth
Satellite imagery shows the A-12 Avenger II full scale mock-up (FSM) lying on its belly with its folding wing tips removed. Nearby is what appears to be an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter mock-up, seemingly left to rot in this remote corner of Carswell Air Force Base (aka NAS Station Joint Reserve Base Forth Worth), where F-35 final assembly is located. In the more recent 2009 photograph, two F-16s have joined the condemned line-up, although the A-12 now appears to be wrapped in a protective cover. According to one commentator on this forum, the FSM was destined for a Texas museum but ended up outside when the deal feel through, as Lockheed couldn’t justify the hangar space to keep it under cover.
Images by U.S. Navy
(Images top and bottom in public domain)
The A-12 Avenger II was designed by McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics as an all-weather, carrier-based stealth bomber for the U.S. Navy and Marines. Though it never progressed to a prototype, the A-12 FSM shows a flying wing design with a cockpit near the apex. Development of the A-12 was cancelled in January 1991 by then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney due to severe cost overruns. The whole saga is detailed in James P. Stevenson’s book: The $5 Billion Misunderstanding: The Collapse of the Navy’s A-12 Stealth Bomber Program. But what became of the other A-12 mock-up?
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