How the A-12 went from the first US supersonic spy plane to inspiring the name of Elon Musk's child

In the 1950s and 60s, the CIA developed the aircraft under the OXCART Project to succeed the famed U-2 spy plane. Lockheed won the contract for the OXCART Project, and Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, a legendary aerospace engineer, began developing the aircraft in 1959.

The A-12 was the 12th iteration under the code name Archangel, featuring "cutting-edge innovations in titanium fabrication, lubricants, jet engines, fuel, navigation, flight control, electronic countermeasures, radar stealthiness, and pilot life-support systems," according to the CIA website.

Its development was highly classified, taking place at Area 51 in Nevada and hidden away from Soviet spy satellites.

Area 51 workers were provided with rosters of Soviet satellites, detailing when certain ones would fly over the Nevada test site so they could conceal the prototypes.

"It was like a bus schedule, and it even told us whether it was an infrared satellite or what type it was," TD Barnes, a former hypersonic flight specialist at Area 51, told National Geographic in 2011.

The OXCART prototypes were tested outside atop tall poles to test their detection on radars, forcing workers to hide them in "hoot and scoot" sheds when spy satellites were coming over the horizon.

"To start working on the aircraft and then have to run it back into the hangar and then pull it out and then put it in and then pull it out — it gets to be quite a hassle," Jim Freedman, a former Area 51 procurement manager, said in the 2011 National Geographic Channel documentary, Area 51 Declassified.

In addition to the sheds, workers also crafted decoy prototypes out of cardboard and other materials to cast shadows and deceive the satellites. They also ran heaters to act as fake engines to make it appear as though planes had just landed.

At least one of the A-12's numerous test flights didn't go according to plan, crashing in the desert outside Area 51. The US government was quick to cover up the incident, but declassified imagery showed the scattered remnants of the plane and crews cleaning up the debris.

Though the A-12 touted impressive design features, it didn't have much legroom. Pilots had to be less than six feet tall and under 175 pounds just to fit into the single-seat cockpit. A typical flight would only have one crew member aboard.

Pilots themselves also faced a strict set of criteria to fly the A-12. Candidates must have at least 2,000 total flight hours — half of which should be in the latest high-performance fighter jets. They were also required to be married, emotionally stable, and between 25 and 40 years old.

Only 16 candidates met the qualifications and went through an extensive security and medical review, narrowing the pool to five people. A second review process yielded six more.

Because of the plane's supersonic speeds, the skin of the plane could heat up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit and 1,000 degrees near the engine. Pilots had to wear suits outfitted with thermal insulation, pressure control, cooling, and a life support system to protect them from fluctuating extreme temperatures and pressure changes in the event of a high-altitude bailout.

The cockpit also had an air conditioning system to keep pilots cool during flight.

Their suits also featured emergency instructions to refer to in case they need to eject themselves from the plane.

After its first flight in October 1963, the A-12 was deemed fully operational in 1965, achieving record-breaking speeds of up to 2,200 mph (Mach 3) — three times the speed of sound — and altitudes up to 90,000 feet.

Even today, the A-12 maintains records for the highest speed and altitude achieved by piloted jet with air-breathing engines.

Despite its record-breaking innovations, the A-12 only flew in one reconnaissance operation, codenamed Black Shield, from May 1967 to May 1968.

The A-12 captured high-quality imagery that could be processed and interpreted within hours of landing. Three A-12s flew 29 missions over East Asia, extracting intelligence for US forces during the Vietnam War.

Around the same time, the US began to deploy Corona photo reconnaissance satellites to gather intelligence about the Soviet Union. The satellites produced lower-quality imagery than the A-12 and were slower in getting imagery to photo-interpreters, but they were impervious to anti-aircraft missiles and less likely to provoke foreign nations than surveillance overflights.

But after a U-2 plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured in May 1960, most spy planes shifted to missions near their borders while still in international airspace. The U-2 and RC-135 Rivet Joint are still flown on reconnaissance missions by the US Air Force.

Amid concerns that Soviet radars could soon catch up with the A-12's innovation, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the retirement of the A-12 in 1968. The US then proceeded with its successor, the SR-71, famed for its reconnaissance missions during the Cold War.

The SR-71 Blackbird was less likely to be detected on enemy radar than the A-12, carrying additional optical and radar imagery systems. The two-seater Blackbird was much larger than the A-12, measuring about six feet longer than the A-12 and weighing 15,000 pounds more. It was slower, but it had a longer range in between refueling.

As spy satellite programs gained more traction in foreign reconnaissance, the SR-71 suffered the same fate as its predecessor, and the last Blackbird was decommissioned on January 26, 1990.

Developed in the 1960s under Project Kedlock, an extension of Project Oxcart, the YF-12 came just before the SR-71. It could travel at Mach 3 speeds and fly at altitudes up to 80,000 feet.

The YF-12 was designed to intercept Soviet bombers at long range and high-speed and was armed with three air-to-air missiles. But due to cost-cutting measures amid the war in Southeast Asia, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara cancelled the Kedlock Project in 1968, and the YF-12 was never deployed.

Built for the CIA under Project Tagboard, the M-21 was a modified A-12 designed to carry an unmanned drone for gathering intelligence over hostile territories. To prevent confusion, the modified A-12 was named the M-21 — standing for mother — while the drone it carried was called the D-21 — standing for daughter.

Only two M-21 airframes were manufactured, one of which was destroyed in a drone launching incident in 1966.

The SR-71 is also the favorite plane of tech billionaire Elon Musk and singer Grimes, so much so that the pair decided to name their child, born in 2020, after its predecessor, X Æ A-12.

In a May 2020 tweet, Grimes broke down the meaning behind her son's name. Though their favorite plane was the SR-71, they decided to include the predecessor to the aircraft in their son's name.

"No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent," Grimes tweeted at the time.