RocketAerosports
Aerobatics flying and airshow announcing, and aviation consulting services. Make your airshow the mo Welcome to Rocketeroports. Intense aerobatics and skydiving.
Experience an Airshow with announcing by Mark "The Rocket" Liggett, aerobatics pilot, and retired rocket scientist. Understand the aerodynamics, the G forces, the thrill and the excitment of flying at very unnatural attitudes, high speed vertical maneuvers, hammerheads, rolls, spins, and snaps....as they happen...
What is it like to weigh 800 pounds, even if it's only for a few seconds? INTENSE! T
02/09/2022
19/07/2022
A somewhat accurate depiction of our 2022 airshow season.
19/07/2022
The A-12 and the trainer, affectionally known as the “Titanium Goose” “were on display at Area 51 ~Groom Lake in the early 1960s.
One constant question is who is faster, the SR 71 or the A-12. The A-12 was developed by Kelly Johnson at the Skunk Works for the CIA before there was an SR 71. Production on developing the J 58 engine was running behind, so a decision was made to equip the A-12s coming off the production line with J-75 engines. The J -75 engine was not as powerful as the J 58.
The first flight of the A- 12 was on April 26, 1962. Test pilot was Lou Schalk. He used the less powerful J 75; he did not go supersonic. On October 5, 1962, A-12 flew with the J 75 left nacelle and the J 58 suitable nacelle Engines. That must’ve been a bit shaky!
It was not until July 20, 1963, that the A-12 had its first Mach 3 flight. Eventually, all of the A-12s were Requip with J- 58 engines with one exception, and The trainer kept the less powerful J 75 engines. It was not possible to go Mach 3 in this aircraft.
There was never an official flight speed test for the A-12 because the CIA denied the airplane existed.
The A-12 was designed for overflying the Soviet Union and other prohibited areas. That was its purpose. It was imperative that it had to stay secret. The A-12 was going to take over the U-2‘s duties of overflying the USSR.
The U-2 had started overflight of the Soviet Union in 1955. When Francis Gary Powers was shot down on May 1, 1960, it was not surprising to the CIA and Kelly Johnson. They knew it would happen eventually. Kelly Johnson hired Gary Powers to be a test pilot when he returned from Russia to the United States.
Remember, we were looking for nuclear weapons. We had to know what was going on behind the iron curtain to protect the United States and the rest of the world.
So who was faster? We will never know for sure. Ken Collins, A-12 and SR -71 pilot, told me that he got up to 90,000 feet altitude with his A-12. The A-12 was probably able to go higher. The Russians wanted desperately to shoot down one of these beautiful Blackbirds, but they never could.
Written by Linda Sheffield Miller