[kach22i]

Lockheed A-12
Lockheed A-12 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Under Project Gusto the designs were nicknamed "Archangel", after the U-2 program, which had been known as "Angel". As the aircraft designs evolved and configuration changes occurred, the internal Lockheed designation changed from Archangel-1 to Archangel-2, and so on. These names for the evolving designs soon simply became known as "A-1", "A-2", etc.[5] The CIA program to develop the follow-on aircraft to the U-2 was code-named Oxcart.[6]

Convair Kingfish
Convair Kingfish - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Convair Kingfish reconnaissance aircraft design was the ultimate result of a series of proposals designed at Convair as a replacement for the Lockheed U-2. "Kingfish" competed with the Lockheed A-12 for the Project Oxcart mission, and lost out to that design in 1959...............................
These designs had reached the A-11 stage when the program was reviewed. The A-11 was competing against a Convair proposal called Kingfish, of roughly similar performance. However, the Kingfish included a number of features that greatly reduced its radar cross section, which was seen as favorable to the board. Lockheed responded with a simple update of the A-11, adding twin canted fins instead of a single right-angle one, and adding a number of areas of non-metallic materials. This became the A-12 design.

For Project Gusto, the concept had been simplified and reduced to a single aircraft. Code-named FISH or First Invisible Super Hustler, the aircraft was based on a lifting body design that bears some resemblance to the ASSET of a few years later...........................

The failure of the A-12's attempts to avoid radar was proven when the Vietnamese proved able to track the A-12 with some ease, even firing on it on several occasions and causing minor damage on one occasion in 1967