If the Lockheed YF-12 had entered service?

[famvburg]

    I'm on an F-12 kick right now. It's my pref of the Blackbird family. Anyway, I was wondering, had the F-12 entered service with the USAF &/or others) in the '60s & it had not been painted black, as the SR-71, any thoughts on its name? First to me is Lightning II, surely as "fast as lightning". Other thoughts are Arrow, Javelin or Lancer. Any thoughts?

[B777LR]

How about blackbird.

[Shasper]

At least part of it would've been black for heat dissapation, with the rest either ADF gray, nat. metal or white. I'm thinking it could've been named Guardian.


Shas B)

[famvburg]

   I've been giving some thought to the "black for heat dissipation" thing. The XB-70 didn't have it, the F-108 doesn't appear to have intended to use it. A similar thought has me wondering if the F-108 would've used metal impregnated tires, like the YF-12, SR-71 & XB-70. IIRC, most drawings show the F-108 with black tires. I wonder if the black leading edges would've been done away with on the F-12, again, had it ended up not being all black in production schemes. Was the YF-12 painted in the Iron Ball black paint as the SR-71 to aid in radar evasion? I haven't seen that anywhere.

[famvburg]

How about blackbird.

  A gray or silver or SEA camo Blackbird? I don't think so.

[Shasper]

Most of the leading edges were (for that timeframe) made of composit materials and were finished in black. The early A-12s were done up in black and Nat. metal, but they found that if they painted the whole thing black it helped the heat factor alot. The only reason I suggested the other 2 colors was to go in the place of the nat. metal areas.


Shas B)

[famvburg]

I was thinking the leading edges were metal, tho done in some sort of sawtooth pattern under the skin. I'll have to check my Blackbird book at home.

[Hammer-nikit]

Friends,

Keeping in mind that traditionally Lockheed aircraft always carried "star-related names" Starfighter, Shooting Star, StarFire and even civilian planes had starnames: Lodestar, Constellation, Starliner, Galaxy, Stalifter, etc... it seems natural to me tha the F-12 would be something like "Darkstar", "Starjet", "Starhawk" , "Starbeam" or Starmaster... although only two of these sound "fighterlike"...any other ideas?

In terms of paint schemes maybe an air superiority c/s like the one used on the F-15C medium gray bubbles over a light gray base should look mighty fine  on the F-12.. I imagine the USAF would love to base them all around Soviet territory just in case. They'd be seen flying from some nifty places like Elmensdorf  (AK), Keflavik,  Kadena, Incirlik (Turkey), Lakenheath Spangdahlem, Saigon (or DaNang) and certainly Guam.

Regards,

Hammer

 

[XV107]

It might not have been given a name at all - the F-111 received the 'Aardvark' name on retirement; at least one of the F-102 and F-106 (and possibly both of them) had to wait a while before they were officially named as well.

If a name was going to be applied, then I'd go with the notion that a star-related name would be conjured up. The A-12 (as opposed to the F-12) was known to CIA pilots as 'Cygnus', which, funny old thing, is the alternative name for the star formation the Northern Cross. It seems a reasonable name for an aircraft with a long neck... So perhaps that would have transfered across?

The other alternative, I suppose, is 'Lancer', based on the the later use of that name for the lightweight fighter derived from the F-104.

[Madoc]

famvburg,

I was thinking the leading edges were metal, tho done in some sort of sawtooth pattern under the skin. I'll have to check my Blackbird book at home.

I think the leading edge coverings were made out of some non-metalic material that was radar transparent.  The structure immediately underneath the coverings was laid out in that sawtooth pattern so as to better deflect radar waves.  Instead of the beam striking the leading edge and reflecting back to its source, the beam would, instead, penetrate through the leading edge covering and then strike the inner structure behind it.  It would then be reflected around a bit and scattered more effectively.  This was one of the earliest deliberate structural attempts to minimize the radar observability of a jet combat aircraft.

Madoc

[MartG]

IIRC the same construction was used all along the fuselage chines too.

[borntokillagain]

Starscream
Starhunter
Starking
Starkiller
Starcruiser

[GTX]

Hi folks,

Slightly off topic (though only a little bit ) - what would be an appropriate name for the B-12 strike/bomber version that I have on the planning board?

Regards,

Greg

[Hammer-nikit]

"Starbomber"! "Guillotine" (used for decapitation attacks! ) "Nebula",  "Starsystem", "Faststar"...

regards!"
Hammer
 

[Madoc]

Greg,

Aircraft names are usually given to reflect the appearance and mission of the plane in question.  So, to properly name your bird we'd have to know what it looks like and what its mission is.

So, cough up the details buddy!

Madoc