Turning a Blackbird into a Lawn Dart
Stolen from the
Internet
At a Club meeting that I missed, Don Leonard was handed an interesting article, in hard copy, relating to a dispute between an aviation museum and the CIA (yes, that CIA) regarding possession of a Lockheed A-12 (the predecessor of the famed SR-71). Don scanned the article and emailed it to me, but I wasn't able to capture the text from the .pdf file that I received. After complaining to Don that I wasn't in the business of re-typing newspaper articles, Don took the initiative to find an Internet reference to the same dispute. Reprinted below from the Aero-News Network, totally without regard to Copyright infringement issues, is a story on this rather interesting issue.
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Minnesota Air Guard
Museum Fights USAF, CIA Over Blackbird
Mon, 08 Jan '07
Covert Agency Wants Its A-12 Back
The Minnesota Air National Guard Museum has called upon its representatives
in Congress to stop a plan by the US Air Force to commandeer the museum's A-12
Blackbird spyplane, to display outside the Virginia headquarters of the Central
Intelligence Agency.
"They want to see this airplane on a stick in front of their headquarters," said
Mark Ness, a retired brigadier general and former commander of the Minnesota ANG.
According to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune, the nonprofit museum
restored the A-12 -- forerunner to the SR-71 -- after rescuing it from a
Palmdale, CA scrap yard in 1990. Only a handful of A-12s are still in existence:
one is located in Birmingham, AL, and another is in California.
Representatives with the Minnesota museum believe the USAF should look at
Birmingham's Blackbird instead, noting it was the first A-12 to fly a CIA
mission over North Vietnam in 1967. That plane was also the last A-12 to fly,
when it was retired in 1968.
However, Air Force Programs and Legislative Division deputy chief Lt. Col.
Michael Fleck, says Minnesota's Blackbird is the best one for display outside
Langley -- and noted the Minnesota Air Guard's 133rd Airlift Wing has no
historical connection to the plane, just a sentimental one.
Because the A-12 program originated within the CIA, Fleck says "it is most
appropriate that one of the few remaining examples be allocated to them for
memorialization."
Ness acknowledges the Minnesota ANG didn't have a direct role in the A-12's
development or history... but notes Minnesota companies such as Honeywell's
Avionics Division, 3M, and Rosemount Inc. played critical roles in the
Blackbird's creation. Perhaps more importantly, four of the earliest A-12 pilots
got their starts in the Minnesota Air National Guard members.
Museum volunteers spent 3,500 hours restoring the plane, in an effort funded by
donations from local corporation and individual enthusiasts. Dayton Hudson --
later Target Corp. -- even produced a short documentary on the project. Today,
Minnesota Air Guard Museum officials say the Blackbird is by far the biggest
draw in the museum's 27-plane collection.
The museum is attempting to relocate off the grounds of the Minnesota Air
National Guard base, to a more hospitable site near Minneapolis-St. Paul
International Airport.
Heightened security on the base in the aftermath of 9/11 has restricted traffic
to the museum, officials said.
Where To Now?