Check Out These Fascinating, Declassified Photos of The A-12 Oxcart RCS Tests Inside Area 51
Check Out These Fascinating, Declassified Photos of The A-12 Oxcart RCS Tests Inside Area 51
Photo of a Lockheed A-12 mock-up mounted on a test stand for radar cross section (RCS) testing. Barnes wrote, This is a full-scale mock-up in its final external configuration with all-moving rudders on stud fins. A piston-activated ram elevate the pole consisting of three battleship propeller shafts welded together to 50-feet with a rotating head for changing the RCS view. We eventually had to shield the pole to prevent radar backscatter.
(Photo: Thornton D. TD Barnes via Facebook with permission)