So I am contemplating a rather ambitous (for me) project, but am in serious need of info. I have a kit of an SR-71 than I envision making a diorama of a D-21 being loaded onto the back of it. From what I have been able to find on the internet, I face the following issues:
D-21’s were only ever used on the A-12, not the SR-71. What would the physical differences have been?
The A-12’s were modified for the D-21 drone. What modifications were done, other than adding a second seat (as the SR-71 wound up having.)
I have not found any picture or description talking about how the drones would have been put on top of the aircraft. It sounds like it was done at the Lockheed factory, but I am picturing more of something with a mobile crane…?
If anybody can help me with any of these, that would be greatly appreciated! If not, this may just end up being a “what if” project.
Thanks!
Budd
Hi Budd- you are correct, D-21 drones were never used on the SR-71, only on two modified A-12s, the last two of 15 of the type (tail #s 60-6940 and -41) and designated M-21. The only very obvious visual differences between the SR-71 and the A-12/M-12 was that the forward part of the ‘chine’ (the horizontal side of the fuselage running from the leading edge of the wing to the nose) angled to a point, starting at roughly the rear cockpit and terminating at the tip of the nose. On the SR-71 the chine rounds to the tip of the nose (if you google images of these aircraft you can see the difference). Also, the tail of the SR-71 has a ‘nub’ of the fuselage spine protruding past the elevators inboard of the exhaust nozzels; the A-12 spine is flush with the elevators.
A-12s were single-seat aircraft with a ‘Q-bay’ behind the pilot for electronic gear. In the M-12 this bay was modified to be a crew station for the Launch Control Officer.
Italeri makes a kit of the YF-12A, the proposed fighter version of the A-12, which has a good general shape of the aircraft and which I think would be much easier to use instead of modifying an SR-71 kit. I have about a dozen books covering the entire Oxcart (A-12)/Tagboard (M-12)/SR-71 program and have been to several excellent websites on the history of this aircraft but don’t recall ever seeing a picture of a D-21 being loaded on to an M-12. Much information about these aircraft has been made public but it was once a top-secret program, as you probably know, so I’m sure there’s still info that is classified or has not readily been made available.
For info you can simply google A-12, M-12, or D-21 and some good links, including images, should be returned. I have found http://www.habu.org/, http://www.roadrunnersinternationale.com/a12_story.html, http://roadrunnersinternationale.com/a-12s.html and http://area51specialprojects.com/index.html helpful among others, although the roadrunners site seems to have broken links.
Hope this helps!
Dave
The only reference book I have on the SR-71 and it’s variants is Squadron Signals walk around SR-71 Blackbird book . There’s a small pic showing a Drone being lifted up to fit onto the M-21 Mother ship ;
John .
Thank you both! After looking at it, I think the conversion will be easy enough. But since it looks like they were indeed mated in a hangar, I guess I will have to use a little imagination for the diorama.
-Budd
There is an A-12 with the drone mounted on it’s back on display in the Museum Of Flight in Seattle, Washington. Pretty neat…
Best of luck with this project Budd. Years ago I attempted to modify the Testors re-release of the Italeri SR-71 packaged with the D-21 by sanding the rounded forward part of the chine to the straighter profile of the A-12, but removing material produced a nice gap that made me shelve that project. I’d like to see how you make out.
I just noticed that I referred to the drone mothership at first as M-21 then as M-12…oops, typo [:$] Should have been M-21 of course.
Devil Dawg- Oh yes, I have been there a few times and it is an outstanding museum! I have been using pictures of that bird in part to see how the conversion should look. The only thing I can’t seem to find a shot of is a closeup of the canopy area. Since this is a one-of-a-kind aircraft, I don’t know if the second canopy would have been the same as the SR-71s or different. Other than that, I think I have at least a decent idea of what I need to do.
Dave- Yeah, I realize it will be quite a project. I found on the web somewhere a guy who did an SR-71 to A-12 (regular type) conversion. He said he filled the nosecone with putty before he started shaping it down. That may be the smart way to go with this.
