@ Los Angeles, CA
May 2013
This weathered Lockheed A-12 is sometimes referred to as the “A-12B” because of its rear seat. The only A-12 trainer ever built, it is displayed on a pedestal near the parking facility at the California Science Center. This A-12 sat at Lockheed’s location at AF Plant #42 in Palmdale, CA for a number of years before finally being moved here in August 2003, and is the last A-12 to be put on permanent display. It is one of only two Blackbirds still sporting a mostly bare-metal motif. This A-12 logged more than twice as much flight time as any other A-12, 1076.4 hours. Often mistaken for the larger SR-71 Blackbird, flight crews named the A-12 “Cygnus” to follow the Lockheed practice of naming aircraft after celestial bodies. Nikon D300 w/18-200mm.