The A-12 Avenger II: The Stealth Bomber that Could Have Changed the World

I was one of the engineers who worked on this plane. Specifically, I worked on the Radar and Flir systems. The shape of the plane was classified, but we could tell that it was a flying wing just by some of the details of the Radar and Flir units. Another company had gotten the contracts for the Radar and Flir first, but got so far behind schedule and over budget that the project was taken away from them and given to us. So the day we started working on them, we were already a year behind schedule and were over budget. The Radar system had some issues because they were pushing the limits of technology. The Flir system worked pretty well. Military contracts are always behind schedule and over budget. The government always bailed them out. But in this case, the budget folks were sick and tired of military contractors just assuming that they could go completely over budget and didn't have to worry about it, and they decided to make an example out of this project. When the plane was cancelled, it caught a lot of folks by surprise, and there was quite a bit of controversy about it all. Defense work is very much hire and fire. They hire when they have work, and lay people off when they don't. The cancellation of the A-12 put a LOT of engineers out of work, and I was one of them. At that point I decided that I was tired of the hire and fire attitude and I got completely out of defense work.

The brittish ”Skylon” would be a good idea to talk about. Or the swedish coastal defence during the cold war! Good channel, thumbs up!

The cancelation of this project led to the collapse of McDonnell Douglas. Of course, the DC-10 helped. But the loss of the A-12 was the final nail in the coffin for McDonnell Douglas. Many thousands of jobs were lost. This also began the fall of St. Louis. The St. Louis area also lost two Chrysler auto plants. More and more companies closed factories. Corporations began moving their headquarters out of St. Louis. General Dynamics and Pet Inc. were just two of those who moved out. Today, the St. Louis metro area continues to shrink each year. St. Louis came to hate the man responsible for the cancelation: Sec of Defense Dick Cheney. After the cancelation, McDonnell Douglas was forced to sell itself to Boeing. How sad.

Only one full size non-flying mockup was made and it sat for two decades in an open field near Meacham Airport in Ft Worth. It was acquired ten years ago by the Ft Worth Aviation Museum where it still sits, awaiting restoration. I have photographed it many times.

Absolutely bloody fantastic stuff. I feel like a big kid again watching this channel.

“The flying Dorito of death…” 😅 Love it!

My dad worked on the landing gear for this project. It was all secret at the time and as a young lad, I was intrigued by the fact that he couldn't talk about his work at all, and typically found out what he could talk about by seeing a news article about the project.

Worked with a guy on the program years ago. He was on A-6's in the Navy and got a job with Grumman after I think. We talked about it one day. According to him there were a LOT more issues they had to work out then anyone expected, but they were getting through them slowly. One thing that wasn't mentioned in the video was the fact that they were just getting into the prototype stage when the Soviet Union collapsed. That was the biggest reason the program was cancelled. Many amazing programs were cancelled simply because we suddenly didn't have any enemies anymore. One thing I do remember was they had designed some of the structure as composites, but when they tried to make them it never worked as composites weren't that well developed. They then had to make the sections out of more usual materials which drove up the weight. But he said the biggest issue they had when cancelled was finding a way to secure composites and metals together. Everything they tried either wouldn't hold or would cause corrosion on the metal parts. That was one of the big reasons they cancelled the upgrades to the Intruders as well since the main part of the upgrade was composite wings. It could have been an amazing aircraft, but as usual it was taken out back by politicians who didn't understand basic concepts, and Cheney in particular (I may be biased, I've always had less than respectful views on the guy) killed it before it had a chance to shine. If you really want to see some wild stuff, in the late 80's all the advanced programs were smashed together. To save money they were supposed to work as one to develop multiple different airframes for multiple different branches for multiple different missions. Originally, the A-12 and F-22 were meant to use the same parts and components for cost savings. Just one more time the government ruined something to save a few bucks.

The A-12 mockup currently resides at the Fort Worth Aviation Museum, next to the southeast corner of Meacham International Airport (AKA: Meacham Field.)

I'm glad you touched on the absurdity of the F-35 program here. Compared to that, the A-12 program was a paragon of financial virtue.

I'd be pretty interested in seeing something on the Super Hornet and how it ended doing the jobs of both the Tomcat and the Intruder.

Oh boy. I work for the Navy at the agency that dealt with this debacle. I was there at the end of the saga when the final settlements were made and the whole thing was finely closed. I'm looking at my bookcase and I see an original manufacturer's resin model of the A12 and an A12 Trial Team coffee mug. Yeah, I have stories.

Loving the collaboration on this one. For an aircraft that never existed the CGI models of it really help us get an idea of what this aircraft was all about. I approve this new addition! I've got a suggestion for a future mega project. Hitler's Atlantic Wall.

A collaboration? Oh hell yeah! more of these please. Never heard of these either, thank you guys! Idea: The rotary Wankel engine. They've not only been applied to Mazda RX series cars, but they've also been massively scaled up for use powering cargo ships.

I worked at McDonnell Douglas that defaulted on the flying taco chip. We quit and shipped the tooling to our “partner” company. I wasn’t on the program, but the folks that I talked to said that, “It’ll never work”.

It's hard to overstate how badly the A12 screwed Navair, the problems created by it are still affecting air wings severely

Up next: Meet the US's Top Secret corkscrew-based land-to-air missile design. AKA, the Flying Frito

I worked indirectly on it. The lies told, by the managers, drove me away to other projects.

A shame the Avenger never got a legacy aircraft for real. It is my favorite WWII aircraft

Using attack aircraft in the age of cheap long range drones is like using battleships in the age of aircraft carriers and anti-ship missiles