CIA Project OXCART: Area 51

CIA Project OXCART, Project Gusto produced the program code-named Oxcart to develop the stealthy A-12 Archangel as a new U-2 follow-on aircraft. Under CIA Project Oxcart, the stealthy A-12 Archangel was flight-tested at Area 51, Nevada, under a shroud of secrecy. Flying at 95,000 feet and 2,221 mph or Mach 3.35, the A-12 was the fastest, highest-flying jet-powered, piloted aircraft ever, faster than the Air Force's SR-71, who officially holds the speed record. Selecting a place called Area 51 in Nevada and beneath a shroud of secrecy, the Central Intelligence Agency first flew the U-2, the Angel knowing at the time that the Russians would most likely shoot it down within 18 months. To replace the U-2, the CIA designed America's first stealth plane, using the slide rule to produce what today remains the highest flying and fastest crewed, air-breathing aircraft ever flown, the A-12 Archangel. The agency named it the Oxcart, the first of a family of four Blackbird planes. Unknown for decades, the A-12 flew 2,850 sorties out of Area 51, some faster than a rifle bullet and up to 90,000 feet. Now declassified, Area 51 veteran TD Barnes can now tell the OXCART story.