![]() The A-12 was replaced in service by the SR-71, which had two seats for both a pilot and a reconnaissance officer, and which was operated until 1998 by the Air Force and 1999 by NASA. ![]() Colonel Frank Murray flew four of these missions, and also flew the last flight ever of an A-12 when one codenamed "Article 131" was flown from the top secret base at Groom Lake, Nevada, to storage in Palmdale, Arizona. Instead, the A-12s were flown to Okinawa, and were used as part of Project BLACK SHIELD, which consisted of a total of 29 sorties flown primarily over North Vietnam, but also over Laos and North Korea, including a mission that located the USS Pueblo after its capture by the North Korean navy in the 1968 incident now known by the name of the captured vessel. A single-seat aircraft operating under the authority of the CIA, it was never used in its intended mission of clandestine overflights of the Soviet Union. The A-12 was not destined to have a long operational life. ![]()
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