The CIA’s A-12 Oxcart looked nearly identical to the SR-71 Blackbird, but it had an advantage in the speed department over the Blackbird. Technically.
Ask any military aviation enthusiast or veteran what they think is the fastest jet of all time, and there’s little doubt they’d answer, ‘The SR-71 Blackbird.’ However, they’d be incorrect, though with some caveats. The SR-71 set some seriously fast speed records, earning its well-deserved reputation, but there’s another jet that the CIA flew that was a precursor to the SR-71, which wasn’t revealed to the world until 1989.
The A-12 Oxcart was a fast, sleek, and effective spy plane, though it had a brief operational life before entering retirement. It’s also one of the rarest aircraft ever photographed in flight. As the precursor to the SR-71, the A-12 set many of the standards the later aircraft would follow, and they bear a strikingly similar design. They look so much alike that it wouldn’t be surprising for someone to misidentify an A-12 as an SR-71.
