The Birth of an aviation legend began in September 1959 when the DOD and CIA decided that Lockheed would build a follow up to the vulnerable U-2 under the codename 'Oxcart'.
The Lockheed ‘Skunk Works’ design team lead by Clarence ‘Kelly’ Johnson designed and built the A-12 ‘Cygnus‘ - a single seat Mach 3+ capable aircraft that was way ahead of its time and it‘s Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union.
The A-12 ‘Cygnus’ was used with great success over North Vietnam operating from Kadena AB, on the island of Okinawa, Japan. The pilot workload in the A-12 was much higher than in other reconnaissance types due to it’s high performance with the pilot not only having to control an aircraft travelling at over 30 miles per minute, but he also had to operate the camera systems, Electronic Counter Measures equipment and of course navigate to, in and out of hostile territory while meeting up with lumbering but vital KC-135 tankers.
- Authentic flight model based around the A-12 Pilots manual
- Working TEB counters - 16 shots of TEB providing only 16 uses of Afterburner per engine - don’t waste them!
- Drooping Elevons on Hydraulic pressure loss
- Fuel transfer & Centre of Gravity control panel
- Fully independent VC night lighting (panel lights and flood lights with adjustable intensity gauge lights)
- Exterior cockpit night lighting
- Automatic and Manual Engine inlet Spike control system
- Independent engine controls and afterburners
- Afterburner and vapour effects
- Crew access ladder (on canopy open and parking brake)
- Engine Start Carts (parking brake)
- Brake cooling fans (parking brake, Spoiler and fuel above 30%)
- Fuel dump switch with cut-off at 10% & emergency forward CG
- Anti-skid brake switch
- Air refuelling receptacle switch
- Animated pop-out anti-collision lights
- Fully Mach 3+ and 80,000+ feet capable
- Realistic undercarriage with authentic retraction sequence
- Functional Virtual Cockpit
- Authentic Afterburner free floating exhaust petal animation
- Animated engine tertiary doors at Mach 1.5
- Realistic Drag chute movement based on Alpha and Beta values (spoiler)
- Prepar3d V3 and V4 only downwards periscope driftsight
- Aerial refuelling capability in free flight and multiplayer
- VC rain effects on canopy glass
- See the FSX/Prepar3d world at Mach 3+ as only these birds can!
