Lecture: Innovations Towards Invisibility

Hear some of "secret heroes of the Cold War" discuss the development, operations, and legacy of the Central Intelligence Agency's top secret Cold War project, OXCART. Conceived in the mid 1950s, OXCART was the CIA's effort to build a reconnaissance aircraft that could monitor Soviet weapon deployments while avoiding radar and surface-to-air missiles. Years of innovative engineering produced the Lockheed A-12: an airplane that could fly three times the speed of sound, reach an altitude of 90,000 feet, and remain nearly invisible to radar. Pilots and engineers who developed the A-12 as part of Lockheed's covert "Skunk Works" division will recall the challenges, guesswork, and outright harrowing ride.