The story few people know is that the YF-11 and the YA-12 were developed along side each other. The YA-12 became the SR-71 (it was supposed to be RS-71, but5 LBJ flubbed the announcement). The YF-11 was intended to be a hypersonic interceptor to counter the Russian bombers coming over the pole. Kelly Johnson was annoyed that USAF didn't buy the YF-11. What he did not know was that what he built was so fast that we did not have a reliable weapons system that could be launch and fly away from something that fast. Air to air weapons speed are usually listed as launch speed plus whatever. Apparently that is a nice idea up to about Mach 3 - the air speed of a YF-11.
I used to sail with a fellow that was a boom jockey for the KCs that refueled SRs. He had some interesting stories related to the encounters.
Matt
I used to sail with a fellow that was a boom jockey for the KCs that refueled SRs. He had some interesting stories related to the encounters.
Matt