Covert Agency Wants Its A-12 Back

The Minnesota Air National Guard Museum has called upon its representatives in Congress to stop a plan by the US Air Force to commandeer the museum's A-12 Blackbird spyplane, to display outside the Virginia headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.

"They want to see this airplane on a stick in front of their headquarters," said Mark Ness, a retired brigadier general and former commander of the Minnesota ANG.

According to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune, the nonprofit museum restored the A-12 -- forerunner to the SR-71 -- after rescuing it from a Palmdale, CA scrap yard in 1990. Only a handful of A-12s are still in existence: one is located in Birmingham, AL, and another is in California.

Representatives with the Minnesota museum believe the USAF should look at Birmingham's Blackbird instead, noting it was the first A-12 to fly a CIA mission over North Vietnam in 1967. That plane was also the last A-12 to fly, when it was retired in 1968.

However, Air Force Programs and Legislative Division deputy chief Lt. Col. Michael Fleck, says Minnesota's Blackbird is the best one for display outside Langley -- and noted the Minnesota Air Guard's 133rd Airlift Wing has no historical connection to the plane, just a sentimental one.

Because the A-12 program originated within the CIA, Fleck says "it is most appropriate that one of the few remaining examples be allocated to them for memorialization."

Ness acknowledges the Minnesota ANG didn't have a direct role in the A-12's development or history... but notes Minnesota companies such as Honeywell's Avionics Division, 3M, and Rosemount Inc. played critical roles in the Blackbird's creation. Perhaps more importantly, four of the  earliest A-12 pilots got their starts in the Minnesota Air National Guard members.

Museum volunteers spent 3,500 hours restoring the plane, in an effort funded by donations from local corporation and individual enthusiasts. Dayton Hudson -- later Target Corp. -- even produced a short documentary on the project. Today, Minnesota Air Guard Museum officials say the Blackbird is by far the biggest draw in the museum's 27-plane collection.

The museum is attempting to relocate off the grounds of the Minnesota Air National Guard base, to a more hospitable site near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Heightened security on the base in the aftermath of 9/11 has restricted traffic to the museum, officials said.

FMI: www.mnangmuseum.org/