Radar Man by Edward Lovick Jr

Author:Edward Lovick, Jr. [Lovick, Edward, Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc.
Published: 2010-10-05T04:00:00+00:00

A-12 RCS Full-scale Demonstration

We had five months to demonstrate that the RCS of our proposed A-12 aircraft was achievable under full-scale range testing conditions before we could receive a contract to design and build prototype aircraft. The first task was to build a full-scale mockup of the A-12 aircraft.

In the fall of 1959, we abandoned the idea of testing at the Indian Springs AFB facility. We needed a test facility that was much more secure, and where we could adequately measure a large, low radar cross section target.

Mac and I were asked to find a place to perform A-12 mockup radar backscatter tests. We visited Randsburg Wash at NAWS where the Navy had two very tall wooden towers spaced about one hundred feet apart so that radar targets could be suspended high above the rock strewn sandy earth. They reminded me of the similar arrangement that I had seen at China Lake during my work on rocket firing from aircraft at NOTS in 1943.

While we were there, they were testing a special gun mounted on a vehicle that ran on a railroad track and shot at real aircraft suspended between the towers. I saw the damage that one shot caused to a B-17 bomber. The shell entered the tail cone and went through the windshields after destroying much of the interior. I recognized the man in charge who had been an officer at NOTS when I was there. He did not seem to remember me.

We decided that we could not use their facility because it would be impossible to accurately measure radar backscatter from our mockup. The secrecy required could not be maintained. The towers were visible from Highway 395.

Ray Goudy flew Kelly Johnson, Richard Bissell, and Frank Rodgers to Watertown in Area 51 to select a site on which to build a new facility to do radar backscatter testing of the A-12 mockup.

Kelly did not like the area that Rodgers pointed out because of piles of rubble and uneven terrain. He looked West over to the dry lake, pointed, and said, “Locate the pole out there, a mile away.” And lo, it came to pass!

A new, and much better, facility was established at Groom Lake in Area 51 of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) reservation north of Las Vegas, Nevada.

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