The drone missed a three-story building and landed on a road just inside the complex. A noontime jogger was starting his fourth lap when 154P-4 came down in front of him. The tip of the right wing slid under the guard-rail at the edge of the road.
The 154P-4 was undamaged, but there was still worse to come. Although the landing site itself was secure, only a few feet away was the fence marking the boundary with public land. Just across a narrow canyon was a residential area, and word quickly spread of what had happened. A few Los Alamos employees realized the strange airplane was probably classified, and hurriedly covered it with tarps. But before 154P-4 could be hidden, the press arrived and were able to photograph it from the perimeter fence. By the time an air force-Ryan recovery crew arrived an hour after landing, the fence was lined with reporters and television crews. Others had climbed trees for a better look. The Model 154 Firefly had made a very public debut.
The Albuquerque Journal carried the headline "Secret Something Falls to Earth." The article said that "the emergency descent by parachute of a super secret unmanned aircraft… ripped some security wraps off 'Firefly.'"
Two photos of 154P-4 were published in the Los Alamos Monitor, despite air force requests that they be withheld.[293] The New York Times carried a small, two-sentence report on the incident on page 24.[294]
The air force released a cover story that the Firefly was simply a "relatively high altitude test of an Air Force target drone" (the story originally developed for the "Q-2D" test flights in 1960). No one was fooled; it was clear the Firefly was a secret project. As the Albuquerque Journal said: "If Firefly is simply a high altitude target drone for testing missile systems, the reason behind the strict Firefly or drone aircraft security lid remains a mystery."[295]
The failure was traced to use of low-temperature solder. When it got hot, the solder softened, the wire pulled free, and the secret was out.
Following the accident, the 154 was grounded for several weeks while an investigation was conducted. When flights resumed, they were restricted to the White Sands area. A flight by P-5 in September was successful, and the range restrictions were n'rteci. During subsequent '154 flights CH-3 helicopter was placed on alert at Holloman Air Force Base. Should the 154 land outside the recovery zone, the crew would fly out and secure the drone before it could be further compromised. Two long-range flights were made by P-4 without problems. Another flight on November 21, 1969, almost resulted in more publicity.
The ill-fortuned P-4 was flying over the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona when there was a circuit failure. The 154 went into an automatic recovery. The DC-130 crew saw a group of people around the drone. The plane buzzed them to warn them off. When the recovery crew arrived, they were pleased to discover the 154 had been secured by the tribal police. One of the people who found it was an ex-air force sergeant who realized the drone was a secret aircraft. He called the tribal police, saw that a perimeter guard was set up, gathered up the parachute, and took charge in a very professional manner.
Three long-range navigation flights were conducted in early 1970, followed by a final series of eight tests at Edwards Air Force Base between August and December 1971. These flights reached altitudes of 81,000 feet.
The sixth and seventh flights also involved simulated Soviet Fan Song B and E radars at the navy's China Lake facility. These were the radars used by the SA-2. It was found that the 154 was nearly impossible to detect. The drone's small radar cross section alone was enough to protect it. By December 1971, the problems with the 154 were finally solved. The drone program had achieved a capability rivaling that of the U-2.[296]
But now it had no place to go.
The Model 154 had been designed for overflights of China. This required a low radar return to prevent detection, a very high altitude to avoid interception, and a precise navigation system to cover the target. With President Nixon's trip to China, this possibility ended. There was no interest in using the 154s over North Vietnam because of the success of the 147SC low-altitude drones. There were suggestions that the 154 be used over Cuba during the spring of 1972. Following the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, use of the 154 was again proposed. Once more, it was turned down. The drones were placed in storage, then scrapped.[297]
Although the 154 had its share of problems, these did not cause its down-fall. The Firefly had been overtaken by events. Starting in 1969, the high-altitude drone mission had started to fade. The 147T program was cut short, while the number of 147H missions in 1970-71 was reduced to a mere h a n d f u l. Nixon's halting of Chinese overflights ended a mission that was already coming to a close. Without its primary mission of Chinese overflights, however, the Model 154 Firefly was left an orphan. It was not needed for flights over North Vietnam, while the other possible targets were covered by SR-71 overflights. Both the A-12 and the 147 drones had to wait for an opportunity to show what they could do. When given that chance, these Dark Eagles excelled. The Model 154 was never given that chance.
These circumstances also affected another Black drone.
CHAPTER 6
The Last Blackbird
The D-21 Tagboard
Rid plans of doubts and uncertainties.
The prototype SR-71 made its initial test flight on December 22, 1964. Its takeoff and landing at Palmdale was a public, very "White" debut. On hand were a number of Lockheed dignitaries. Once the SR-71 landed, they boarded a transport and took off. They did not, however, fly west, toward Burbank. Instead, the plane headed east, to Groom Lake.
Another of the Blackbird family was also to make its first, very Black, test flight that day.
The next step in reconnaissance drone development was obvious — use the technology of the A-12 to build a very high-speed, high-altitude drone.
With performance superior to that of the 147 drones, it would be much more likely to survive than the modified Firebees. The drone could also have a longer range than the Model 147. This meant they could be used to cover targets otherwise out of range.
Following the loss of Powers's U-2 over the Soviet Union, there were several discussions about using the A-12 itself as a drone. Although Kelly Johnson had come to support the idea of drone reconnaissance, he opposed an A-12 drone, contending that the aircraft was too large and complex for such a conversion. Another possibility was to use the A-12 as a launch aircraft for an unmanned QF-104 reconnaissance drone. Several times the possibility was examined, but the CIA expressed no interest.
Although the CIA turned down the idea, Johnson found an ally with Brig. Gen. Leo Geary, director of air force special projects. General Geary arranged $500,000 from the Black projects contingency fund to begin a drone study in October 1962.
To speed up development of the drone, which was initially called the "Q-12," Lockheed planned to use a Marquardt ramjet engine from the Bomarc SAM.
On October 24, in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kelly Johnson, Ben Rich, and Rus Daniell met with Marquardt representatives. From these discussions, it was clear that the Bomarc ramjet would have to be modified for use on the Q-12.[298]
293
Ibid., 28–34, 41. Following a U-2 crash in the late 1950s, a small-town newspaper agreed not to publish a photo of the wreckage. By 1969, the press's attitude toward "security" had changed.
298
Jay Miller,