BD-0012 Frank Murray Oral Interview, Lockheed A-12, 4/29/14
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- čas přidán 29. 05. 2014
- Interview of A-12 pilot, Frank Murray, Lt. Col. (USAF Ret.), by Ron Carrico, conducted 4-28-14. Frank Murray was one of 6 pilots who flew the A-12, a very secret aircraft CIA reconnaissance aircraft. The A-12 was a predecessor to the SR-71 built by Lockheed.
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I met Frank somewhere around 1985, went to his home to buy a radio. Hung around a few hours and chatted. I had no knowledge of his history, and he didn't say anything. I sure wish I had known.
Now Frank Murray is the type of man I could sit and listen to for hours talking about his career .. What a great guy !!
Most of the pilots that flew these incredible aircraft are really fascinating. Everyone who flew these beasts has many stories too tell . One of Brian Shul’s amazing stories was his encounter with a weather balloon at 80,000 feet, I think he may have just missed it, but it gave him a scare, from the time he first saw it to it disappeared in his mirror measured in seconds.
This is a fascinating bit of history about an aircraft that went higher, faster, further. What a man! What an airplane! Thank you for this!
Such a sharp memory, I have trouble remembering the names of people in high school about 30 yrs ago, much less any details like that. Loved the interview. Great stuff.
My dad was a personnel officer for the outfit and he hired many U-2 pilots and OX Cart pilots back in the 60's. He worked for the outfit for 37 years. He passed last year.
My Uncle Jim Caldwell got to fly the U-2 many moons ago. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery. He flew in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam wars. Later in his career he was a test pilot.
I can see why he would have been chosen to be part of such a program. Great brain.
These guys are sharp as hell! He doesn't hesitate one bit on his answers, and the stuff he's talking about happened almost 50 years ago.
Old does not mean senile. And dont you ever forget it.
Mikko Kukkonen I noticed that.
look up his live presentations. He is a great and funny speaker.
Thats when you are passionate about what you do. Your love and zest for your contribution to mankind is without doubt in your mind thats how you react.....sharp and clear. Love what you do and you will be proud to tell your stories.
Imagine being an enlisted Airman one day, sweeping the floor, and doing whatever it is you do. Air Force says they have a pilot shortage, try out for flight school. 13 years later, after flying every fighter in the inventory practically, you’re telling your wife you’re off to work at Nellis, but really going up to Groom Lake to fly a Mach 2.8 - 3.2 capable black spy plane for 5 years, including overseas deployments with Vietnam and North Korean overflights. This man’s life is just unbelievable.
What a great interview...that man really lived through an exciting career...outstanding information.
My dad hired some of the U-2 pilots and OX Cart pilots back in the 60's. He was a personnel officer for the outfit for 37 years. He passed last year.
@@scottcunius8181 When did you find out that's what he did?
This guy is not only sharp as a tack, but an absolute hoot to listen to as well ! This particular video doesn't show his funny side, like this one does :The Oxcart Story - Frank Murray
I hope to be this sharp and interesting at his age.
czcams.com/video/MGdxpqqsHl8/video.html is the link
He's absolutely hilarious. A serious job and cool thing he did but he talks about it with such levity.
@@O-cDxA , yes this is a great interview 👏
Damn...lighting one engine in AB just to stay on the tanker boom...great pilot.
A true hero! The right stuff. He's sharp as a knife because his life was full of challenges. Keep it up.
30:34 - What an event!! 38:44 … what an interesting fellow. His recall is impeccable (:
great video, it was nice hearing the A-12 pilot confirm the notes I have acquired about the aircraft and clear up some knowledge gaps I had, thanks for posting.
What a great guy! All these top pilots of his generation, just exceptional people!
Yes, I love these guys...I can watch & listen to these interviews all day!
pilot is still very sharp. remembers all the #'s amazing memory
Awesome, total legend.
Mr. Murray is a fascinating interview- this is wonderful stuff...
We have one at the Museum of Flight here in Seattle. Beautiful. Businesslike. Special purpose. It is really great to here it from the pilot himself. Frank Murrey has a good memory of all those little details of flight. I like his description of the afterburner plume, the periscope, sealant seeping out of the windshield at speed when everything is hot. Operational procedures about engine start, the sound of the big v8 start cart engines.
One of the best and most informative interviews ever. Great job everyone. Thank you for your service to our country and a great big thank you to the families who were involved but not involved!
Back around 1973/74 I can not remember the exact year I was a Coast Guard pilot stationed at CGAS San Francisco flying the venerable replacement for the PBY, the Grumman HU-16E Albatross seaplane. Our C130 crews were required to renew their pressurization credentials in the altitude chamber and the nearest one for us was located at Beale AFB. One day I flew a number of our guys to Beale for their recurrent chamber training. We used one of our stations’s HU-16s for this mission thus leaving our C130s back in San Fran for more important duties. While hanging around Base OPs waiting for my pax to return an SR71 pilot arrived to pick up some needed paperwork. I was impressed by his HABU and Mach 3+ patches. I asked the guy if he could show me one of his airplanes. He said sure but then he would have to kill me. I accused him of being a spoil sport then invited him out to see some of my equipment that he definitely did not carry on his SR71. We walked out onto the ramp to my waiting Grumman HU-16E Albatross airplane. We had a good laugh when I climbed up forward into the bow and brought back my anchor and boat hook for his inspection.
awesome interview!
Learned a lot from this. And I have 25 years in Avionics Maint. Thank you Col.
Sharp as a razor. Elite pilot. What a man. Respect, to all the brave, and illustrious men of his kind. In those days, 'giants' flew over our planet.
very knowledgeable pilot just noted the planes he flew before the A-12, F-80 Shooting Star, Republic F-84 Thunderjet, North American F-86 Sabre - Republic F-84F Thunderstreak - McDonnell F-101 Voodoo - Lockheed F-94 Starfire
Awesome guy for sure,, and so humble, so knowledgeable, just waiting for another question. So willing to share. No ego! A real pleasure to see. Thanks to who ever published it.
Enlisted man gone officer with no college his whole career, remembers detailed aspects of engineering and operator-level specifics better than guys half his age who flew less complex aircraft. It's just a crazy story.
EXCELLENT interview, Great job, enjoyed very much.
One of my favorite personalities and one helluva pilot. Dude is like everyone said on point. Best of the best
American Legend. Never gets old listening to him and the other A-12 and SR pilots. RIP sir. 🇺🇸
What an absolute chariot of the gods. Theroreticly this bird could live forever since the airframe upon cooling after each flight was retempered thereby restoring it's original strength.
Great explanation of how things work on the A-12. Kudos to Frank Murray.
America needs a generation of MEN like this one...Now!!
I stumbled across this interview and was riveted to the very end. Exceptionally interesting to hear the account of one of a very few aviators to have been exposed to such incredible technology.
He knows his stuff. Great stories.
Look at the change in his appearance at the beginning of the interview compared to the end. Towards the end he looked more youthful, more vibrant, the difference is striking.
I've seen that look before amongst guys who feel like their craft was forgotten. Then some 40-year old "kid" starts asking questions that wouldn't have been publicly answerable back in the day. Takes 15 or 20 years off, just like that. 👍
While many know the SR-71 the A-12 was different then the SR-71 it's refreshing to hear more about the A-12 program. I saw one at the Pima Air and Space Museum back in the early 90's haven't been back there since.
blastman8888 - it’s funny, in his new video he calls the SR-71 the “family model” while the A-12 was the high-performance version (“the one that goes like hell”).
And then there's the YF-12 and the M-21 still left to cover.
Man's got a lot of great memories.
I can’t remember what I did last week, but this guy can recall every event, and every year, of his life. I can only hope to be this sharp, when I’m his age. What a career, too! Sometimes, I look back on my life and wish that I had given the military a chance. Then again, I did follow my passion and I’ve had a good life. Not nearly this exciting, though. 😃
Great interview. Very sharp.
An absolutely outstanding man , what a real hero 👍❤️🇺🇸🚁
My uncle flew F-4s and F-111s and told stories about catching A-12s and SR-71s in refueling tracks. They would attempt to lock the recon birds and he said the same thing... these planes simply accelerated and disappeared.
Very Sharp Pilot!! Great Post!
What a legend..!!!... Exceptionally sharp too..
Truly an amazing man!
Frank Murray is one of the coolest characters! I have the oxcart story, which is hilarious!
Frank exudes intelligence. What a life !
Fascinating interview! I was on Wake Island in '71 when an SR-71 made an emergency landing. The base security had it park at the far end of the runway, and erected a "curtain" of sorts around it. Surprised to hear the A-12 landing in Hawaii in '68 didn't go through similar security contortions. :-o
I think i becues the a12 was not ment to be a spyplane but a intercepter mayby thats way ???
Thanks for sharing. Great stories.
Nice work. The interviewer did well, plus he’s done a lot of these interviews that would have all been lost without his efforts. For those hypercritical of his style, the alternative would’ve been no information shared…unless you’d have made the effort.
finally understand how the start cart did it's thing
Thank you Col Murray.
God speed Frank, fly high, fly fast, fly far. Thank you.
42:00 Like the differentiation between the A-12 and the SR71
I seen this man at are local Walmart wearing that shirt ... I knew I should of talked to him
Look up a new youtube of Frank Murray speaking recently.
I think this plane went way faster than they say. The thing is way over engineered for 3.2- 3.5...afterall... planes of lesser construction were made of traditional materials...and went 2.8-3
Quite correct on your statement, They only ever state the operational speed of 3.2 but remember seeing a doc while back stating that around 3.5 3.6 was it's max speed. That bird was so powerful she would continue acelerateing until she melted her engines. The absolute max speed was determined by the the thermal barrier she lived in. The engine inlet air temperature is the limiting factor as the air entering the engines would continue to increase in temperature as she went ever faster until the point that the inlet stages of the engine compressor sections reached their melting point at which time it would be game over. Just mind blowing the performance of this air breathing black dragon.
@@kiwidiesel5071 Frank stated that the inlet temp was the limiting factor. I expect the airframe was designed for stability out to mach 4.
Listening to men like this tell their stories about military service should be required learning in our public schools.
Is there a part two? Kind of a clumsy ending, but fascinating story.
What was the acceleration like going from 3.2 to 3.5 when avoiding missiles?
Where's the rest of this video?
_A-12 Cygnus?!_
Whoa, I been watching various interviews looking for inconsistencies in dates and 'flight envelope' lol and now it seems i don't even know the basic program information lol . I was certain till now, it was called *Archangel-12* simplified to *A-12*
....Then after being unclassified; in an effort to reduce public confusion. They went with *A-12 Oxcart* , to align to the name the public had mistakenly assumed.....thanks to lazy and over-zealous reporters.
Harri v'Jah - *Archangel* was the name of the project *Lockheed* used for the A-12/SR-71 program... *Angel* was the project name for the U2...
The A-12 with both engines at maximum burns roughly 12,500 gallons per hour. For comparison, the Rocketdyne F-1 engine on the Saturn V burns 15,000 gallons per minute!! So what the A-12 uses in an hour, the F-1 uses in about a minute.
Wow!
FRANK MURRAY, quite a guy. Hi frank....
Are some of the "stock shots" ie: 17:28 computer generated? And did the A-12 have chimes?
+Na Ardri yes, the A-12 had chines.
One of the most interesting talks about the a12. Love his talk about the a12 comparing it to the sr71 and his comments about the blue book over story! turns out the a12 DID best the sr71... with a max recorded top dash of mach 3.58!!! even the CIA official website gives the a12 a bigger performance than the "family model" sr71 ;)
Great video!!
Is frank a ham radio guy.. Bad ass.
Frank is KE7LK
Interesting interview. It's a pity the interviewer was not more knowledgeable about the subject.
San Diego Air and Space Museum should get students of military history to do these interviews. While the interviewer may be an earnest person the product is imperfect. The interviewer should ( I was in doc for 20 odd years) become proficient in the subject matter of the individual interview. While the effort is good the result leaves much to be desired. Hopefully future interviews by this interviewer will have the attempted intimacies established before the camera rolls. Great annoyance.."really, I didn't know that..."( 5:42) AaaaaaaaaHHHHH!
***** In the contrary, he did okay on those topics and the result was interesting and easily accessible even to "non-aviators." Elsewhere he comes off very badly.
5metal 4
you are severely mistaken. the interviewer is a former military pilot (he says he flew f4's in the interview) and he clearly knows what he's doing and he's talked to a number of other blackbird and a12 pilots in other interviews.
i don't like his style of cutting off the speaker in his interviews but his pilot background results in him asking questions that elicit a lot of technical detail that only pilots would understand and appreciate. i am glad that he did this.
Pilot told interviewer multiple times about being a dayfighter role but the interviewer kept asking.
Crazy I can’t even tune a carburetor properly smh.
Dear interviewer, great job but let the guy speak without cutting him off with another question before he finishes... But I’ve truly enjoyed listening to Mr. Murray
Sharp as .
1:25:49 North American Aviation X-15 Robert "Bob" White photo ?
So impressive. Wish he was my neighbor 😀
I get the impression that some of this he didn't feel comfortable talking about
How many of the a12 pilots went on to fly the sr71?
Is there any side by side comparisons, size, of A12 vs SR71?
Hi. Check this page out. It has info on all the different variants www.aviamagazine.com/factsheets/aircraft/sr71/index.aspx
@@iang333 THANK YOU!!
Great American. What did Frank do after the Air Force ?
30:55 love it
At last some more information on the very secret A12
+Roland Lawrence CIA only not Air Force. Could open up
possibilities for Senior Citizen and Aurora...
427 C - just to clarify
Blackbird family
Hero
Joined Oxcart to ditch orders to Alaska 😆 Absolutely nuts he did all this without college education.
Frank Murray is amazing, I wish I could talk to this guy. The interviewer and editor are terrible.
I knew him, we both had Vincents. Circa 1982. And we both solo'd with 1948 Aeronca Champs. Synchronicity.
Phllip Mclennan I live in gardnerville I have a hot rod shop called groom lake performance I would love to meet this guy if possible !!
Graeme Cooke the
I went to “Saints” in San Diego and went to UPT in Columbus. Sadly the similarities end right there. Frank is truly an inspiration.
so at 0630 that is a B1B not a B-52 and good dad coaching to the old man i was almost fooled till the look of the B-52
what a strtatraight guy
when he talked about the problem with it at 16, he's referring to that cone shaped device at the front of the engines. They had to be developed to control the flow of air to the engine, and control the supersonic shock wave at the front. The air flow, at speed, was often interrupted, they called it a "unstart" and they never really solved it. The basic problem is getting an air-fed engine to operate at that speed. See the books by Kelly Johnson, Ben Rich, and others. They all mention it. The reason the A12 couldn't exceed mach 3.2 was not that they lacked engine power, but the aircraft would heat up too much. To this day, no one, no country or aircraft mfr on earth, has duplicated the A12. You can hand them the blueprints and they couldn't build it. You may as well hand iPhone blueprints to a neanderthal!
+micflor531313 The problem was the engine was rated to Mach 3.2 and above that high inlet temps would have been apparent, so it was the inlet temp which was the limiting factor.
As mentioned in the video. Watch the whole thing.
Yeager became Brigadier!
Who needs friggin college! This guy remembers everything....Could probably fly the bird again!
I assume that all these guys are talking about is declassified?
College is for turds, now. Maybe not back then, of course. But Frank proves it is not necessary.
Good interview but the interviewer need to do a better job
I know where the name Oxcart came from. Frank Murray might like to know. I am on Facebook as Alec Pridgeon. If he or his relatives send a friend request, I can send him a text message or call him on the phone.
We should fly those planes now. Learn something.
Frank i see your still telling stories, KF7NN to KE7LK
Stud.
Frank Murray is a national treasure. However, the interviewer is terrible!
53
You never know who sit shoulder to shoulder with... I flew for a State/Fed Agency 99.9% at night mainly interdiction, support. Back then it was some state of the art sensors, goggles, something called GPS.. A new hire flew with me and I had to show him the procedure for signing out $25000 latest Gen NV, thermal gear... I knew he was Airforce but 3/4 were. Then piece by piece over the year I learned he flew F-111s when Reagan was POTUS. Hmmm.. Put 2x2 and figured out what he did. Then came the revelation he carried nuclear weapons on that beast. I recall thinking this man had 20+ years on me and signed out for nukes!! Here I was showing him how to use goggles and telling him if he loses or breaks em, he pays for them....
Great story. CZcams " The Global Lie" horizon looks Flat. What adjustments made to accommodate the 8"/mile square curvature of the earth? Please interview with Mark Sargent💜
It's no different at ground level than at 85000ft as the plane is traveling around a greater circumference. This equation o ly works out to be 1 inch of height adjustment for every 111 feet foward distance so it is negligible in the big picture. The plant is a very big piece of real-estate
Back when the CIA was honorable
V
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