You might think you’ve seen enough flying triangle projects so far. But this one was unique and certainly, cursed.It would be the new attack aircraft for the US Navy to rule the skies and the seas in the start of 21st century, but would prove to be a the downfall for all the players involved.This is flying Dorito , the cursed A-12 Avenger II.
source-image: Found And Explained
It was a proposed American attack aircraft from McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics. It was to be an all-weather, carrier-based stealth bomber replacement for the Grumman A-6 Intruder
source-image: Found And Explained
The navy wanted to replace aging A-6s with a new state of the art specialized attack aircraft that would have low observablility – aka stealth: The jet would be able to approach enemy vessels or targets as close as 10 miles before being potentionally detected.
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Certainly a tall order.Like all government bids for these secret military projects, it was our usual suspects.McDonell Douglas partnered with General Dynamics on one side and their competitors were Northrop Grumman and Vought.
During initial developments, both sides worked on stealth awircraft concepts but when it came to the deadline only Mcdonell Douglas submitted a bid – surprisingly Northrop and friends didn’t even submit a concept.ANd thus the A-12 flying dorito was selected by default.An easy victory, or perhaps the first red flag of a doomed program.
