Preserving a Cold War icon at CIA headquarters

At CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, an imposing spy aircraft stands outside the main entrance — a relic from a pivotal era of Cold War intelligence gathering that, in its time, pushed aerospace technology to its limits. 

At CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, an imposing spy aircraft stands outside the main entrance — a relic from a pivotal era of Cold War intelligence gathering that, in its time, pushed aerospace technology to its limits. 

But its stationary, terrestrial home amid birds and bugs, instead of at Mach 3 speeds and altitudes of 80,000 feet, meant it risked falling apart.   

"The A-12 is prime real estate here at CIA headquarters," Robert Byer, CIA's museum director, told CBS News in an interview, noting employees pass by it daily. But, he added, "this plane was not built with the idea of being outside 24/7."

The A-12, a top-secret reconnaissance plane developed in the late 1950s and operational in the early 1960s, is more than a piece of aviation history. It is a "macro artifact," according to Byer, who described the unique conservation challenges that the agency has been working to address through an extensive restoration project.

Since arriving at CIA headquarters in 2007 — when its 39,000-pound frame was hauled on five wide-load trucks and mounted on pylons sunk 40 feet into the ground — the aircraft, known at CIA as Article 128, has been the focus of painstaking preservation work. The goal is to honor what the agency describes as the "golden age of overhead reconnaissance," Byer said.