Those are termed “integral fuel tanks” - pretty much every large airliner has them these days too, although they can use rubber and other sealants at the joints.
I have “wonderful memories” of crawling through 737-200 series wings sealing up all the joints in the tanks with PRC 1422 as an apprentice in the 1970’s!!
Again nobody flies high enough for the alts the YF-12A will “shine” at it’s top speed. Just like nobody currently flies high enough for mach 2+ combat. Mach 1.6-1.7 is normal on large enduring confrontation maps to travel around quickly when looking for enemies whilst sacrificing fuel.
You probebly don’t fly top tier on enduring confrontation maps, it’s very easy to hit Mach 2+ if you only want to go high and fast and risk radar missiles.
I’m pretty sure there are already single player missions in game. It’d be the first you’d have to buy to play a certain mission, but technically we have (well I guess had) the Pacific and European theater bundles, that came with a plane, SL (I believe) and a few missions, but idk if you really count that, since it is no longer available
I honestly think that this should be added to the game, but only as an AI aircraft. It could make an appearance as an AI controlled reconnaisance aircraft for EC maps.
+1 for Dreams Come True. It technically could be added, but it wouldn’t be practical, so it would best fit either as the prize, or as a squadron vehicle.
Only at 60,000 feet. The lawn mowing fights that happen in WT would make it less than useless. Plus most of it information is still completely classified, so can guarentee it wouldnt even be able to come close to its IRL speed.