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• #U2 aircraft crack#

#U2 aircraft crack#

The CIA aviators were already crack airmen-now training with one of the most difficult and demanding aircraft ever flown. Landing proved more of a challenge and Schumacher settled for a touch-and-go before taking the U-2 to land at Lockheed's Burbank airfield over a hundred miles away.īut the point was proved: the Dragon Lady could launch from a carrier.Ĭarrier flight training training began in earnest for the CIA pilots at Pensacola and Monterey Naval Air Stations. Lockheed test pilot Bob Schumacher got the jet glider off the deck using its enormous lift in a little over 320 feet-a dramatic climb that stunned the sailors below. This means anyone who is not aboard today.”Īs no unauthorized disclosures came to light, Epes’s order was apparently obeyed, and no leaks occurred during later operations. In this regard it is important that there be no discussion or disclosures of this test to unauthorized persons. “The details of this program, and today’s test,” Epes said, “are classified because of the obvious far-reaching implications of this program with relation to. Horace Epes reinforced the need for security in his announcement to his crew. The aircraft had been loaded and stored in the dead of night and its handlers and crew were designated as either “Lockheed employees” or “ONR staff.”

2, 1963 the carrier USS Kitty Hawk steamed out of San Diego Harbor for the first U-2 carrier tests. It was decided that the Office of Naval Research would provide the cover for the test program, dubbed Project Whale Tale, and the two planes selected for the project would carry ONR insignia. They also carried some 4,000 sailors each with eyes, ears and mouths that needed corralling. The carriers selected for the project had extra compartments available for on-board processing of reconnaissance films and quarters for the CIA crews. Given the U-2’s 103-foot wingspan, these tools would be essential. The dollies-plus a special sling-would be used to position the spy planes on the flight deck.

A special dolly was sometimes used to maneuver U-2s around when moving on their own power was not an option. Lockheed, which makes the U-2, already had some solutions in hand for dealing with the big planes aboard ships.

However, the CIA pilots had to become qualified for carrier ops and that would involve a lot of Navy-based training and testing. Clarence “Kelly” Johnson assured Carter that the aircraft could be modified relatively easily and cheaply for carrier operations by beefing up its landing gear and adding an arresting hook, among other changes.įlying conditions off and around carrier decks, while challenging, appeared to present no fundamental barriers to U-2 pilots, and carrier commanders were certain the ships could be maneuvered to compensate for the plane’s flight characteristics. To address the first problem, Carter went straight to the source, the man who designed the U-2. While the advantages of such operations-no foreign entanglements and timely stealthy deployment-were salient, the problems were notable.įirst, was it even possible to launch and recover such a broad-winged from a windy, heaving carrier deck? Second, how easily could the big planes be integrated into existing Navy operations? Third, could such secret planes and their missions be kept secure from the carrier’s busy crew?

Recommended: Would China Really Invade Taiwan? Recommended: Russia's Next Big Military Sale - To Mexico? Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? Marshall Carter, the deputy director of the CIA, received a memo he’d requested from James Cunningham, the deputy assistant director for the CIA’s covert Special Activities Division, regarding U-2 carrier operations. During that time, the U-2s were kept busy spying on the Soviet Union, China and Cuba.ĭocuments declassified in the last decade allow us some insight into the project. It’s not clear why three years passed between Francis Gary Powers’ shoot-down and the revival of the U-2 carrier-launch concept.