Related resource:
Center for the Study of Intelligence (Central Intelligence Agency)
In the early 1950s, because of the poor quality of intelligence
estimates on Soviet strategic capabilities, American political
and military leaders searched for new ways to collect intelligence
on the communist bloc countries. One answer was to design a platform
capable of providing strategic overhead intelligence. In 1954-55,
the Central Intelligence Agency and Lockheed Corporation jointly
developed a high-altitude single-engine reconnaissance aircraft
called the CL-282, more famously known as the U-2.
In addition to gathering strategic intelligence, the U-2 also
provided up-to-date information on crisis situations all around
the world. The first use of the U-2 to gather tactical intelligence
occurred during the 1956 Suez Crisis. U-2 flights also supported
the US intervention in Lebanon in 1958 and provided photographic
intelligence during the Cuban Missile Crisis in late 1962. Such
intelligence proved crucial for American political and naval planners
alike.
In mid-1963, the Office of Special Activities set in motion
Project WHALE TALE to examine the possibility of adapting the
U-2 aircraft for operations from an aircraft carrier [sentence
deleted by CIA]
CIA planners believed that, if U-2s could be modified to operate
from aircraft carriers, the United States could avoid the political
problems involved in seeking permission to base U-2s in other
nations. Kelly Johnson [lead Lockheed designer] began working
on changes to the aircraft, and Office of Special Activities Deputy
Director James A. Cunningham, Jr., a former Marine Corps aviator,
asked the Navy for assistance.
The first test of the U-2s capability for carrier operations took
place in August 1963 from the USS Kitty Hawk operating
in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, California. A U-2C, which
had been loaded aboard the carrier at North Island Naval Base,
took off from the flight deck with a full load of fuel and was
airborne within 321 feet. No assistance from catapults was necessary.
Although the takeoff was very successful, the attempted landing
was not. The aircraft bounced, hit hard on one wing tip, and then
just barely managed to become airborne again before reaching the
end of the deck. Kelly Johnson realized that the airframe would
have to be altered in order to make carrier landings possible.
These alterations involved strengthening the landing gear, installing
an arresting hook at the rear of the fuselage, and fitting "spoilers"
on the wings to cancel the aerodynamic lift once the aircraft
was over the flight deck. Aircraft thus modified were designated
U-2G. While several aircraft underwent these modifications, [several
words deleted by CIA] pilots began undergoing training in landing
on aircraft carriers. The first successful carrier landing took
place on 2 March 1964.
22 September 1998