The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974

Text

This text came with the file. It may have mistakes. When the text and the image disagree, the image is right.

263
See, et NOFORN
Chapter 6
Lockheed design for a hydrogen-powered aircraft (the CL-400). The
committee examined two other Kelly Johnson designs at this
meeting-a tailless subsonic aircraft with a very-low-radar cross sec­
tion (the G2A) and a new supersonic design (the A-2)-and did not
accept either one, the former because of its slow speed and the latter
because of its dependence on exotic fuels for its ramjets and its over­
all high cost. The committee approved the continuation of Convair's
work on a ramjet-powered Mach 4.0 "parasite" aircraft that would be
launched from a specially configured version of the B-58B bomber.
The design was termed a parasite because it could not take off on its
own but needed a larger aircraft to carry it aloft and accelerate it to
the speed required to start the ramjet engine. The Convair design was
called the FISH.5
Two months later, after reviewing the Convair proposal and yet
another Lockheed design for a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft (the
A-3), the Land committee concluded in late November 1958 that it
would indeed be feasible to build an aircraft whose speed and altitude
would make radar tracking difficult or impossible. The committee,
therefore, recommended that DCI Dulles ask President Eisenhower to
-
~ approve further pursuit of the project and to provide funds for addi­
tional studies and tests. 6
On 17 December 1958, Allen Dulles and Richard Bissell briefed
the President on the progress toward a successor to the U-2. Also
present were Land and Purcell from the advisory committee,
Presidential Science Adviser James Killian, and Air Force Secretary
Donald Quarles. DCI Dulles reviewed the results of the U-2 missions
to date and stated his belief that a successor to the U-2 could be used
all over the world and "would have a much greater invulnerability to
detection."
Bissell then described the two competing projects by Lockheed
and Convair, noting that the chief question at the moment was
whether to use air launch or ground takeoff. The next phase, he add­
ed, would be detailed engineering, at the end of which it was pro­
posed that 12 aircraft be ordered at a cost of about $100 million.
'OSA History, chap. 20, p. 8 (TS Codeword); Johnson. "Archangel log." 17-24
September 1958.
• OSA Chronology. p. 21 (TS Codeword); Minnich, "OXCART Story," p. 3 (S); OSA
History. chap. 20. p. 8 (TS Codeword); Johnson, "Archangel log," 12 November 1958.
Secret