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

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Se1.ret NOfiORN
Chapter 2
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led Bissell and Cunningham to approach Dr. Alex Batlin of Technical
Services Division in the Directorate ,of Plans )
1 for ideas to help "cap­
tured" U-2 pilots avoid such suffering. Battin suggested the method
used by Nazi war criminal Hermarnn Goering, a thin glass ampule
containing liquid potassium cyanide. He said a pilot had only to put
the ampule in his mouth and bite down on the glass; death would fol­
low in 10 to 15 seconds. Project AQUATONE ordered six of the poi­
son ampules, called L-pills, and offered one to each pilot just before a
mission. It was up to each pilot to decide if he wanted to take an
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L-pill with him. Some did; most did not.
DELIVERY OF THE FIRST U-2
On 25 July. less than eight months after the go-ahead call from Trevor
Gardner, Kelly Johnson was ready to ,deliver the first aircraft, known as
article 341, to the " Paradise Ranch" site. With its long, slender wings
and tail assembly removed, the airc:raft was wrapped in tarpaulins,
loaded aboard a C-124, and flown to Groom Lake, where Lockheed me­
chanics spent the next six days readyi.ng the craft for its maiden flight.
Before "Kelly's Angel" could actually take to the air, however,
it needed an Air Force designator. Col. Allman T. Culbertson from the
Air Force·s Office of the Director of Research and Development
pointed this out to Lieutenant Colonel Geary in July 1955, and the
two officers then looked through the aircraft designator handbook to
see what the options were. They decided that they could not call the
project aircraft a bomber, fighter, or transport plane, and they did not
want anyone to know that the new plane was for reconnaissance, so
Geary and Culbertson decided that it should come under the utility
aircraft category. At the time, there were only two utility aircraft on
the books, a U- l and a U-3. Geary told Culbertson that the Lockheed
CL-282 was going to be known officially as the U-2.
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" At the time this Direc1ora1e was known as th,e Deputy Directorate/Plans. with the slash
interpreted to mean eith.:r "for" or "of."· Terminology for the major subdivisions of the
CIA and their directors ha.~ varied over the pa.~t four decades. For the sake of consistency.
all titles of Directorates and Deputy Directors h,1vc bc:c:n placed in the current Agency for­
mat: the organization is known a., the "Directorate of x·· and the head is known as the
··Deputy Director for x:·
" Information supplied by James Cunningham to Donald E. Wdzenbach: Sayre Stevens.
Memorandum for the Record. ·•Discussion with Dr. Alex Batlin Re Project MKNAOMI."'
July 1975 (S).
•• Geary intervic:w (S).
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