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.

70
Sec,et NOfO"N
Chapter 2
First flight of the U-2,
4 August 1955
With Kelly Johnson watching from a chase plane and giving a con­
stant stream of instructions, LeYie:r made three more unsuccessful
landing attempts. With the light fading and a thunderstorm fast ap­
proaching from the mountains to the west, LeVier made one last ap­
proach using the method he had advocated: letting the aircraft touch
on its rear wheel first. This time the U-2 made a near-perfect landing,
which came just in the nick of tim<!. Ten minutes later, the thunder­
storm began dumping an unheard-of 2 inches of rain, flooding the dry
lakebed and making the airstrip unusable:
1
Now that the first problems in flying and landing the U-2 had
been worked out, Kelly Johnson scheduled the "official" first flight
for 8 August 1955. This time outsiders were present. including
Richard Bissell. Col. Osmond Ritla1nd, Richard Homer. and Garrison
Norton. The U-2 flew to 32,000 feet and performed very well. Kelly
Johnson had met his eight-month deadline."
•• Ibid .. pp. 21 -22: Johnson, .. Log for Project X." 4 August 1955.
.. Johnson. " Log for Project X," 8 August 1955.
Seeret