For some time, Johnson had been asking Lockheed management to set up an experimental department where there would be direct links between designer, engineer, and manufacturing. Johnson decided to run the XP-80 program on this basis. The only place for the new section was next to the wind tunnel. The tools came from a small machine shop Lockheed bought out.
The walls were wooden engine boxes, while the roof was a rented circus tent. Johnson assembled a group of twenty-two engineers; the new group had its own purchasing department and could function independently of the main plant. Working ten hours a day, six days a week, they had the XP-80 ready in 163 days.
Part of the secrecy surrounding the project was that Johnson's new section had no name. Soon after the makeshift shop was finished, Lockheed engineer Irving H. Culver was at the phone desk. The phone rang, Culver was alone, and he had not been told how to answer the phone. Culver was a fan of Al Capp's comic strip "L'l Abner." In the strip, "Hairless Joe"
brewed up "Kickapoo Joy Juice" using old shoes, dead skunks, and other ingredients. On impulse, Culver answered the phone with the name of that brewery.[22]
It was called "the Skunk Works."
CHAPTER 2
The Angel of Paradise Ranch
The U-2 Aquatone
Now the reason the enlightened prince and the wise general conquer the enemy whenever they move and their achievements surpass those of ordinary men is foreknowledge.
With the end of World War II, the shaky alliance between the Soviet Union and the Western powers unraveled before the reality of Stalinism. Events during 1948 and 1949, such as the Berlin Blockade and the testing of the first Soviet A-bomb, underlined the need for information on the Soviet Union. The CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service attempted to parachute agents into the Soviet Union between 1949 and 1953. The West also attempted to support resistance groups in the Ukraine, the Baltic States, Albania, and Poland. The efforts ended in failure. The agents were captured as soon as they landed, while the resistance groups were ruthlessly hunted down.[23]
The intelligence would have to be gathered from the air.
With the start of the Cold War, overflights of the Soviet Union began. In the late-1940s, the British used de Havilland Mosquito PR.34s to photograph northern ports such as Murmansk and Archangel. The armor was removed to raise the maximum altitude to 43,000 feet, above that of Soviet propeller fighters. The Mosquito overflights continued into 1949, until the introduction of the MiG 15 jet fighter made them too dangerous.[24]
With the start of the Korean War in June 1950, overflights began in earnest. In the fall of 1950, President Harry S Truman authorized a program to cover Soviet ports, islands, and coastal areas.[25] Initially, two different aircraft were used — the RB-36D Peacemaker and the RB-45C Tornado. The RB-36s were stripped of unnecessary equipment, including all the guns except the twin 20mm cannons in the tail turret. These featherweight RB-36s could reach altitudes of 58,000 feet, which gave them virtual immunity from Soviet MiG 15s.
The RB-45s were light jet reconnaissance bombers, which relied on speed and the brief duration of the overflight, rather than altitude, to escape detection. (Its performance was less than that of the MiG 15.) In 1952 and 1954, RB-45Cs were painted in RAF markings and made overflights of the western Soviet Union.[26] U.S. Air Force RB-45Cs, based in Japan, also overflew the Pacific coast of the Soviet Union.[27]
In 1953, overflight missions were taken over by RB-47 Stratojets, medium jet bombers with much better speed than the RB-36s or 45s. Their most spectacular mission was a mass overflight of Vladivostok at high noon by the entire RB-47 force. Each target was photographed by two or three aircraft. Only two planes saw MiGs, but no interceptions were made.[28]
These overflights were brief. The planes crossed the border, covered their targets, and were back across before Soviet air defenses could react. If the Soviets protested, the incident could be described as an "off-course training flight." These flights could not cover the Soviet interior, where the bulk of Soviet industrial and military facilities were located. In the Ural Mountains whole cities had been built that no Westerner had ever seen. Filling the blank spots would take a Dark Eagle.
The U-2 project was set in motion by Maj. John Seaberg, an air force reservist recalled to duty as assistant chief of the New Developments Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Seaberg, who had worked as an aeronautical engineer at Chance Vought, realized the new generation of jet engines being developed in the early 1950s had an inherent high-altitude capability. If matched with extremely efficient wings, the resulting aircraft would have a maximum altitude far above the reach of any interceptor. It would be ideal for reconnaissance.
By March 1953, Seaberg had written a formal design study. It envisioned an aircraft with a maximum altitude of 70,000 feet, a range of 3,000 miles, subsonic speed, up to 700 pounds of reconnaissance equipment, a one-man crew, and the use of existing engines. Two requirements would have a long-term impact on both this and later Black airplanes. Under "Detectability," the requirement stated: "Consideration will be given in the design of the vehicle to minimize the detectability by enemy radar." Under the category of "Vulnerability," it stated: "It is anticipated that the enemy will have limited means of detection and/or interception of a vehicle of the required performance. The greatest opposition to the operation of this aircraft can be expected to be encountered from guided missiles."
Major Seaberg went to possible contractors. It was decided to bypass large prime contractors such as Boeing, Convair, North American, Douglas, and Lockheed. The aircraft was highly specialized, and the number produced would be small. A smaller company would give it both a higher priority and a more innovative design. Bell Aircraft and Fairchild were asked to submit designs, while Martin was asked to modify its B-57 Canberra light bomber.
By January 1954, the three proposals were finished. Fairchild's M-195 design featured an intake behind the cockpit and a tail mounted on a short boom. The landing gear was a tail wheel and two main wheels in the wing.
The Bell Model 67 was a large, twin-engine design of a more conventional appearance. The Martin RB-57D proposal had extended outer wings and new engines. All three designs used Pratt and Whitney J57 engines, which were the best then available for such extreme altitudes.
In early May 1954, the evaluation was completed and approval was given to build two of the designs. The Martin RB-57D was to be the interim aircraft, able to provide a limited high-altitude capability in a short time. It would not meet the full requirement, however.[29] To do this, the Bell design was selected. To hide its reconnaissance mission, it was designated the "X-16." X (for experimental) normally signified such research aircraft as the rocket-powered X-l, X-2, and X-15. The program was given the code name "Bald Eagle." A total of twenty-eight were to be built.
The X-16 was a very large, yet delicate-looking aircraft. It was 60.85 feet long, with a wingspan of 114.85 feet, but the cylindrical fuselage was only 4 feet in diameter. It used "bicycle" landing gear — front and back wheels with two retractable outriggers in the middle of the wings for balance (similar to the B-47). There were three sensor bays — one in the nose, and one in front of and one behind the rear landing gear bay. The cameras could cover an area 50 miles wide and 795 miles long. Weight was the primary concern. The two J57 engines produced only 743 pounds of thrust each at 65,000 feet. Above this, the thrust dropped off sharply. The X-16 weighed 36,200 pounds fully loaded, and there was no margin for added weight or drag.
22
Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson with Maggie Smith,
25
Curtis Peebles,
27
Robert Jackson,
28
Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan, ed.,