Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 1
11
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gravity (g’s) instead of the military specification strength of 5.33 g’s. For the power plant he selected the General Electric J73/GE-3 nonafterburning turbojet engine with 9,300 pounds of thrust (this was the same engine he had chosen for the F-104, which had been the basis for the U-2 design).¹⁴ Many of the CL-282’s design features were adapted from gliders. Thus, the wings and tail were detachable. Instead of a conventional landing gear, Johnson proposed using two skis and a reinforced belly rib for landing—a common sailplane technique—and a jettisonable wheeled dolly for takeoff. Other features included an unpressurized cockpit and a 15-cubic-foot payload area that could accommodate 600 pounds of sensors. The CL-282’s maximum altitude would be just over 70,000 feet with a 2,000-mile range. Essentially, Kelly Johnson had designed a jet-propelled glider.¹⁵
Early in March 1954, Kelly Johnson submitted the CL-282 design to Brig. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever’s Office of Development Planning. Eugene Kiefer and Bud Wienberg studied the design and recommended it to General Schriever, who then asked Lockheed to submit a specific proposal. In early April, Kelly Johnson presented a full description of the CL-282 and a proposal for the construction and maintenance of 30 aircraft to a group of senior Pentagon officials that included Schriever’s superior, Lt. Gen. Donald L. Putt, Deputy Chief of Staff for Development, and Trevor N. Gardner, Special Assistant for Research and Development to the Secretary of the Air Force. Afterward Kelly Johnson noted that the civilian officials were very much interested in his design but the generals were not.¹⁶
The CL-282 design was also presented to the commander of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, in early April by Eugene Kiefer, Bud Wienberg, and Burton Klein from the Office of
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¹⁴ Lockheed Corporation, “Strategic Reconnaissance and Intelligence,” Development Planning Note #1, 30 November 1953 (U).
¹⁵ Miller, *Lockheed U-2*, p. 12. For more details on Kelly Johnson’s original proposal, see “Profile of CL-282 High Altitude Aircraft prepared by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, 5 March 1954” in Helen H. Kleyla and Robert D. O’Hern, *History of the Office of Special Activities*, DS&T, Directorate of Science and Technology Historical Series OSA-1, 16 vols. (CIA: DS&T, 1969), chap. 1, annex 2 (TS Codeword). The 16 volumes of this history contain 20 chapters, each paginated separately. Future references will be shortened to *OSA History*, followed by the relevant chapter and page numbers.
¹⁶ Kelly Johnson Papers, “Log for Project X,” April 1954, Lockheed Corporation, Advanced Development Projects Division, Burbank, California.
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25