Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 2
45
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As it turned out, no review of the contract was necessary at the three-fourths point. Lockheed delivered the aircraft not only on time but under budget. During the final contract negotiations in the spring of 1958, Lockheed and the US Government agreed on a price for the original 20 aircraft of $17,025,542 plus a profit of $1,952,055 for a total of $18,977,597—less than $1 million for each aircraft. Because its design was based on Lockheed’s F-104, the U-2 was relatively inexpensive even though only a small number of aircraft had been ordered. Only the wings and tail were unique; Lockheed manufactured the other portions of the aircraft using the F-104’s jigs and dies.
MAJOR DESIGN FEATURES OF THE U-2
Aware of the great need for secrecy in the new project, Kelly Johnson placed it in Lockheed’s Advanced Development facility at Burbank, California, known as the Skunk Works.¹⁰ Lockheed had established this highly secure area in 1945 to develop the nation’s first jet aircraft, the P-80 Shooting Star. The small Skunk Works staff began making the detailed drawings for the U-2, which was nicknamed the “Angel” because it was to fly so high.
Kelly Johnson’s approach to prototype development was to have his engineers and draftsmen located not more than 50 feet from the aircraft assembly line. Difficulties in construction were immediately brought to the attention of the engineers, who gathered the mechanics around the drafting tables to discuss ways to overcome the difficulties. As a result, engineers were generally able to fix problems in the design in a matter of hours, not days or weeks. There was no emphasis placed on producing neatly typed memorandums; engineers simply made pencil notations on the engineering drawings in order to keep the project moving quickly.¹¹
A little more than a week after he had been authorized to begin the project, Kelly Johnson wrote a 23-page report detailing his most recent ideas on the U-2 proposal. The aircraft, he explained, would be designed to meet load factors of only 2.5 g’s, which was the limit for transport aircraft rather than combat planes. The U-2 would have a
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¹⁰ The Lockheed “Skunk Works” was named after the Kickapoo Joy Juice factory known as the “Skonk Works” in Al Capp’s comic strip *Li’l Abner*.
¹¹ Ben A. Rich (current head of the “Skunk Works”), interview by Donald E. Welzenbach and Gregory W. Pedlow, Burbank, California, 26 August 1988.
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25