Bissell and his colleagues all agreed that would
make an ideal site for testing the U-2 and traini re-
turning to Washington, Bissell discovered that
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181
In addition to the camera systems, the U-2 carried one other im-
portant item of optical equipment, a periscope. Designed by James
Baker and built by Walter Baird of Baird Associates, the optical peri-
scope helped pilots recognize targets beneath the aircraft and also
proved to be a valuable navigational aid!'"
PREPARATIONS FOR TESTING THE U-2
As work progressed in California on the airframe, in Connecticut on
the engines, and in Boston on the camera system, the top officials of
the Development Projects Staff flew to
search for a site where the aircraft could be tested safely and secretly.
On 12 April 1955 Richard Bissell and Col. Osmund Ritland the se-
nior Air Force officer on the project staff) flew LIZ with
Kelly Johnson in a small Beechcraft plane piloted by eed's
chief test pilot, Tony LeVier. They spotted what appeared to be an air-
strip'
After debating about landing on the old airstrip, LeVier set the plane
down and all four walked over to examine the strip.
From the air the strip appeared to be
paved, but on closer inspection it turned out to have originally been
fashioned from compacted earth that had turned into ankle-deep dust
after more than a decade of disuse. If LeVier had attempted to land on
the airstrip, the plane would probably have nosed over when the
wheels sank into the loose soil, killing or injuring all of the key fig-
ures in the U-2 project."'
Information supplied by James Baker to Donald E. Welzenbach. 12 May 1986 (U).
OSA History, chap. 8, pp_ 1-2 (TS Codeword): Miller, Lockheed U-2. pp. 19-20.
Sè'biet
UNCLASSIFIED