Lockheed had meanwhile become busy with other projects and had to be persuaded to accept the CL-282 contract after approval. ===Manufacture=== Bissell became head of the project, which used covert funding; under the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949, the CIA's director is the only federal government employee who can spend "unvouchered" government money.
Other designs for the 'C' camera were designed but not successful. After 1950, Soviet air defenses aggressively attacked all aircraft near the country's borders—sometimes even those over Japanese airspace—and existing reconnaissance aircraft, primarily bombers converted for reconnaissance duty such as the Boeing RB-47, were vulnerable to anti-aircraft artillery, missiles, and fighters.
The aircraft was so crowded that when Baker asked Johnson for of space for a lens with a focal length, Johnson replied "I'd sell my grandmother for six more inches!"; Baker instead used a f/13.85 lens in a format for his final design. ===Fuel=== The U-2 has used Jet Propellant Thermally Stable (JPTS) since the aircraft's development in the 1950s.
The Air Force commissioned the Beacon Hill Report from Project Lincoln at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was researched in 1951–1952 and delivered in 1952.
The Air Force commissioned the Beacon Hill Report from Project Lincoln at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was researched in 1951–1952 and delivered in 1952.
It provides day and night, high-altitude (), all-weather intelligence gathering. Lockheed Corporation originally proposed it in 1953, it was approved in 1954, and its first test flight was in 1955.
Another USAF officer, John Seaberg, wrote a request for proposal in 1953 for an aircraft that could reach over a target with of operational radius.
It provides day and night, high-altitude (), all-weather intelligence gathering. Lockheed Corporation originally proposed it in 1953, it was approved in 1954, and its first test flight was in 1955.
The committee suggested a plane with advanced optics, flying above . Baker began designing the camera system in October 1954, well before the plane selection and construction began.
In June 1954, the USAF rejected the design in favor of the Bell X-16 and the modified B-57.
However, the Intelligence Systems Panel, a civilian group advising the USAF and CIA on aerial reconnaissance, had recognized by 1954 that the RB-57D would not meet the requirement that panel member Allen Donovan of Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory believed was necessary for safety.
The USAF's Seaberg helped persuade his own agency to support the CL-282, albeit with the higher-performance J57 engine, and final approval for a joint USAF-CIA project (the first time the CIA dealt with sophisticated technology) came in November 1954.
It provides day and night, high-altitude (), all-weather intelligence gathering. Lockheed Corporation originally proposed it in 1953, it was approved in 1954, and its first test flight was in 1955.
Air Research and Development Command mandated design changes that made the aircraft more durable for combat, but the resulting RB-57D aircraft of 1955 could only reach .
Lockheed received a $22.5 million contract (equivalent to $ million today) in March 1955 for the first 20 aircraft, with the first $1.26 million ($ million today) mailed to Johnson's home in February 1955 to keep work going during negotiations.
Shell Oil developed a new low-volatility, low vapor pressure jet fuel that would not evaporate at high altitudes; the fuel became known as JP-7, and manufacturing several hundred thousand gallons for the aircraft in 1955 caused a nationwide shortage of Esso's FLIT insecticide. Realizing the plane could not be tested and flown out of Burbank Airport, they selected what would become Area 51, which was acquired and a paved runway constructed for the project.
The aircraft was renamed the U-2 in July 1955, the same month the first aircraft, Article 341, was delivered to Groom Lake.
The company agreed to deliver the first aircraft by July of that year and the last by November 1956.
In 1960, Gary Powers was shot down in a CIA U-2C over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile (SAM).
was shot down in a U-2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. U-2s have taken part in post-Cold War conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and supported several multinational NATO operations.
The newest models (TR-1, U-2R, U-2S) entered service in the 1980s, and the latest model, the U-2S, had a technical upgrade in 2012. ==Development== ===Background=== After World War II, the U.S.
Its name was changed to mean "tactical reconnaissance" to reflect its purpose as an affordable peace and wartime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft, distinguishing it from strategic, penetrating SR-71-class platforms; TR is a reference to the short-lived rebranding of the U-2 as the TR-1 in the 1980s.
In 1999, USAF spent approximately $11.3 million (equivalent to $ million today) on fuel for the U-2 aircraft and was looking for a lower-cost alternative.
A JP-8 based alternative, JP-8+100LT, was being considered in 2001.
The newest models (TR-1, U-2R, U-2S) entered service in the 1980s, and the latest model, the U-2S, had a technical upgrade in 2012. ==Development== ===Background=== After World War II, the U.S.
This effort ultimately proved unsuccessful, and work began on a follow-on aircraft, which resulted in the Lockheed A-12 Oxcart. ===Possible successor=== In August 2015, the 60th anniversary of the U-2 program, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works revealed they were internally developing a successor to the U-2, referred to as the UQ-2 or RQ-X, combining features from both the manned U-2 and unmanned Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk and improving upon them.
Plans for a U-2 replacement would not conflict with the development of the SR-72, another project by the company to create a [unmanned surveillance plane, as it would be suited for missions that require greater speed for time-sensitive targets. The company released a notional artist's impression of the TR-X aircraft at an Air Force Association conference in Washington on 14 September 2015.
TR-X could be ready for service in the 2025 timeframe, with a fleet of 25–30 aircraft proposed to replace the nearly 40-aircraft mix of U-2s and RQ-4s. Lockheed Martin revealed more specifications about the TR-X concept at a 15 March 2016 media day, confirming the aircraft would be unmanned and air refuelable.
The TR-X is meant to be "survivable, not unnoticeable", operating outside of enemy air defense bubbles rather than penetrating into them. ===Avionics Tech Refresh=== In 2020, the US Air Force awarded the Avionics Tech Refresh contract to Lockheed Martin for upgrading the U-2.
In February 2020, the flight tests and the installation of new electro-optical reconnaissance systems were completed.
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