The Pentagon is selecting a spy plane to fly high above the USSR. An ambitious proposal from Fairchild is on the table, but then comes an unsolicited proposal from Lockheed. It’s the CL-282 project (later the U-2). Less ambitious than Fairchild’s, but achievable in a few months. In March 1954, Kelly Johnson of Lockheed’s Skunk Works group is received in Washington, DC. Eight months later, the first U-2 prototype (project AQUATONE) will successfully fly.
