STATUS OF U-2 TURNOVER TO NATIONAL AIR & SPACE MUSEUM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90B00170R000100040009-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 29, 2011
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: June 30, 1982
• Content Type: MEMO

MEIORANDUM FOR Deputy Director for Science $ Technology
FROM James A. Cunningham Jr.
SUBJECT Status of U-2 Turnover to National Air $
Space Museum
As of this writing, we are moving ahead with preparations for
the movement of U-2 #347 from the Lockheed Facility at Palmdale,
California to the Paul E. Garber Facility in Silver Hill, Maryland
where it will be exhibited initially. Target date for the arrival
of the aircraft at Silver Hill is 31st August, 1982. Between that
date and Labor Day, the aircraft will be reassembled inside Building
21, utilizing personnel of the Garber Facility supported by a senior
Lockheed supervisor. It seems reasonable to assume that a present-
ation of the aircraft to the Museum authorities could be held during
the week of 12th September on a day to be agreed.
It had been our plan to have the aircraft arrive and be assembled
by mid-July, but logistics problems of the Air $ Space Museum,
together with the expressed desire of the Air Force for a later date
made the end of August date a necessity. As initially displayed, the
aircraft will not be equipped with its internal avionics gear, since
Air Force states that this equipment must be removed and placed in
Depot storage as reserve spares for those U-2C aircraft still flying
in SAC and NASA (there are now five such aircraft operational: two
with NASA and three with SAC). Although the Air Force is furnishing
a J-57-P31 engine with the aircraft, it will not be installed, since
it is not compatible with the U-2C, only the earlier U-2A version.
Attempts are being made by ADP, Lockheed and P$N to locate a run-out
J-7S engine for installation in the Museum aircraft, either before
delivery or thereafter as these scarce engines may become available.
J-75 engines are being utilized by Air Force, not only in the U-2R
vehicles and the in-commission U-2Cs, but, in their P-13B version,
in the TR-1, which will number as many as 35 aircraft when production
ends in 1985. The engine itself has been out of production since
1965 and was last used operationally in the F-10S model aircraft,
now being phased out of the National Guard inventory.
Article #347 will be moved from Palmdale to the Washington area
in a convoy of three flatbed trucks contracted for by Lockheed. The
convoy will leave Palmdale the weekend of 21 - 22 August. Ground
handling equipment for the move is being loaned by NASA from their
stock of such items at Moffet Field near San Francisco.
Perhaps it is time to alert the Director and the DDCI of the
timing of the proposed presentation, and to see what the composition
of a desired guest list might be, including members of Congress and
the Air Staff. Museum authorities have offered to furnish a photographer
of their own for the occasion, but perhaps the Agency may wish its
own still and motion picture photogrninhers to record tft event.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/29 : CIA-RDP90B00170R000100040009-1