Memorandum of Conference with the President Authored by Andrew J. Goodpaster

TOP SEODET July 20, 1959 MEMORANDUM OF CONFERENCE WITH THE PRESIDENT July 20, 1959 Others present: Mr. Allen Dulles, General Cabell, Mr. Bissell, Secretary McElroy, General White, Dr. Kistiakowsky, D. Dr. Killian, General Goodpaster Mr. Dulles said the group had come in to report further concerning a successor aircraft to the U-2. Exploratory work has been con- ducted over the past six months, utilizing the $6.5 million made available by the President. Two aircraft had been investigated. The first, studied in greater detail, is the Super-Hustler, a small ramjet to be carried aloft by a B-58 and air launched; the second is a very advanced turbojet. The former was evaluated to be feasible (subject to one point mentioned later]; it will have a radar cross-section so low that the probability of hostile detection and successful tracking would be very low. It wo uld have a 4000-mile range at mach 4, with 90,000 feet altitude. The second development, by Lockheed, was carried out because of a difficulty in operating the air-launched Hustler. The normal B-58 lacks the thrust to bring it to speed to start the ramjet, and would have to have modified engines installed. The Lockheed proposal is for a vehicle using a J-58 engine; it will have a larger radar cross- section than the Super-Hustler, but the cross-section will still be about 1/20th of that of a B-47. Its operating altitude will be 85, 000 feet at the start of the mission, rising to 95,000 feet toward the close of the mission. Speed will be 3.2 mach initially; this will be raised to 3.5 mach in a later version. We must anticipate that the presence of the aircraft would usually be known, although there would be a great deal of confusion arising from its height and speed, and there is very little likelihood that successful tracking could be carried out. DECLASSIFIED E.O. 12958, SEC. 3.6(b) MR 94-354+1 FOP SEOML QCADE BY BBM DATE 8/17/99