This is the story of two of
aviation’s finest
by Eugene P.
Kelly Johnson's high altitude expertise goes back further than the U-2.
I was one of the CIA engineers in the program office that managed the U-2, A-12
Oxcart and Corona. Having a lifelong interest in aviation, I learned of Kelly
Johnson's earliest high-altitude project in which he modified Wiley Post's
Winnie Mae to attempt altitude and speed records in 1934. Wiley bet Kelly a new
K&E slide rule he would set a new world record. Kelly knew that would be
possible only if Wiley found the jet stream. Wiley didn't make the record, and would
later fly off with Will Rogers to Point Barrow, Alaska, where they crashed and
were killed. When Kelley learned of Wiley's death, he is reported to have said,
"Why that Wiley never did give me
that slide rule.”
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| I am the president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). |
