In the 1960s the U-2 spy plane was the most advance manned recon aircraft in the world. However, all planes have a finite range. With that in mind, the CIA wanted to test stretching the U-2’s range to help get those “hard to reach” areas by using strategically placed U.S. Navy aircraft carriers as launching, receiving or refueling points. After all, they figured if a B-25 could take off from a 1942-era carrier, why couldn’t a U-2 take off from a larger one in 1962?
Thus began the saga of Project Whale Tale which ran from 1963-69 and saw CIA pilots get carrier qualed on T-2 Buckeye trainers from USS Lexington and test their actual long-winged spy planes from USS Kitty Hawk and USS America.
U-2 on deck of USS America CV-66
According to The Aviationist, the operational ability to take off from and land on a carrier was used only once, in May 1964, when a U-2G operating off the USS Ranger was used to monitor the French nuclear test range, at Mururoa Atoll, in the South Pacific Ocean, well out of range of any land-based U-2 aircraft.
Still, it was done and who knows what happened that has yet to be declassified. So if an old salt tells you a tale of a visit when he was in the service of a blacked out powered glider with a 103 ft wingspan, don’t write it off as so much fluff.
The shit couldhave happened. Keep in mind that the U-2 is still in active service.
Here is a neat video (without sound) of some U-2 carrier ops
