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Oildale's secret military history

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posted on Nov, 12 2009 @ 12:41 AM
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U2 assembly plant near Bakersfield

Here is a short excerpt. The article goes on to mention flying the assemblies to Groom Lake for final assembly.



Knowing that Soviet spies kept a close watch on the Lockheed plant in Burbank, Johnson decided it was necessary to move construction and production to another site after the prototype had been built. He reassigned his crew to a building on Norris Road in Oildale used as a Lockheed assembly plant during World War II (the site now houses Custom Building Products). The plant was given the code name Unit 80.



posted on Nov, 12 2009 @ 12:25 PM
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The first 20 U-2 (Model L-185) airframes, articles 341 through 360, destined for Lockheed testing and CIA service were built in Burbank under contract SP-1913. The next 29 aircraft, articles 361 through 389 were built for the Air Force at Oildale under contract SP-1914. A 30th USAF U-2 (article 390) was built later, possibly using parts of crashed airframes. A supplementary order of five USAF aircraft, articles 391 through 395, were ordered in 1958. I'm not sure where they were built.

Prior to U-2 construction, the Oildale plant had been used by Lockheed for subassembly work. In August 1956, the first cadre of USAF maintenance personnel for the U-2 was sent to Oildale for training.

On Friday, 13 November 2009, there will be an public event at the former Lockheed site located at 1900 Norris Road. Louis Setter, one of the original U-2 pilots who trained USAF crews, will give a presentation. A number of people who worked on the U-2 production line will be present. The event starts at noon.



 
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