NEVADA AEROSPACE HALL OF FAME

Declaration of Enshrinement

October 10, 2017

Richard M. “Dick” Bissell, Jr.

The NVAHOF has inducted Richard M. Bissell, Jr., for his daring to take risks during one of the nation’s darkest periods, the Cold War. Under Bissell’s leadership, the Central Intelligence Agency established Area 51 in 1955 to develop the photo reconnaissance U-2—a high-altitude aircraft—which over flew over the Soviet Union and debunked the myth that the Soviet Union was way ahead of America in producing missiles and weapons.

Bissell supervised the test facility and its build up to produce the U-2 that convinced President Dwight D. Eisenhower that Nikita Khrushchev was lying about the number of bombers and missiles being constructed by the Soviet Union. Eisenhower now knew that the United States enjoyed a significant advantage over the Soviet Union, and this knowledge gave him the confidence to warn against the US “military-industrial complex.”

In 1956, Bissell initiated Project RAINBOW to develop radar camouflage for the aircraft. When the efforts to make the U-2 more stealthy was unsuccessful, he initiated GUSTO to develop a follow-on stealth aircraft under Project OXCART, where the CIA developed and operated the A-12 overseen by Bissell as DD/P.

 

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TD BARNES, Director

Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame