Documents / FOIA release

The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; the U-2 and Oxcart Programs, 1954-1974

Central Intelligence Agency · 1900-01-01 · 406 pages · text by OCR

This is a 1992 CIA History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, originally classified Secret NOFORN and approved for release in 2013. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974 and the two aircraft it developed, the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. The history covers the U-2 overflights of the Soviet Union, the 1960 downing of Francis Gary Powers and later operations in Asia and Latin America. It also includes a section on U-2s, UFOs and Operation BLUE BOOK.

  • p. 58 …in Lockheed's Advanced Development facility at Burbank, California, known as the Skunk Works. $ ^{10} $ Lockheed…
  • p. 85 …how to transfer Lockheed employees from Burbank to Area 51 without arousing a great deal of…
  • p. 287 …designed trailer truck that carried it from Burbank to Area 51. By 18 November 1959, the…
  • p. 296 …not test the OXCART aircraft at its Burbank facility, where the runway was too short and…
  • p. 297 …Construction began in September 1960; a C-47 shuttle service ferried work crews from Burbank to…
  • p. 299 …The plane left Burbank on 26 February 1962 and arrived at Area 51 two days later…
  • p. 304 …into the engine nacelles during assembly at Burbank were sucked into the power plant during initial…
  • p. 372 …201,205,209,236,293 BUORL 22 Burbank, California 45 Secret NOFORN Burke, William 168,170…
Project TACKLE Peripheral Missions, 1969-1974

Display of downed detachment H U-2s in Peiping

Fiscal Year	Missions
1969	9
1970	14
1971	19
1972	23
1973	31
1974	17

Once the United States began seeking a rapprochement with the People's Republic of China, Detachment H U-2s came under more and more restrictions. Soon after the impending visit of President Richard M. Nixon to the PRC was announced, U-2 missions were ordered to stay even farther away from the mainland: 25 nautical miles instead of the previous 20. During the months of February and

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About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.