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. 18 …This search soon led him to a British twin-engine medium bomber—the Canberra—built by…
  • p. 19 Secret NOFORN Chapter 1 6 RAF Canberra Mark-PR3 division in Baltimore, headed by Lt. Col…
  • p. 22 …high-altitude performance of the B-57 Canberra. By January 1954 all three firms had submitted…
  • p. 36 …The RAF equipped the new Canberra PR7 with RollsRoyce Avon-109 engines and gave it long…
  • p. 37 …altitude flight being made to the US Canberra, the B-57. $ ^{41} $ ## The Intelligence Systems Panel…
  • p. 80 …production was needed to power specially configured Canberra RB-57Ds for the Air Force. The first…
  • p. 122 …a reconnaissance version of the twin-engine Canberra bomber, similar to the RAF overflight of Kapustin…
  • p. 175 …2 and an Air Force RB-57D Canberra. The two aircraft cruised along the Soviet border…
  • p. 372 …310, 313, 321, 327, 329, 332, 333 Canberra 5, 9, 23-24, 67, 109, 117, 162…
  • p. 401 …General 61 oxygen mask 62 RB-57D Canberra 162 Third Air Force 89 US deterrent force…
## Secret NOFORN

MRBM Medium-range ballistic missile

NACA National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

NAS Naval air station

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NIE National Intelligence Estimate

NPIC National Photographic Interpretation Center

NSA National Security Agency

NSC National Security Council

NSCID National Security Council Intelligence Directive

ODM Office of Defense Mobilization

ORR Office of Research and Reports

OSA Office of Special Activities

OSI Office of Scientific Intelligence

PBCFIA President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities

P-E Perkin-Elmer Company

PFIAB President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

PI Photointerpreter

PIC Photographic Intelligence Center

PID Photo-Intelligence Division

PSAC President's Science Advisory Committee

RAF Royal Air Force

RFP Request for proposal

SAB Scientific Advisory Board (USAF)

SAC Science Advisory Committee

SAC Strategic Air Command

SA/PC/DCI Special Assistant to the DCI for Planning and Coordination

SAM Surface-to-air missile

SEI Scientific Engineering Institute

SENSINT Sensitive intelligence (USAF)

SLAR Side-looking aerial radar

TAS True air speed

TCP Technological Capabilities Panel

USIB United States Intelligence Board

WADC Wright Air Development Command (USAF)

WRSP Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, Provisional

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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.