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. 19 Secret NOFORN Chapter 1 6 RAF Canberra Mark-PR3 division in Baltimore, headed by Lt. Col…
  • p. 36 …In 1952 the Royal Air Force (RAF) began Project ROBIN, which was designed to modify the…
  • p. 106 …The U-2s were to use Lakenheath AFB, an RAF base also used by the USAF…
  • p. 107 …inadvertently penetrated the British radar network, causing RAF fighters to scramble. Afterward the Air Ministry made…
  • p. 122 …twin-engine Canberra bomber, similar to the RAF overflight of Kapustin Yar in 1953. The US…
  • p. 156 …Range for the first time since the RAF's overflight in 1953, obtaining photographs of a…
  • p. 166 …In November 1958, four RAF officers arrived at Detachment B at Adana, thus beginning the United…
  • p. 167 …On 7 February 1958, Bissell instructed the to ask Air Vice Marshal MacDonald if the RAF…
  • p. 168 …MacDonald agreed to Bissell's proposal and began recruiting RAF pilots to fly the U-2…
  • p. 169 …Most flights by the RAF pilots in Detachment B, however, took place in the Middle East…
  • p. 177 …For almost a year, the RAF pilots of Detachment B had been ready to fly over…
  • p. 194 …A four-man unit of RAF U-2 pilots was stationed at Detachment G, Edwards AFB…
  • p. 200 …approval authority for missions conducted by the RAF pilots in Detachment B. The loss of Powers…
  • p. 316 …Project IDEALIST U-2 flying from an RAF facility in Great Britain. The OXCART would fly…
  • p. 332 …1960, the need for British participation lessened. RAF pilots henceforth flew only training or ferry missions…
  • p. 339 …Division PSAC President's Science Advisory Committee RAF Royal Air Force RFP Request for proposal SAB…
  • p. 351 …May 1960 4154 Powers Peshawar B B Tyuratam, Kyshtym, Sverdlovsk; downed by SAM $ ^{a} $ RAF pilot
  • p. 402 …Louis 29 Watertown Strip 57 Watton RAF Base. England 156 "weather plane" cover story 179 weather…
## Secret NOFORN

Index

374

National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 191

Nationalist China 319,215,224,226,229,236

Nationalist Chinese

201, 205, 222-226,

229-230, 234-237, 239-240,

243, 245-246, 253, 257, 319

Air Force

223, 225

insignia

225

pilots

319, 223, 230, 235, 243, 246, 253

U-2

205, 223-224, 229, 246

Navajo missile 22

Naval Air Station at Atsugi, Japan 134

naval quarantine 210

Nehru, Jawaharlal

231-233

Nelson, Norman 68

Nevada 56-57,341,113,130-131,133,149 182,241,274,283,286,290,295 297,302-303,311

Nevada Proving Ground 56,241

New Delhi, India 232

Ngo Dinh Diem

230

NICE GIRL 310

nickel-cadmium batteries 240

Nile River 119

NIMBUS

200

1973 Middle East war 256,320

9th Tactical Air Force

330

nitrogen

64

Nixon, Richard M.

245-246, 256-257, 333

Nobel Prize

332

North American Air Defense

Command (NORAD)

289

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO)

20, 329, 87, 148, 172

radars

87

North Island Naval Base, California

248

North Korea

4, 233, 237, 242, 307

North Vietnam

190, 221-222, 230-231, 233, 243,

246-247, 301, 304-307, 311, 336, 342

North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA)

231

Northrop Aviation

259

Norton, Garrison

14-15, 31, 70, 260, 331

Norwalk, Connecticut

50

Notre Dame University

7

Novaya Zemlya

172

Novokuznetsk, Soviet Union

138

nuclear energy

39, 81, 225

Nuclear Energy Division

39

Not linked to a story yet.

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.