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.

Open the PDF at page 389 Original source ↗

“RAF”18 pages

  • 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

376

## Pakistan

Paksane, Laos 231

Palmdale, California 311

panoramic-type framing camera 53

Paradise Ranch 57,66

PARAMOUNT Committee 114,116,120

Parangosky, John 274,288,296,309,331

"parasite" aircraft 263

Paris Summit 172,181-182

Pasadena, California 13,50,252

Pathet Lao 221

PB-4Y aircraft

222

Pearl Harbor 322

Pearson, Drew 299

Peenemunde rocket project 2

Peiping, China 228-229

Pellegrini, Joseph J. 6

Pennsylvania State Police 222

Pentagon 5,7,9,11,13-14,39,78-79,238

People's Liberation Army (PLA) 215

People's Republic of China (PRC)

85,135,201,215,222,225-226,

228-247,253,282,301,319,339,341

(See also China)

radars

215

troop movements

215

nuclear plants

238

nuclear weapons establishment 226 Shuangchengzi missile-test range 235

periscope 56,76

Perkin, Richard S.

18, 31, 50-52, 281-282, 311, 332-333

Perkin-Elmer (P-E) Company 18,31,50,281

Perkin-Elmer tracking camera 52

Perkins, Courtland D. 260

Personnel (USAF), Deputy Chief of Staff for 74

Peshawar, Pakistan 135,163-164,167-168,172,174-176

Photo-Intelligence Division (PID) 82,100,135

photographic chemicals 121

Photographic Evaluation of Information on Cuba 200

photographic resolution 281

photointerpreters

83,108,111,114-116,120-121,135

138,153,172,191,198,209,211

216,221,236,303,307

photomapping 1,232

photoreconnaissance

1, 4-5, 7, 22

photosatellite 270,313,327,330,157

PID's Special Projects Branch 115

"pioneer" photography 87

pitot-static tube 295

Pittsburgh-Corning Glass Company 55

Plans, Deputy Director for 157,191-192,327,333

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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.