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. 11 …At great risk, US Air Force and Navy aircraft had been conducting peripheral reconnaissance and shallow…
  • p. 16 …As a result, in the late 1940s, the US Air Force and Navy began trying to…
  • p. 17 …Two months later, on 7 October 1952, Soviet fighter aircraft stalked and shot down a US…
  • p. 72 On 29 April 1955, Richard Bissell signed an agreement with the Air Force and the Navy…
  • p. 94 …The committee issued its list of targets for the use of the entire intelligence community using…
  • p. 147 …The Agency then turned to the Navy, which granted permission for Detachment C to use the…
  • p. 180 …James Doolittle urged President Eisenhower to use overflights of the Soviet Union to the maximum degree…
  • p. 223 …returned by Air Force and Navy reconnaissance aircraft. President Kennedy used NPIC photographs to illustrate his…
  • p. 273 …Charyk, and his Navy counterpart, Garrison Norton. Designers from several aircraft manufacturers also attended some of…
  • p. 283 …This engine had originally been developed for the Navy's large, jet-powered flying boat, the…
  • p. 297 …The need for additional buildings on the base was met by the Navy. Three surplus Navy…
  • p. 298 …After hearing Bissell and Holcomb's suggestion that the J58 might be used in future Navy…
  • p. 348 …Following modifications to make System-VII suitable for use by the Navy, the designation was changed…
  • p. 353 …AQUILINE prototype at Randsburg Wash on the US Navy's Naval Ordnance Test Station at China…
  • p. 401 …328 US Marine Corps Reserve 14 US Military Academy at West Point 329 US Navy Chief…
## Secret NOFORN

Index

386

Tyuratam, Soviet Union 135,137-138,160,163-165,167-168, 171-172,176

## U

66

U-2

accomplishments

316

assembly

45, 47, 66, 75, 164, 280, 284, 291

bailout experiments

64

bases

93

bicycle-type landing gear

47

blue-black color

149

brakes

69

canopy

80, 149, 177

cockpit

11, 63-64, 79, 125, 283, 292, 296

cost

34, 124, 149, 250-252, 263, 269, 273,

280, 285-286, 309, 322, 341-342

cover story

60, 85, 89-90, 94, 99, 132, 156, 178-180,

182, 207-208, 216, 224, 295

coverage

316

deadstick landing

79

deployment

2, 74, 76, 78, 88-89, 93-94, 134, 161,

165, 167, 247, 250, 255-257, 297,

301-302, 304, 307, 313, 317, 332

design

47

destruction device

177

detachable pogos

47

ejection seat

64, 177, 302

emergency landing

78, 188, 222, 313

film exploitation

115

flameout

71, 78-79, 131, 198, 229

flight plans

82, 177

flights approval process

187-188, 226, 301

foreign pilots

73-74, 321

fuel

5, 23, 47, 61-62, 68, 76, 133, 161, 175, 199, 218-219, 231, 235, 241, 247-248, 271, 274, 277-278, 283-284, 286, 288, 302, 313, 340

fuel consumption

68, 219

fuel gauge

68, 219, 302

fuselage

10, 24, 47, 130, 248, 251, 270, 277, 286

inspection procedures

297

landing gear

10-12, 15, 47-48, 69, 89, 248

low-speed stall

76

maiden flight

66, 288

mission 1104

114

mission 1105

114

mission 1314

117

mission 2003

100

mission 2009

101

mission 2010

101

mission 2013

104-105

mission 2014

105

mission 2020

106

mission 2021

106

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.