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…
Neptune bomber

3

Privateer patrol aircraft

3

Naval Ordnance Test Station

340

U.S. News and World Report 99

US nuclear test monitoring system 139

US nuclear tests 147

US Senate, Armed Services Committee 88,99,185

US Senate, Foreign Relations Committee 165,185

US 6th Fleet 153

US 7th Fleet 215

USS Kitty Hawk 247

US Intelligence Board (USIB) 196-197,225,228,249,332,336

USS Ranger 250

utility aircraft 66

## V

Vance, Cyrus 238,300,309-310

Venezuela 211

vernier adjustment 76

very-high-acuity lenses 50

Viet Cong 230,243

Vietnam 190,216,221-222,230-231,233-234, 242-243,246,301,304-308,311,336, 342-343

Vito, Carmine 65,105,124-125,214

Vladimirovka, Soviet Union 171

Secret NOFORN
Index
389

Vladivostok, Soviet Union

3, 126

Vogt, Richard

8

Voigt, Woldemar

8

Volga River

22

von Fritsche, Werner

1

## W

WADC's Bombardment Branch 8

Wake Island 305

Walker, Christopher H. 155

wallpaper 130

Walter Reed Hospital 96

Warsaw Pact 87

Washington University, St. Louis 29

Watertown Strip 57

Watton RAF Base. England 156

"weather plane" cover story 179

weather research 85-86,89-90,132,182

Weatherwise 216

Wendover, Utah 295

West Potomac Park 42

Western Europe 20,85,140

Western Hemisphere 211

"wet-wing" design 68

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.