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/specialCollection/MissileGap/1992/1992-04-01.pdf

Central Intelligence Agency · 406 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a CIA History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, published in Washington in 1992 and approved for release in 2011. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974, which developed and flew the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. It traces the U-2's development, the overflights of the Soviet Union, the downing of Francis Gary Powers on 1 May 1960, and later operations. One section is titled U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK.

  • p. 19 CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED ."-ge""011-141 Chapter 1 6 '• Q.., ./ • „„, a • • ..a■ ...A • - at -... .441 RAF Canberra…
  • p. 36 …In 1952 the Royal Air Force (RAF) began Project ROBIN, which was designed to modify the…
  • p. 122 …twin-engine Canberra bomber, similar to the RAF overflight of Kapustin Yar in 1953. The US…
  • p. 316 …Project IDEALIST U-2 flying from an RAF facility in Great Britain. The OXCART would fly…
  • p. 339 …Division PSAC President's Science Advisory Committee RAF Royal Air Force RFP Request for proposal SAB…
U-2 Operations in the
Soviet Bloc and Middle East,
1956-1968
"-S7c71-7.e ifeRegal
Chapter 3
93
EO 129581.6(dli1l>1010<25Yrs
IS)
-005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
By January 1956, everyone working on Project AQUATONE could
see that the U-2 was nearing the time for operational deployment.
During tests the aircraft had met all the criteria established in late
1954. Its range of 2,950 miles was sufficient to overfly continents, its
altitude of 72,000 feet was beyond the reach of all known antiaircraft
weapons and interceptor aircraft, and its camera lenses were the finest
available.
OSA History, chap. II, pp. 10-15 (TS Codeword).
UNCLASSIFIED

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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.