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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. 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 …agreement with the Air Force and the Navy (which at that time was also interested in…
  • p. 147 …turned to the Navy, which granted permission for Detachment C to use the Naval Air Station…
  • p. 180 …The Army, Navy, and CIA, however, doubted that any had been deployed, because none could be…
  • p. 223 …by Air Force and Navy reconnais- sance aircraft. President Kennedy used NPIC photographs to illustrate his…
  • p. 273 …Charyk, and his Navy counterpart, Garrison Norton. Designers from several air- craft manufacturers also attended some…
  • 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…
re"MT-N4164113a.
Chapter 3
95
[012958 1.61[11111>1015Yrs
ED 12958 1.6181161,10101045Yrs
less likely to suffer flameouts than the earlier model. Once the new [SI
engines were installed, the aircraft received the designation U-2B.6
Bissell was anxious to get the overflights started by late June
because SAC weather experts had predicted that the best weather for
photographing the Soviet Union would be between 20 June and 10
July. Bissell, however, had not yet received final authorization from
President Eisenhower to begin overflights of the Soviet Union. On 28
May 1956, when DCI Allen Dulles met with the President to discuss
the U-2's readiness for operations, Eisenhower still made no decision
on overflights. Three days later Dulles and Air Force Chief of Staff
OSA History, chap. 11, pp. 21-23 (TS Codeword).
" Ibid., pp. 23, 26 (TS Codeword).
EO 12958 1.8181111>10<25Yrs
181
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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.