Documents / FOIA release

/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. 24 …Instead of a conventional landing gear, Johnson proposed using two skis and a reinforced belly rib…
  • p. 25 …a perceived shortcoming of the Lockheed design."' Another factor in the rejection of Kelly Johnson's…
  • p. 26 …interview by Donald E. Welzenbach, Corona del Mar. California. 20 May 1985 (S). Johnson, "Log for…
  • p. 27 …Gardner described Kelly Johnson's proposal and showed the drawings to Strong. After this meeting. Strong…
  • p. 30 …To make Kelly Johnson's revolutionary design a reality, one additional source of support was necessary…
  • p. 42 …When James Killian asked Land to head Project Three, Land had to make a major decision…
  • p. 48 …do the job in Johnson's airplane. And further, 1 overlaid a curve showing that with…
  • p. 57 …demanding, and Kelly Johnson agreed that such a move would save a lot of money. Lockheed…
  • p. 58 …a week after he had been authorized to begin the project, Kelly Johnson wrote a 23…
  • p. 69 …project staff) flew LIZ with Kelly Johnson in a small Beechcraft plane piloted by eed's…
  • p. 72 …This responsibility has placed a heavy burden on the Office of Security for establishing procedures to…
  • p. 79 …Batlin suggested the method used by Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering, a thin glass ampule containing…
  • p. 81 …Kelly Johnson used a "wet-wing" design for the U-2, which meant that fuel was…
  • p. 89 …Airspeed was such a critical factor that Kelly Johnson added a vernier adjustment to the throttle…
  • p. 162 …By late 1957, Johnson agreed that something had to be done. After a series of tests…
  • p. 276 RN Chapter 6 263 Johnson, "Archangel log," 17-24 CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED Lockheed design for a hydrogen…
  • p. 324 …OXCART did win a temporary reprieve in late November 1967. The Johnson administration decided to keep…
Sec
Chapter 3
132
Wreckage of Article 341,
2 April 1957
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
E0129581.61d1W>1010<25Yrs
(Si
12 April 1957 article in the Chicago Daily Tribune was headlined,
-Secrecy Veils High-Altitude_ Research Jet; Lockheed U-2 Called
Super Snooper." 76
Because of its large wingspan, an out-of-control U-2 tended to
enter a classical flat spin before ground contact. This slowed descent
and actually lessened the impact. If there was no fire after impact, the
remains of crashed U-2s were often salvageable, as was the case with
the wreckage of article 341. Kelly Johnson's crew at the Skunk Works
used the wreckage, along with spares and salvaged parts of other
crashed U-2s, to produce another flyable airframe for about
The U-2's ability to survive a crash in fairly good condi-
have been noted by the Development Projects Staff for
consideration in its contingency plans for a loss over hostile territory
because the equipment on board the aircraft could easily compromise
the weather research cover story.
The loss of one of Lockheed's best test pilots, as well as the pro-
totype "dirty bird" U-2, led Kell y Johnson to suggest that Lockheed
install a large boom at th Fadar test facility. Using the
Accident folder, crash of 2 April 1957, OSA records (S).
" Lockheed contracts, OSA Records (S).
UNCLASSIFIED

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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. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.