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. 18 …Leghorn persuaded his superiors to submit his suggestion to the . Pentagon for funding. He had not…
  • p. 20 …Meanwhile Leghorn, frustrated by the rejection of his original concept, had transferred to the Pentagon in…
  • p. 22 …become the assistant director of Lockheed's Advanced Development Program, was in the Pentagon on business…
  • p. 24 …for the construction and maintenance of 30 aircraft to a group of senior Pentagon officials that…
  • p. 26 …He had been present at Kelly Johnson's presentation on the CL-282 at the Pentagon…
  • p. 27 …with Strong in the Pentagon on 12 May 1954. six days before the Wright Air Development…
  • p. 52 …Late on the morning of 2 December 1954, Dulles told Bissell to go to the Pentagon…
  • p. 91 …1-le then briefed a high-level Pentagon panel that included the Secretary of the Air…
  • p. 92 …After a half hour passed, the base commander called the Pentagon to ask where the crippled…
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
."-ge""011-141
Chapter 1
6
'• Q..,
./ • „„,
a • • ..a■ ...A • - at
-... .441
RAF Canberra Mark-PR3
division in Baltimore, headed by Lt. Col. Joseph J. Pelle grini, had to
approve all new reconnaissance aircraft designs. Pellegrini's unit
reviewed Leghorn's design and ordered extensive modifications.
According to Leghorn, Pellegrini was riot interested in a special-pur-
pose aircraft that was only suitable for covert peacetime reconnais-
sance missions, for he believed that all Air Force reconnaissance
aircraft should be capable of operating under wartime conditions.
Pellegrini therefore insisted that Leghorn's desi gn meet the specifica-
tions for combat aircraft, which required heavily stressed airframes,
armor plate, and other apparatus that made an aircraft too heavy to
reach the hi g her altitudes necessary for safe overflights of the Soviet
Bloc. The final result of Leghorn's concept after its alteration by
Pellegrini's staff was the RB-57D in 1955, whose maximum altitude
*.ktbc.r<
UNCLASSIFIED

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