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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. 4 …Scientists and Overhead Reconnaissance 17 The BEACON HILL Report 17 Concern About the Danger of a…
  • p. 14 …view of the "other side of the hill." With the advent of dry film, it became…
  • p. 30 …of this new advisory body." The BEACON HILL Report In 1951 the Air Force sought even…
  • p. 31 …Their head- quarters was located over a secretarial school on Beacon Hill, which soon became the…
  • p. 32 …to implement the ideas of the BEACON HILL Report until the summer of 1953. By this…
  • p. 34 …Created in July 1953, the Intelligence Systems Panel (ISP) included several experts from the BEACON HILL…
  • p. 37 …reconnais- sance needs expressed in the BEACON HILL Report. Theoretically, he explained to the panel, any…
  • p. 41 …H. T. Friis R. Mettler A. G. Hill E. Purcell W. H. Radford E. H. Plesset…
  • p. 44 …6(dli1i>10<25Yrs since the BEACON HILL and Intelligence Systems Panel meetings. (Si James Baker…
  • p. 45 …Having participated in the BEACON HILL Study and the Intelligence Systems Panel, several Project Three members…
  • p. 344 …He headed the Beacon Hill Panel in 1952 and later became director of Lincoln Laboratories. PARANGOSKY…
  • p. 345 …of several advisory panels, including the BEACON HILL project. He helped Baker decide what cameras to…
  • p. 364 …BEACON HILL Report: Problems of Air Force Intelligence and Reconnaissance. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 15 June…
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Chapter 4
181
005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
Eisenhower stated that overflights had been suspended and would not
be resumed, but he refused to make a formal apology. At that point
the summit ended, as did all hopes for a visit to the Soviet Union by
President Eisenhower.
THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE
OVERSEAS DETACHMENTS
The loss of Powers' U-2 ultimately resulted in the end of Detachment
B in Turkey. As soon as the Development Projects Division learned
that Powers was alive in Soviet hands, it immediately evacuated the
protect the secret of their involvement in
the project. Froject °mails hoped that flights might eventually re-
sume from Adana, but President Eisenhower's order ending over-
flights of the Soviet Union made this very unlikely. Less than four
weeks later, a coup ousted the government of Turkish Premier Acinan
Menderes on the night of 27 May 1960. Because the new government
had not been briefed on the U-2, Project Headquarters refused to al-
low any U-2 flights from Adana, even those necessary for maintain-
ing the aircraft's airworthiness. As a result, no more U-2s flew out of
Adana. Instead of being ferried home, three of the four remaining,
U-2s were disassembled and loaded aboard C-124 cargo planes for
the return trip to the United States.1n
The fourth U-2 remained inside a hangar at Incirlik airbase for
several years, looked after by a skeleton crew, in case the Adana in-
stallation needed to be reactivated. Finally the decision was made to
close down the Adana U-2 facility. During Detachment B's 44 months
of active existence, 21 pilots had flown its aircraft, includin
and three pilots transferred from the deacti
etachthëiifA. Fourteen Detachment B pilots were later assigned to
other U-2 detachments, but the closing down of Detachment B marked
E0 12958 1.6(d1111>101011110<25Yrs
[SI
The loss of Powers' U-2, the resultant failure of the Paris
Summit, and the end of U-2 operations in Turkey were just the first in
a series of setbacks for the U-2 program. On 8 July 1960, the
OSA History. chap. 12. pp. 46-47 ITS Codeword).
ret
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.