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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. 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…
Soviet Myasishchev-4 bomber
(the Bison)
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
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Chapter 1
21
The Air Force Intelligence Systems Panel
_-
Even before the publication of photographs of the Bison raised fears
that the Soviet bomber force might eventually surpass that of the
United States, the Air Force had already established a new advisory
body to look for ways to implement the main recommendation of the
BEACON HILL Report—the construction of high-flying aircraft and
high-acuity cameras. Created in July 1953, the Intelligence Systems
Panel (ISP) included several experts from the BEACON HILL Study
Group: Land, Overhage, Donovan, and Miller. At the request of the
Air Force, the CIA also participated in the panel, represented by
Edward L. Allen of the Office of Research and Reports (ORR) and
Philip Strong of the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI).36
The chairman of the new panel was Dr. James G. Baker, a re-
search associate at the Harvard College Observatory. Baker had been
involved in aerial reconnaissance since 1940, when he first advised
the Army Air Corps on ways to improve its lenses. He then estab-
lished a full-scale optical laboratory at Harvard—the Harvard
University Optical Research Laboratory—to produce high-quality
ED 129581.6111111)>10<25Yrs
IS)
Memorandum for Robert Amory. Jr.. Deputy Director. Intelligence from Edward L.
Allen, Chief. Economic Research, ORR and Philip G. Strung. Chief, Operations Staff,
OSI. "Meeting of the Intelligence Systems Panel of the Scientific Advisory Board.
USAF," 26 August 1953. OS( (OSWR) records. S).
UNCLASSIFIED

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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.