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…
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
NOF011
Appendix B
330
KIEFER, Eugene P.
An Air Force officer with a degree in aeronautical engineering who in
1953 informed a friend at Lockheed of the Air Force's search for a
high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, thus, leading to the initial de-
sign of the CL-282. After leaving the Air Force, Kiefer became
Richard Bissell's technical adviser for the OXCART and
photosatellite programs.
KILLIAN, James R., Jr.
President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Killian
headed a high-level and very secret study of the nation's ability to
withstand a surprise attack. While this project was still under way, he
and Edwin Land persuaded President Eisenhower to support the de-
velopment of a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, the L1-2. Later,
Killian headed Eisenhower's Board of Consultants for Foreign
Intelligence Activities, served as his Cabinet-level science adviser,
and chaired the President's Science Advisory Board. Killian was also
chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board un-
der John F. Kennedy.
LAND, Edwin H.
An extremely talented inventor famous for the development of polar-
izin g filters and the instant-film camera. Land also devoted consider-
able time and energy to voluntary government service. During World
War II, Land worked for the Radiation Laboratories, and after the war
he served on numerous Air Force advisory panels. As the head of the
Technological Capabilitites Panel's study group investigating US in-
telligence-gathering capabilities, Land became a strong advocate of
the development of a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft (the
CL-282) under civilian rather than Air Force control. Land and James
Killian persuaded President Eisenhower to approve the U-2 project
and later the first photosatellite project. Land also served on the
President's Board of Consultants for Foreign Intelligence Activities.
LEGHORN, Richard S.
An MIT graduate in physics, Le ghorn joined the Army Air Force in
1942 and went to work for reconnaissance expert Col. George
Goddard. By the time of the invasion of Europe. Leghorn was chief of
reconnaissance for the 9th Tactical Air Force. After the war, Leghorn
began preaching the need for -pre-D-day" reconnaissance in order to
gather intelligence on the Soviet Bloc. He returned to the Air Force
during the Korean war and later worked for Harold Stassen's
Disarmament Office. In 1956 he became the head of the Scientific
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 under it. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.