Documents / FOIA release

CIA/CSI/ History Staff Monograph, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and Oxcart Programs, 16 July 2002.

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, written in 1992 and approved for release in 2011. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974 and its two aircraft, the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. It follows their development, the overflights of the Soviet Union, the downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, and later operations. One section is titled "U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK."

  • p. 24 …Advanced Development Projects Division, Burbank. California. ED 129581.131011>10<25Yrs IS1 UNCLASSIFIED
  • p. 58 …Pedlow, Burbank, California, 26 August 1988. Sbc.et UNCLASSIFIED
  • p. 85 …how to transfer Lockheed employees from Burbank to Iwithout arousing a great deal of curiosity. The…
  • p. 273 …SP-1362, "History of the OXCART Program," Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, CA. 1 July 1968, p…
  • p. 287 …designed trailer truck that carried it from Burbank By 18 November 1959, the mockup was in…
  • p. 297 …Construction began in September 1960; a C-47 shuttle service ferried work crews from Burbank to…
  • p. 299 …The plane left Burbank on 26 February 1962 and arrived at two days later. After the…
  • p. 304 …into the engine nacelles during assembly at Burbank were sucked into the power plant during initial…
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.