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. 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…
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.