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. 19 CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED ."-ge""011-141 Chapter 1 6 '• Q.., ./ • „„, a • • ..a■ ...A • - at -... .441 RAF Canberra…
  • p. 36 …In 1952 the Royal Air Force (RAF) began Project ROBIN, which was designed to modify the…
  • p. 122 …twin-engine Canberra bomber, similar to the RAF overflight of Kapustin Yar in 1953. The US…
  • p. 316 …Project IDEALIST U-2 flying from an RAF facility in Great Britain. The OXCART would fly…
  • p. 339 …Division PSAC President's Science Advisory Committee RAF Royal Air Force RFP Request for proposal SAB…
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
."-ge""011-141
Chapter 1
6
'• Q..,
./ • „„,
a • • ..a■ ...A • - at
-... .441
RAF Canberra Mark-PR3
division in Baltimore, headed by Lt. Col. Joseph J. Pelle grini, had to
approve all new reconnaissance aircraft designs. Pellegrini's unit
reviewed Leghorn's design and ordered extensive modifications.
According to Leghorn, Pellegrini was riot interested in a special-pur-
pose aircraft that was only suitable for covert peacetime reconnais-
sance missions, for he believed that all Air Force reconnaissance
aircraft should be capable of operating under wartime conditions.
Pellegrini therefore insisted that Leghorn's desi gn meet the specifica-
tions for combat aircraft, which required heavily stressed airframes,
armor plate, and other apparatus that made an aircraft too heavy to
reach the hi g her altitudes necessary for safe overflights of the Soviet
Bloc. The final result of Leghorn's concept after its alteration by
Pellegrini's staff was the RB-57D in 1955, whose maximum altitude
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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.