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…
Chapter 5
200
In-flight refueling of a U-2
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
NIMBUS. Most of the flights were staged from Laughlin AFB, Texas,
but three were flown from Edwards AFB, California, using in-flight
refueling to extend the range of the aircraft. By the spring of 1962,
having received reports of increased Soviet activity in Cuba, the CIA
requested permission for additional photographic coverage of the is-
land. The Special Group authorized increasing the number of Cuban
overflights to at least two per month, beginning in May 1962. At the
same time, the National Photographic Interpretation Center began
publishing a Photographic Evaluation of Information on Cuba series.'
By early August 1962, CIA analysts had noted a substantial in-
crease in Soviet arms deliveries to Cuba during the preceding weeks.
The first U-2 overflight in August, mission 3086 on the 5th, flew too
soon to detect the Soviet construction program just getting under way
at various sites in Cuba. A second mission (3088) was originally set
for 8 August, but bad weather forced repeated postponements until 29
August. This mission's photography provided the first hard evidence
Ibid.. pp. 19-20 (TS Codeword).
Sècset
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.