Documents / FOIA release
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."
“Cooper”7 pages
S ret 005653421 UNCLASSIFIED CrerFOlai Chapter 6 274 (0129581.6M11>1010<25Yrs IS1 to proceed with antiradar studies, aerodynamic structural tests, and en- gineering designs. This research and all later work on the A-12 took place under a new codename. Project OXCART, established at the end of August 1959 to replace its more widely known predecessor, Project GUSTO."' The CIA's project manager for OXCART was John Parangosky, who had long been associated with the U-2 program. EFFORTS TO REDUCE THE A-12'S RADAR CROSS SECTION During the spring of 1959. Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works crew— which then numbered only 50—had begun buildin g a full-scale mockup of the proposed aircraft. The mockup was to be tested for its radar cross section by Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier (EG&G) in cooperation with the Scientific Engineering Institute at a small testing facility at ockheed objected to this site be- cause its pylon would not support th e full-scale mockup and because the facilities were in full view of a nearby hi g hway. On 10 September 1959, EG&G agreed to move its radar test facility\ i" When the new radar test facility with its larger pylon was ready. Johnson put the A-12 mockup on a specially designed trailer truck that carried it from Burbank By 18 November 1959, the mockup was in place atop t radar testing could begin. These tests soon proved that Lockheed's concept of shape. fuel addi- tive, and nonmetallic parts was workable, but it would take more than 18 months of testing and adjustment before the OXCART achieved a satisfactory radar cross section. It was in the course of this radar testin g that the OXCART received its characteristic cobra-like appearance. Edward Purcell and Franklin Rodgers had come up with a theory that a continuously curving airframe would be difficult to track with a radar pulse be- cause it would present few corner reflectors or sharp angles from which pulses could bounce in the direction of the radar. To achieve the continuously curving airframe, Kelly Johnson added thin, curved extensions to the engine housings and leadin g edges of the wings and Parangosky interview (S); OSA History, chap. 20. pp. 19-21 (TS Codewoh.1). 'OSA History. chap. 20. P. 22 (TS Codeword). UNCLASSIFIED
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.