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."
“Kapustin Yar”6 pages
-0O5653421 UNCLASSIFIED Se t Chapter 6 297 decided to gol land take charge of the OXCART's develop- ment himself. His presence made a big difference, as can be seen in his notes in the project log: I uncovered many items of a managerial, materiel and design na- ture.... I had meetings with vendors to improve their opera- tion.... Changed supervision and had daily talks with them, going over in detail all problems on the aircraft.... Increased the supervision in the electrical group by 500%.... We tightened up the inspection procedures a great deal and made inspection stick. It appears that the problems are one-third due to bum engineer- ing.... The addition of so many systems to the A-I2 has greatly complicated the problems, but we did solve the overall problenz." These improvements in on-site management got the project back on schedule. By 20 November 1965, the final validation flights for OXCART deployment were finished. During these tests, the OXCART achieved a maximum speed of Mach 3.29, an altitude of 90,000 feet, and sus- tained flight time above Mach 3.2 of 74 minutes. The maximum - egdurance test lasted six hours and 20 minutes. On 22. November. Kelly Johnson wrote to Brig. Gen. Jack C. Ledford. head of the Office of Special Activities, stating, -The time has come when the bird should leave its nest.' Three years and seven months after its first flight in April 1962, the OXCART was ready for operational use. It was now time to find work for the most advanced aircraft ever conceived and built. ED 129581.61[11111>1010425Yrs (Si "OXCART Story," p. 23 (S). 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.