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 …Instead of a conventional landing gear, Johnson proposed using two skis and a reinforced belly rib…
  • p. 25 …a perceived shortcoming of the Lockheed design."' Another factor in the rejection of Kelly Johnson's…
  • p. 26 …interview by Donald E. Welzenbach, Corona del Mar. California. 20 May 1985 (S). Johnson, "Log for…
  • p. 27 …Gardner described Kelly Johnson's proposal and showed the drawings to Strong. After this meeting. Strong…
  • p. 30 …To make Kelly Johnson's revolutionary design a reality, one additional source of support was necessary…
  • p. 42 …When James Killian asked Land to head Project Three, Land had to make a major decision…
  • p. 48 …do the job in Johnson's airplane. And further, 1 overlaid a curve showing that with…
  • p. 57 …demanding, and Kelly Johnson agreed that such a move would save a lot of money. Lockheed…
  • p. 58 …a week after he had been authorized to begin the project, Kelly Johnson wrote a 23…
  • p. 69 …project staff) flew LIZ with Kelly Johnson in a small Beechcraft plane piloted by eed's…
  • p. 72 …This responsibility has placed a heavy burden on the Office of Security for establishing procedures to…
  • p. 79 …Batlin suggested the method used by Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering, a thin glass ampule containing…
  • p. 81 …Kelly Johnson used a "wet-wing" design for the U-2, which meant that fuel was…
  • p. 89 …Airspeed was such a critical factor that Kelly Johnson added a vernier adjustment to the throttle…
  • p. 162 …By late 1957, Johnson agreed that something had to be done. After a series of tests…
  • p. 276 RN Chapter 6 263 Johnson, "Archangel log," 17-24 CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED Lockheed design for a hydrogen…
  • p. 324 …OXCART did win a temporary reprieve in late November 1967. The Johnson administration decided to keep…
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
t NOFORN
Appendix A
326
MRBM Medium-range ballistic missile
NACA National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
NAS Naval air station
NASA National Aeronautics and Space
Administration
NIE National Intelligence Estimate
NPIC National Photographic Interpretation Center
NSA National Security Agency
NSC National Security Council
NSCID National Security Council Intelligence
Directive
ODM Office of Defense Mobilization
ORR Office of Research and Reports
OSA Office of Special Activities
OSI Office of Scientific Intelligence
PBCFIA President's Board of Consultants on Foreign
Intelligence Activities
P-E Perkin-Elmer Company
PFIAB President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory
Board
PI Photointerpreter
PLC Photographic Intelligence Center
PID Photo-Intelligence Division
PSAC President's Science Advisory Committee
RAF Royal Air Force
RFP Request for proposal
SAB Scientific Advisory Board (USAF)
SAC Science Advisory Committee
SAC Strategic Air Command
S A/PC/DC I Special Assistant to the DCI for Planning and
Coordination
SAM Surface-to-air missile
SEI Scientific Engineering Institute
SENSINT Sensitive intelligence (USAF)
SLAR Side-looking aerial radar
TAS True air speed
TCP Technological Capabilities Panel
USIB United States Intelligence Board
WADC Wright Air Development Command (USAF)
WRSP Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, Provisional
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.