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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
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Appendix B
327
APPENDIX B
Key Personnel
AYER, Frederick, Jr.
Special assistant to Trevor Gardner in the Office of the Secretary of
the Air Force, Ayer was a strong advocate of overhead reconnaissance
by balloons and an early supporter of Lockheed's CL-282 design.
BAKER, James G.
Harvard astronomer and lens designer, Baker was a leading designer
of high-acuity aerial lenses during World War II and continued this
work after the war. He also headed the Air Force Intelligence Systems
Panel and served on the Technological Capabilities Panel's Project
Three committee that urged the development of the U-2 aircraft.
Baker designed the lenses for the U-2's cameras.
BISSELL, Richard M., Jr.
Head of all CIA overhead reconnaissance programs from 1954 until
1962, a former economics professor at MIT and high official of the
Marshall Plan, Bissell became Allen W. Dulles's Special Assistant for
Planning and Coordination in January 1954 and received responsibil-
ity for the new U-2 project at the end of that year. Later he also
headed the first photosatellite project and oversaw the development of
the OXCART. In 1959 Bissell became Deputy Director for Plans but
kept the reconnaissance projects under his control. He resigned from
the CIA in February 1962.
CA BELL, George Pearre
Air Force general and DDCI from 1953 until 1962. Because of
Cabe11's many years of experience in aerial reconnaissance, DCI
Dulles delegated most of the responsibility for the reconnaissance
projects to him.
CARTER, Marshall S.
Army general who served as DDCI from 1962 until 1965. During the
period leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Carter served as Acting
DCI on a number of occasions while DCI McCone was out of town.
In October 1962 he fought unsuccessfully to keep the CIA involved in
flying reconnaissance missions over Cuba. Carter became the
Director of the National Security Agency in 1965.
CHARYK, Joseph R.
An aeronautical engineer who had followed careers first in academia
and then the aerospace industry, Charyk became the Chief Scientist of
Set
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.