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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. 16 …An RB-29 lost in the Sea of Japan on 13 June 1952 was probably also…
  • p. 38 …off to about 6 percent of its sea-level thrust. Finally, low structural load factors, like…
  • p. 75 …with a boiling point of 300T at sea level. Manufacturing this special fuel required petroleum byproducts…
  • p. 80 …heavier and delivered only 10,200 pounds of thrust at sea level; the resulting --soarer UNCLASSIFIED
  • p. 89 …that they could not be flown at sea level faster than 190 knots in smooth air…
  • p. 98 …southern Europe and then across the Black Sea and the desert areas of China. These bal…
  • p. 102 …working on a cover story for over- seas operations. It was important to have a plausible…
  • p. 120 …neanteagon • 724744 (8009071 4-92 Finland Baltic Sea ükranian Italy ROME IUMIS Tunisia Mediterranean Sea UNCLASSIFIED
  • p. 139 …Soviet border from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea and on to Afghanistan. The System…
  • p. 146 …aircraft made a run over the Black Sea. 'I here were a total of nine DB…
  • p. 148 …space launch taciitty east of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. None of the mission planners was…
  • p. 158 …it turned abruptly upward over the Bering Sea just west of Alaska, climbed to 110,000…
  • p. 166 …the Soviet border and over the Black Sea without entering Soviet airspace. In late August, as…
  • p. 215 …F"••• N. ' :\ ■ Caribbean Sea Ceyrnen Islands M FL) .r, Unttad ) ' ^ Gulf of Mexico NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN…
  • p. 216 …Isle of P,floo Caribbean Sea ••• Corn. Islands IWO Janss — 200 kilometers 100 200 Miles ".! SgsgalgOidaRte…
  • p. 217 SAM Sites in Cuba, August 1962 Caribbean Sea Gulf of Mexico NORTH A TLANTIC OCEAN 9…
  • p. 316 …Shortly before Leningrad, the A-12 would head west-southwest down the Baltic Sea, skirting the…
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Appendix B
330
KIEFER, Eugene P.
An Air Force officer with a degree in aeronautical engineering who in
1953 informed a friend at Lockheed of the Air Force's search for a
high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, thus, leading to the initial de-
sign of the CL-282. After leaving the Air Force, Kiefer became
Richard Bissell's technical adviser for the OXCART and
photosatellite programs.
KILLIAN, James R., Jr.
President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Killian
headed a high-level and very secret study of the nation's ability to
withstand a surprise attack. While this project was still under way, he
and Edwin Land persuaded President Eisenhower to support the de-
velopment of a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, the L1-2. Later,
Killian headed Eisenhower's Board of Consultants for Foreign
Intelligence Activities, served as his Cabinet-level science adviser,
and chaired the President's Science Advisory Board. Killian was also
chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board un-
der John F. Kennedy.
LAND, Edwin H.
An extremely talented inventor famous for the development of polar-
izin g filters and the instant-film camera. Land also devoted consider-
able time and energy to voluntary government service. During World
War II, Land worked for the Radiation Laboratories, and after the war
he served on numerous Air Force advisory panels. As the head of the
Technological Capabilitites Panel's study group investigating US in-
telligence-gathering capabilities, Land became a strong advocate of
the development of a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft (the
CL-282) under civilian rather than Air Force control. Land and James
Killian persuaded President Eisenhower to approve the U-2 project
and later the first photosatellite project. Land also served on the
President's Board of Consultants for Foreign Intelligence Activities.
LEGHORN, Richard S.
An MIT graduate in physics, Le ghorn joined the Army Air Force in
1942 and went to work for reconnaissance expert Col. George
Goddard. By the time of the invasion of Europe. Leghorn was chief of
reconnaissance for the 9th Tactical Air Force. After the war, Leghorn
began preaching the need for -pre-D-day" reconnaissance in order to
gather intelligence on the Soviet Bloc. He returned to the Air Force
during the Korean war and later worked for Harold Stassen's
Disarmament Office. In 1956 he became the head of the Scientific
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.