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. 18 …Leghorn persuaded his superiors to submit his suggestion to the . Pentagon for funding. He had not…
  • p. 20 …Meanwhile Leghorn, frustrated by the rejection of his original concept, had transferred to the Pentagon in…
  • p. 22 …become the assistant director of Lockheed's Advanced Development Program, was in the Pentagon on business…
  • p. 24 …for the construction and maintenance of 30 aircraft to a group of senior Pentagon officials that…
  • p. 26 …He had been present at Kelly Johnson's presentation on the CL-282 at the Pentagon…
  • p. 27 …with Strong in the Pentagon on 12 May 1954. six days before the Wright Air Development…
  • p. 52 …Late on the morning of 2 December 1954, Dulles told Bissell to go to the Pentagon…
  • p. 91 …1-le then briefed a high-level Pentagon panel that included the Secretary of the Air…
  • p. 92 …After a half hour passed, the base commander called the Pentagon to ask where the crippled…
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
• Chapter 1
Searching for a System
The Need for High-Altitude Reconnaissance 1
Early Postwar Aerial Reconnaissance 2
New Approaches to Photoreconnaissance 4
The Air Force Search for a New Reconnaissance Aircraft 8
Lockheed CL-282 Supporters and the CIA 13
Scientists and Overhead Reconnaissance 17
The BEACON HILL Report 17
Concern About the Danger of a Soviet Surprise Attack 19
The Air Force Intelligence Systems Panel 21
British Overflight of Kapustin Yar 23
The Intelligence Systems Panel and the CL-282 24
The Technological Capabilities Panel 26
Project Three Support for the Lockheed CL-282 27
A Meeting With the President 32
CIA and Air Force Agreement on the CL-282 33
• Chapter 2
Developing the U-2
The Establishment of the U-2 Project 39
Funding Arrangements for Project AQUATONE 43
Major Design Features of the U-2 45
The Development of the Camera System 48
Preparations for Testing the U-2 56
Security for the U-2 Project 59
The CIA — Air Force Partnership 60
Technical Challenges to High-Altitude Flight 61
Delivery of the First U-2 66
Initial Testing of the U-2 68
U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK 72
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.