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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."

Open the PDF at page 5 Original source ↗

“The Advance”26 pages

  • p. 6 …Project OXCART, 1956-1968 The Evaluation of Designs for a Successor to the U-2 260…
  • p. 22 …retired from the Air Force to become the assistant director of Lockheed's Advanced Development Program…
  • p. 24 ORN Chapter 1 11 Kelly Johnson %.419r.,‹ 005653421 UNCLASSIFIED gravity (g's) instead of the military…
  • p. 27 …He later advanced to the rank of brigadier general in the reserve. For Strong's contacts…
  • p. 32 …lithium deuteride, a tech- nology more advanced than the heavy water method used by US BEACON…
  • p. 33 …between the developed and undeveloped nations. This aggressive Soviet foreign policy, combined with advances in nuclear…
  • p. 58 …secrecy in the new project, Kelly Johnson placed it in Lockheed's Advanced Development facility at…
  • p. 65 …His software algorithms made it possible to model lens designs and determine in advance the effects…
  • p. 76 …UNCLASSIFIED """"Igeret-ALQ Chapter 2 63 advanced gear for the U-2 pilots. David Clark expert…
  • p. 111 …of Soviet advances in long-range bombers and missiles. The initial sighting of the new Soviet…
  • p. 114 …Adenauer be informed in advance of US plans to overfly the Soviet Union from bases in…
  • p. 174 …concentrating on developing the more advanced solid-fueled missiles rather than increasing the num- ber of…
  • p. 191 …the cover story that had been prepared and distributed in advance of the mission. The first…
  • p. 250 …so urgent that the Defense Department finally re ente CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED Advanced ECM Equipment for Demand…
  • p. 265 …the U-2R needed a camera that incorporated the many im- portant advances that had occurred…
  • p. 266 …This camera was actually a very advanced version of the original B camera with a new…
  • p. 282 …aircraft from the small inventory of its most advanced bomber. Even had the B-58B program…
  • p. 295 …In fact, it was an advanced version of the highly reliable B camera developed for the…
  • p. 307 …he an- nounced the successful development of an -advanced experimental jet aircraft, the A-11. which…
  • p. 310 …It was now time to find work for the most advanced aircraft ever conceived and built…
  • p. 321 …advanced aircraft ever built was to be put out to pasture. The aban- donment of the…
  • p. 325 …when the OXCART program ended in the summer of 1968, no more advanced successor was wait…
  • p. 326 …The most advanced aircraft of the 20th century had become an anachronism before it was ever…
  • p. 333 …ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY One very important byproduct of the CIA's manned reconnaissance program was the…
  • p. 334 …the end of the usefulness of the world's most advanced aircraft; its offspring, the SR…
  • p. 335 …Thus, the CIA sponsored the development of the world's most advanced aircraft—the OXCART—and…
005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
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Hiring U-2 Pilots 73
Pilot Training 75
Final Tests of the U-2 76
Three Fatal Crashes in 1956 79
Coordination of Collection Requirements 80
Preparations To Handle the Product of U-2 Missions 82
The Impact of the Air Force Project GENETRIX Balloons 84
AQUATONE Briefings for Selected Members of Congress 88
The U-2 Cover Story 89
+ Chapter 3
U-2 Operations in the Soviet Bloc and Middle East, 1956-1958
The Deployment of Detachment A 94
The Move to Wiesbaden 95
President Eisenhower's Attitude Toward Overflights 96
First Overflights of Eastern Europe 100
First U-2 Flights Over the Soviet Union 104
ED 129581.61dli1l>1045Yrs Soviet Protest Note 109
ED 129581.61061>10<25Yrs The End of the Bomber Gap 111
(SI Tactical Intelligence From U-2s During the Suez Crisis 112
Renewed Overflights of the Soviet Union 122
Radar-Deceptive "Dirty Birds" 128
The New Detachment C 133
135Detachment B Flightstl
139The Decline of Detac mem kt
142
reclining Overflight Activity 143
Concerns About Soviet Countermeasures Against the U-2 147
More Powerful Engines for the U-2 149
Intervention in Lebanon, 1958 152
153
The U-2 Project at the Beginning ot 157
Ilk Chapter 4
The Final Overflights of the Soviet Union, 1959-1960
The U-2 and the "Missile-Gap" Debate 159
The Last Overflight: Operation GRAND SLAM 170
The Aftermath of the U-2 Downing 177
The Withdrawal of the Overseas Detachments 181
The Fate of Francis Gary Powers 183
Changes in Overflight Procedures After May 1960 187
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.