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 …Advanced Development Projects Division, Burbank. California. ED 129581.131011>10<25Yrs IS1 UNCLASSIFIED
  • p. 58 …Pedlow, Burbank, California, 26 August 1988. Sbc.et UNCLASSIFIED
  • p. 85 …how to transfer Lockheed employees from Burbank to Iwithout arousing a great deal of curiosity. The…
  • p. 273 …SP-1362, "History of the OXCART Program," Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, CA. 1 July 1968, p…
  • p. 287 …designed trailer truck that carried it from Burbank By 18 November 1959, the mockup was in…
  • p. 297 …Construction began in September 1960; a C-47 shuttle service ferried work crews from Burbank to…
  • p. 299 …The plane left Burbank on 26 February 1962 and arrived at two days later. After the…
  • p. 304 …into the engine nacelles during assembly at Burbank were sucked into the power plant during initial…
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
E0129581.6(dlill>10<25Yrs
ISI personnel divided among project headquarters, a US test-total
ing facility.andI
Chapter 2
42
The Matomic Building
he Air Force personne commit-
ment was larger, n the 1955 table of organization
(this total does mil incluae many other Air Force personnel, such as
SAC meteorologists, who supported the U-2 project in addition to
their other duties). The largest Project AQUATONE category was
contract employees, sositions in 1955. This category in-
cluded maintenance personnel from Lockheed (five per
aircraft), the pilots, and support personnel from other contractors for
items such as photographic equipment.6
The first project headquarters was in CIA's Administration (East)
Building at 2430 E Street, NW. Continued growth caused the
AQUATONE staff to move several times during its first two years.
On 1 May 1955, the project staff moved to the third floor of a small
red brick building (the Briggs School) at 2210 E Street, NW. Then on
3 October. the staff moved to Wings A and C of Quarters Eye, a
World War 11 "temporary" building on Ohio Drive, NW, in the West
Potomac Park area of Washington. On 25 February 1956, the project
staff moved again, this time to the fifth floor of the Matomic Building
" Project AQUATON1E Table of Organization. 28 April 1955 in OSA History. chap. 3, an-
nex 15 (TS Cocieword).
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.