Documents / FOIA release
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."
“Hill”13 pages
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED --Slstret414),„F.01...3111 Chapter 2 45 As it turned out, no review of the contract was necessary at the three-fourths point. Lockheed delivered the aircraft not only on time but under budget. EO 129581.6M11>111<25Yrs IS1 MAJOR DESIGN FEATURES OF THE U-2 Aware of the great need for secrecy in the new project, Kelly Johnson placed it in Lockheed's Advanced Development facility at Burbank, California, known as the Skunk Works.'° Lockheed had established this highly secure area in 1945 to develop the nation's first jet aircraft, the P-80 Shooting Star. The small Skunk Works staff began making the detailed drawings for the U-2, which was nicknamed the "Angel" be-cause it was to fly so high. Kelly Johnson's approach to prototype development was to have his engineers and draftsmen located not more than 50 feet from the aircraft assembly line. Difficulties in construction were immediately brought to the attention of the engineers, who gathered the mechanics around the drafting tables to discuss ways to overcome the difficul- ties. As a result, engineers were generally able to fix problems in the design in a matter of hours, not days or weeks. There was no empha- sis placed on producing neatly typed memorandums; engineers sim- ply made pencil notations on the engineering drawings in order to keep the project moving quickly." A little more than a week after he had been authorized to begin the project, Kelly Johnson wrote a 23-page report detailing his most recent ideas on the U-2 proposal. The aircraft, he explained, would be designed to meet load factors of only 2.5 g's, which was the limit for transport aircraft rather than combat planes. The U-2 would have a The Lockheed "Skunk Works" was named after the Kickapoo Joy Juice factory known as the "Skonk Works" in Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner. " Ben A. Rich (current head of the "Skunk Works"), interview by Donald E. Welzenbach and Gregory W. Pedlow, Burbank, California, 26 August 1988. Sbc.et 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.