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 …This search soon led him to a British twin-engine medium bomber— the Canberra—built by…
  • p. 19 CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED ."-ge""011-141 Chapter 1 6 '• Q.., ./ • „„, a • • ..a■ ...A • - at -... .441 RAF Canberra…
  • p. 22 …al- titude performance of the B-57 Canberra. By January 1954 all three firms had submitted…
  • p. 36 …The RAF equipped the new Canberra PR7 with Rolls- Royce Avon-109 engines and gave it…
  • p. 37 …altitude flight being made to the US Canberra, the B-57.3' The Intelligence Systems Panel…
  • p. 80 …production was needed to power specially configured Canberra RB-57Ds for the Air Force. The first…
  • p. 122 …a reconnaissance version of the twin-engine Canberra bomber, similar to the RAF overflight of Kapustin…
  • p. 175 …2 and an Air Force RB-57D Canberra. The two air- craft cruised along the Soviet…
Skunk Works Design Staff
005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
—9eepe4.111QECIaLL
Chapter 2
46
speed of Mach 0.8 or 460 knots at altitude. Its initial maximum alti-
tude would be 70,600 feet and the ultimate maximum altitude would
be 73,100 feet. According to these early December 1954 specifica-
tions, the new plane would take off at 90 knots, land at 76 knots, and
be able to glide 244 nautical miles from an altitude of 70,000 feet.
After discussing the reconnaissance bay with James Baker, Johnson
had worked out various equipment combinations that would not ex-
ceed the weight limit of 450 pounds. Johnson ended his report by
promising the first test flight by 2 August 1955 and the completion of
four aircraft by 1 December 1955.'"
Kelly Johnson, -A High-Altitude Reconnaissance Aircraft, - 9 December 1954,
Lockheed Contract Files, OSA Records (S).
UNCLASSIFIED

Not linked to a story yet.

About this file

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.