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…
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Chapter 2
54
operating time. Three of the seven B-camera frames provided stereo
coverage. The complex B cameras were engineered by Hycon's chief
designer, William McFadden.'"
James Baker's idea for the ultimate high-altitude camera was the
C model that would have a 240-inch focal length. In December 1954,
he made preliminary designs for folding the optical path using three
mirrors, a prism, and an f/20.0 lens system. Before working out the
details of this design, however, Baker flew to California in early
January 1955 to consult with Kelly Johnson about the weight and
space limitations of the U-2's payload compartment. Despite every ef-
fort to reduce the physical dimensions of the C camera, Baker needed
an additional six inches of payload space to accommodate the bigger
lens. When he broached this subject to Johnson, the latter replied,
-Six more inches? I'd sell my grandmother for six more inches!"
Ibid.; Baker interview (S).
'" Baker interview (S).
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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.