Documents / Official release

CIA-UAP-003, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974

Central Intelligence Agency · 1954 · 406 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a Secret History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach of the Central Intelligence Agency, published in 1992. It gives a history of the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974, covering the development and operation of the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART aircraft. It covers overflights of the Soviet Union, the 1960 downing of Francis Gary Powers, and later operations. One section is titled "U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK."

From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 This CIA History Staff document chronicles the complete history of the U-2 and OXCART (A-12) high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft programs from 1954 to 1974, detailing their development, operations over the Soviet Union and other targets worldwide, the famous downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, organizational reforms following that incident, and the eventual transfer of operations from CIA to Air Force control. A more redacted version of this document has been available on CIA's public website.

  • p. 143 …Air Force contract to evaluate ra dars, EG&G operated a small testing facility at Indian…
  • p. 244 …Then in August 1964, following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the Air Force assumed responsibility for…
  • p. 381 …232 Indian Springs, Nevada 274. 130, 132 Indonesia 211-212, 214,319 Indonesian Air Force 212…
129
'"'Sll,tc et NQFQRN
Chapter 3
Chordwise wire /Spanwise wire
absorption devices for the U-2. Once these devices_were install,ed on
the operational U-2s, he explained, the "majority of incidents would
be undetected." 73
Work on methods of reducing the U-2's vulnerability to radar de
tection had begun in the fall of 1956 as the result of President
Eisenhower's disenchantment with the overflight program following
Soviet detection and tracking of the first series of U-2 missions. The
CIA proprietary firm Scientific Engineering Institute was condutcting
this research under a project codenamed RAINBOW. SEI Chief
Engineer Dr. Franklin A. Rodgers, formerly of MIT, converted the
theories of Harvard physicist Edward Purcell into systems that ,could
be used on aircraft. SEI's radar-deception system consisted of a series
of attachments to the U-2 . First bamboo poles and later fiberglass
rods were attached to the wings. where they would not interfere with
the control surfaces. At the ends of these poles, completely circling
" Andrew J. Goodpaster. Memorandum of Conference with the President. 6 Ma:y 1957
(TS); ..Record of Action-Meeting of May 6, 1957," WHOSS, Alpha, DDEL (TS).
"Trapeze• antiradar attachments
to the U-2
SU&Fet

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Official release, from the pursue 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.