Documents / Official release
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.
“Headquarters”22 pages
271 Sect et NOFOAN Chapter 6 --- 60'0"---------- important design features that contributed to a small radar return were Convair K!NGFISH fiberglass engine inlets and wings whose leading edges were made of. ..., - ,., Pyroceram. Lockheed's new entry was much like its first, but with several modi fications and a new designator, A-12. It, too, would employ two of the powerful J58 engines. Lockheed's major innovation in reducing radar return was a cesium additive in the fuel, which decreased the radar cross section of the afterburner plume. This improvement had been proposed by Edward Purcell of the Land committee. Desiring to save weight, Kelly Johnson had decided not to construct the A- 12 out of steel. Traditional lightweight metals such as aluminum were out of the question because they could not stand the heat that would be gen erated as the A- 12 flew at Mach 3.2, so Johnson chose a titanium alloy. On 20 August 1959, Lockheed and Convair submitted their pro posals to a joint Department of Defense, Air Force, and CIA selection panel. As the table shows, the two aircraft were similar in performance " Convair Division. General Dynamics Corporation. " KINGFISH Summary Re:port." 1959 (S). Kelly Johnson was very skeptical of the Convair design. noting in the Archangel project log on 1-20 August 1959: ·'Convair have promised substantially reduced radar cross seclion on an airplane the size of our A-12. They are doing this, in my view. with . lOtal disregard for aerodynamics. inlet and afterburner p,:rformance... Secaet
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Official release, from the pursue 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.