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.
277 Seeret NOFORN Chapter 6 eventually to the fuselage itself, creating what is known as a chine on each side. At first Johnson was concerned that these additions might impair the airworthiness of the plane, but wind tunnel testing deter mined that the chines actually imparted a useful aerodynamic I ift to the vehicle. Because titanium was very brittle and therefore difficult to bend, Johnson achieved the necessary curvature by combining tri angular-shaped pieces of titanium called fillets. These fillets were glued to the framework of the chines with a special adhesive, epoxy resin . On later OXCART modds the fillets were made from electri cally resistive honeycomb plastic with a glass-fiber surface that would not melt at high speed. When struck by a radar pulse, the com posite chines tended to absorb the pulse rather than reflect it. A simi lar approach was used for the leading edges of the wings. Again electrically resistive honeycomb material was fabricated into tn.J1ngu lar shapes, known as wing teeth, and fitted into the titanium wings. Both the metal and composite fillets and teeth were held in place with the newly developed epoxy cements. _. The greatest remaining area of concern in the A- l 2's radar cross section was the two vertical stabilizers. To reduce radar ·reflections, Kelly Johnson canted the stabilizers inward 15° and fabricated 'them out of resin-impregnated nonmetall ic materials. Once these changes were completed, the only metal in each vertical stabilizer was a s.tain less steel pivot. The Air Force, which later ordered several versions of the OXCART aircraft for its own use. never adopted the laminated vertical stabii izers." THE OXCART CONTRACT By mid-January 1960, Lockheed had demonstrated that i ts concept of shape, fuel additive, and nonmetallic parts would reduce the OXCART's radar cross section substantially. Richard Bissell, howev er. was very upset to learn that the changes had led to a reduction in the aircraft's performance. which meant it would not be able to aiuain the penetration altitude he had promised to President Eise nhower. Kelly Johnson then proposed to reduce the aircraft's weight by 1,000 pounds and increase the fuel load by 2.000 pounds, making it possible "Johnson. ··D,: veloprnc:n1 of Lo<:khcci.l SR-71 : · pp. 6-7: OSr\ Hiswry. chap. '.!O. p. ~;5 (TS Codeword). $ee,et
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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.