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. 223 …Rudolph Anderson. T his loss again illustrated the U-2's vulnerability to the SA-2…
  • p. 369 …American Civil War I Amory, Robert 114 Anderson, Rudolph 210 Andaya, Norway 172 "Angel", 45, 50…
331
Engineering Institute, an Agency proprietary working on ways to re
duce the U-2's vulnerability to radar detection. In 1957 he founded
Itek Corporation.
LUNDAHL, Arthur E.
A Navy photointerpreter during World War II and afterward. Lundahl
became the chief of the Photo-Intelligence Division in I 953. To sup
port the U-2 project, he established a separate photointerpretation
center under Project HTAUTOMAT. Under his leadership the Photo
Intelligence Division grew rapidly and achieved office status as the
Photographic Intelligence Center in 1958. In 1961 Lundahl became
the first head of the National Photograhic Interpretation Center, which
combined the photointerpretation efforts of the CIA and the military
services.
McCONE, John A.
DCI from 1961 to 1965. A strong supporter of the CIA's manned re
connaissance program, McCone presided over the OXCART's main
period of development and pushed for a greater role for the CIA in its
joint reconnaissance programs with the Department of Defense.
MILLER, Herbert I.
Miller worked in the Office of Scientific Intelligence's nuclear branch
and became Richard Bissell's first deputy for the U-2 project. He later
left the Agency to work for the Scientific Engineering Institute.
NORTON, Garrison
An assistant to Trevor Gardner, Norton became an early supporter of
the Lockheed CL-282 and started the CIA's interest in overhead re
connaissance by informing Philip Strong about the aircraft. Norton
later became Navy Assistant Secretary for Research and Development
and was involved with the OXCART program.
OVERHAGE, Carl F. J.
After working on the development of Technicolor, Overhage went to
work for Kodak. He headed the Beacon Hill Panel in 1952 and later
became director of Lincoln Laboratories.
PARANGOSKY, John N.
Parangosky worked for Richard Bissell's Development Projects Staff
in the mid- I 950s. He served as deputy chief of the Adana U-2 unit in
1959 and became project manager of the OXCART program from its
inception through the test flight stage.
~eerct NOFORN
Appendix B
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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.