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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. 5 …139 Cooperation With Norway ....................................................................... 142 Declining Overflight Activity.................................................................... 143 Concerns About Soviet Countermeasures Against the U…
  • p. 7 …320 Cooperation With the Air Force ............................................................. 321 Impact of the Overhead Reconnaissance Program o n the…
  • p. 91 …Early in the program Bissell and Ritland had foreseen such an emergency and, with the cooperation…
  • p. 95 …their awareness of the vital nature of their mission kept the level of cooperation high. The…
  • p. 143 …deception project since its early days, he cooperated reluctantly because he disliked adding attachments that made…
  • p. 155 …the beginning of cooperation between CIA and the Norwegian Intelligence Service on the U-2 program…
  • p. 167 …By 1957 cooperation be tween the United Kingdom and the United States had expanded to include…
  • p. 169 …a logical ex tension of the close cooperation that already existed between the two countries on…
  • p. 196 …as possible while giving the appearance of cooperating with his cap tors. To extract the maximum…
  • p. 287 …by Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier (EG&G) in cooperation with the Scientific Engineering Institute at a small…
  • p. 302 …Halaby cooperated fully with the Agency and personally briefed all FAA regional chiefs on how to…
  • p. 334 …The cooperation between the Agency and the Air Force that began with the U-2 and…
338
Secret NOFOAN
Appendix D
APPENDIX D
U-2 Overflights of the Soviet Union,
4 July 1954-1 May 1960 (continued)
Date Mission Pilot Airfield Unit Payload Route
22 August l 957 4049 Birkhead Lahore B A-2 Merket Bazar, Kuldja, Abakan,
Krasnoyarsk, Kansk, Sinkiang
22 August l 957 4050 Cherbonneaux: Lahore B A-2 Lake Balkhash, Semipalatinsk,
Barnaul, Prokop'yevsk,
Novokuznetsk, Leninogorsk
28 August 1957 4058 Jones Lahore B A-2 Dushanbe, Tashkent, Tyuratam,
Kazalinsk, Aral Sea
10 September 1957 4059 Hall Adana B A-2 Krasnovodsk, Gur'yev,
Astrakhan', Tbilisi
16 September 1957 6008 Baker Eielson C A-2 Kamchatka Peninsula, Milkovo
13 October 1957 2040 Stockman Giebelstadt A A-2 Norway, Finland, Murmansk,
Kandalaksha
I March 1958 601 l Crull Atsugi C A-2 Dal' nerechensk, Khabarovsk,
Blagoveshchensk, Belagorsk,
Komsomolsk, Sovetskaya Gavan'
9 July 1959 4125 Knutson Peshawar B B Tyuratam for suspected Sputnik
launch
6 December 1959 8005 Robinson• Peshawar B B Kuybyshev, Kapustin Yar,
Caucasus
5 February l 960 8009 MacArthur• Peshawar B B Tyuratam, Kazan
9 April 1960 4155 Erickson Peshawar B B Lake Balkhash, Semipalatinsk,
Kyzylespe, Dzhezhkazgan,
Tyuratarn
I May 1960 4154 Powers Peshawar B B Tyuratam, Kyshtym, Sverdlovsk;
downed by SAM
a RAF pilot
Sec1 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.