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.
“RAF”18 pages
342 Gee,et AIO~ORN Appendix E Project AXILLARY AXILLARY While Project AQU ILINE was still under development, its chief aero dynamicist, Charles N. Adkins, left the program because he believed that its escalating costs wou ld prev,ent it from ever producing a de ployable aircraft. He wanted to build a small. inexpensive re mote-controlled aircraft to test a low-cost lightweight autopilot currently being developed by ·oRD. Under a $5,000 time-and-materi als contract with Melpar. Incorporatt:d. Adkins hired a local model aircraft builder to assemble and modify a standard Hawk-750 glider kit and power it with a rear-mounted engine and pusher propeller. Following a series of successful test flights. Adkins installed a small camera and took a number of aerial photographs. By this time the effort to build a "Miniature Multi-Purpose Airborne Vehicle" had become known as Project AXILLARY. Melpar, Inc., received a second contract for $50,000 to install ORD's autopilot in the aircraft. and the projject managers now began search ing for a use for their vehicle. The two main possibilites were ( I) as a short-range reconnaissance veh icle for use in a peace-monitoring or intelligence-gathering system and (2) as a short-range warhead deliv ery system. In 197 1 the Office of Special Activities evaluated AXILLARY flight-testing and determined that the small model air craft was not suitable for use as a covert reconnaissance vehicle be cause of its large radar cross secition and significant accoustical signature. The aircraft's radar signature made it potentially useful as a weapons systems, however. ORD suggested that AXILLARY be equipped with a radar-homing unitE which would make it an inexpensive means for .----;---.--..---~ - ~ ---..JJ surface-to-air missile systems in North Vietnam. T he Director of
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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.