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.
“Mission Control”27 pages
343 Defense Research and Engineering, John Foster, liked the concept and provided DOD funding for ORD to develop two versions of AXILLARY, one with a radar-homer and one with a television recon naissance package. The radar homing system proved successful as AXILLARY sought out and destroyed a radar during testing at China Lake Naval Air Station. However, the end of US involvement in Vietnam in early 1973 led to the cancellation of further DOD funding, and AXILLARY was placed on the shelf. Melpar, Inc., continued to work on the radar-homing version and eventually sold some AXILLARY-type aircraft to [srael, which used them to destroy Syrian radars in Lebanon in 1982. PINE RIDGE While work was still in progress on low-altitude, short-range recon naissance systems like AQUILINE and AXILLARY, CIA scientists and engineers were also working on a high-altitude recoverable un manned reconnaissance vehicle with an extremely-low-radar cross section that would enable it to fly undetected over hostile territory. During the 1960s there had been a study conducted by the Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego on the construction of an .unaetectable drone known as SANDY HOOK. This 44-foot long drone would operate at 120,000 feet at Mach 0.9, with a range of 5,000 nautical miles. Its radar cross section 07zwould be 0.0 I square meters. Project SANDY HOOK never advanced very far in develop ment; projected high costs and substantial technical risks led to its cancellation in December I 969. Some of the concepts in SANDY HOOK were carried over into a new project known as PINE RIDGE, which was a proposal for an un manned reconnaissance vehicle with an even lower radar cross sec tion (0.001 square meter). Research on SANDY HOOK had indicated that a radar cross section this low was attainable and would prevent detection and tracking by existing radar defense systems. The PINE RIDGE proposal called for a delta-shaped vehicle, approximately 17 feet long with a 21-foot wingspan. Two vertical stabilizers would give the vehicle an overall height of three to four feet. An existing Teledyne J- lO0-CA-100 Turbojet engine could have been used to power the vehicle at Mach 0.9 at the operating altitude of 65,000 to 75,000 feet. Range was estimated at 3,300 nautical miles. Despite interest within the CIA and the Air Force for an unde tectable reconnaissance vehicle, PINE RIDGE was never funded. In January 1971 high-level representatives from DOD and CIA rejected a proposal for a feasibility study to be conducted by Ryan Aircraft. S98FCt NOfOF\N Appendix E ~eeret
Not linked to a story yet.
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.