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. 24 …Instead of a conventional landing gear, Johnson proposed using two skis and a reinforced belly rib…
  • p. 25 …a perceived shortcoming of the Lockheed design." Another factor in the rejection of Kelly Johnson's…
  • p. 26 …19 On 7 June 1954, Kelly Johnson received a letter from the Air Force rejecting the…
  • p. 27 …Gardner described Kelly Johnson's proposal and showed the drawings to Strong. After this meeting. Strong…
  • p. 30 …To make Kelly Johnson' s revolutionary design a reality, one addit ional source of support was…
  • p. 42 …it. A lthough Land had heard Allen Donovan '' James R. Killian. Jr.. interview by Donald E…
  • p. 48 …do the job in Johnson's airplane. And further, I overlaid a curve showing that with…
  • p. 57 …demanding, and Kelly Johnson agreed that such a move would save a lot of money. Lockheed…
  • p. 58 …Ben A. Rich (current head of the "Skunk Works"). interview by Donald E. Welzenbach and Gregory…
  • p. 69 …staff) flew over Nevada with Kelly Johnson in a small Beechcraft plane piloted by Lockheed's…
  • p. 72 …This responsibility has placed a heavy burden on the Office of Security for establishing procedures to…
  • p. 79 …Battin suggested the method used by Nazi war criminal Hermarnn Goering, a thin glass ampule containing…
  • p. 81 …Kelly Johnson used a '·wet-wing" design for the U-2, which meant that fuel was…
  • p. 89 …Airspeed was such a critical factor that Kelly Johnson added a vernier adjustment to the throttle…
  • p. 162 …By late 1957, Johnson agreed that something had to be done. After a series of tests…
  • p. 276 …The committee examined two other Kelly Johnson designs at this meeting-a tailless subsonic aircraft with…
  • p. 324 …OXCART did win a temporary reprieve in late November 1967. The Johnson administration decided to keep…
365
Follow-On Group (FOG)
77
Ford Foundation
15
Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
192,226,292,302,330
forest fire detectors
238
Formosa
305 (See also Taiwan)
Fort Worth, Texas
50
40 Committee
188, 257
forward processing center
212
Foster, John
343
France
113, 116-117, 120,201,249
Franco-Prussian War
I
Frankfurt, Germany
2
Free Europe Committee
88
French atomic test area
250
French Indochina
222
French Mediterranean
116
French Mystere
116
French nuclear developments
249
French Polynesia
249
Frogman Incident
94
Fujisawa, Japan
218
Fukien Province
226, 229
G
G-forces
79
G2A aircraft
263
Galbraith, John Kenneth
231-232
Gardner, Trevor N.
11, 13-15, 26-27, 32, 36, 40,
66, 81, 99,327,329,331
Gates, Thomas
164
Gaza Strip
114
Geary, Leo P.
61, 66, 71, 73-74. 78, 152,
186, 196, 288, 329
General Dynamics
312
General Electric 173/GE-3
11
General Tire and Rubber Company
329
GENETRIX
84-85, 87-88
Geneva, Switzerland
96, 147, 159
Geneva Conference on Surprise Attack
159
Geneva summit conference
96
geological survey
254-255
German Luftwaffe
22
German scientists
2
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
120
Gibbs. Jack A.
61, 259-260
Giebelstadt Airbase, West Germany
95, 124, 140
Gilpatric, Roswell
207-208
Glennan. Keith
182
gliders
II
Glienecke Bridge
183
Globke. Hans
101
Goddard, George
330
Sec,et NOFOAN
Index
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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.