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…
383
SR-71
295, 302, 308-31 I, 321
SS-4 (SHYSTER) MRBM
206
SS-6 ICBM
[ 160, 165, 171-171
stainless steel
277, 280
Stassen, Harold
330
State Department
81, 95, IOI, 146, 154, 163, 179, 186,
196-197, 212, 224-225, 229,243,249
"stealth" research
313
stereo camera
281, 252
stereoscopic lenses
250
Steuart Building
83, Ill, 114
STEVER
260. 333
Stockman, Hervey
65. J-04-105
STPOLLY
222,224,240
Strategic Air Command (SAC)
11, 14, 17, 20, 26, 42, 60, 74-76, 78,
89, 93, 95, 198, 201, 207-210, 299, 230
meteorologists
42
strategic bombing
49
"strategic hamlet"
230
strategic intelligence
82,115,152,302,304,313,315,
319,322
strategic reconnaissance
9, 122,230,295, 297, 299, 313,
320,322,329
Strauss, Lewis
56
Strong, Philip G.
14-17, 21-22, 24-25, 29-30, 333
subsonic
8, 14, 260, 263
Seeret NOFORN
Index
Suez Canal
112-114, 117,120,256
Suez Canal, Israeli-British-French attack on
116
Suez Canal Company
I 12-113
Suez Crisis
152
Suhrawardy, Huseyn Shaheed
135
suicide pill
65
Sukarno, Achmed
212,215
Sulawesi (Celebes)
212
Sullivan, Dennis
307
Sumatra
212
SUN SPOT
171
Super Snooper
132
supersonic designs
260 -
supersonic interceptor
285
supersonic technology
292-293
Support. Directorate of
40, 83
surface-to-air missile (SA-2) sites
201
surface-to-air missiles
257,299,301,303,339
surface-to-surface missiles
205-206, 209. 304. 306
Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union
172, 176-179, 185
Symington, Stuart
99, 161
synthetic lubricants
279
Syria
114, 120, 133, 153
Syrian radars
343
System-I
335
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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.