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.
“Pacific Ocean”3 pages
49 Sec. et NOFOAN Chapter 2 .. ·- . ·. • ,• .. • ~:; ..:. ~ .::,, ,',t •... . ," •. .:;~~~~;.\ii~1i:h -;.: .. . ... : ~·-'~•-· . ___.-:.:.~~- ,:..- .... : .~:~~·~-~~~~:~;\ ~f~ ' • .. :-'·· ~::....:,,.;_:,-:/~~ ~- :·.'.:~-:---·~,... engine, but no firm plans existed for the all-important cameras. Existing cameras were too bulky and lacked sufficient resolution to be used in high-altitude reconnaissance. The workhorses of World W'ilf II aerial photography had been the Fairchild K-19 and K-21 framing cameras with lenses of varying focal lengths from 24 to 40 inches. Late in the war, the trimetrogon K-17 .mapping-camera system came into use. This system consis~ed of lhree separate cameras which made three photographs simultaneously: a vertical, an oblique to the left, and an oblique to the right The major shortcomings of the trimetrogon system were the large amount of film required and the system's lack of sharp definition on the obliques. The standard aerial cameras available in the e'ilfly 1950s c:ould achieve resolutions of about 20 to 25 feet (7 to 8 meters) on a side when used at an altitude of 33,000 feet (10,000 meters), or about 25 lines per millimeter in current tenns of reference. Such resolution was considered adequate because aerial photography was then used pri marily to choose targets for strategic bombing, to assess bomb dam age after air raids, and to make maps and charts. Unfortunately, a camera with a resolution of only 20 to 25 feet at a height of 33,000 feet was too crude to be used at twice that altitude. lndeed, for intelli gence purposes a resolution of less than 10 feet was necessary to dis cern smaller targets in greater detail. This meant that any camera carried to altitudes above 68, 000 feet had to be almost four times as good as existing aerial cameras in order to achieve a resolution of less than 10 feet As a result, some scientists doubted that useful photogra phy could be obtained from altitudes higher than 40,000 feet.'" " Baker imervil!w (S). U-2 landing gear and pogos .Sea,et-
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.