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.
~ 50 Seeret NOFORN Chapter 2 + ·~;~ ,·\ ·~~:f~: .i ~ ~~\ ~ ;.;.,-::., . James G. Baker The first success in designing very-high-acuity lenses came in the mid- I940s, when James G. Baker of Harvard and Richard S. Perkin of the Perkin-Elmer (P-E) Company of Norwalk, Connecticut, collaborated on a design for an ex.perimental camera for the Army Air Force. They developed a 48-inch focal-length scanning camera that was mounted in a modified B-36 bomber. When tested over Fort Worth, Texas, at 34,000 feet, the new camera produced photographs in which two golf balls on a putting green could be distinguished (in reality. however, the "golf balls··· were 3 inches in diameter). These photographs demonstrated the high acuity of Baker's lens, but the camera weighed more than a ton and was much too large to be carried aloft in an aircraft as small as the U-2. Realizing that size and weiglht were the major restraining factors in developing a camera for the U--2. James Baker began working on a radically new system in October 1954, even before the CIA adopted the Lockheed proposal. Baker quickly recognized, however, that he would need almost a year to produce a working model of such a com plex camera. Since Kelly Johnson had promised to have a U-2 in the air within eight months, Baker needed to find an existing camera that could be used until the new came:ra was ready. After consulting with his friend and colleague Richard Perkin. Baker decided to adapt for the U-2 an Air Force camera krnown as the K-38. a 24-inch aerial framing camera built by the Hycon Manufacturing Company of Pasadena, California. Perkin suggested modifying several standard K-38 cameras in order to reduce their weight to the U-2's 450-pound payload limit. At the same time, Baker would ma:ke critical adj ustments to existing K-38 lenses to improve their acuiity. Baker was able to do this in a few weeks, so several modified K-38s, now known as A-1 cameras, were ready when the first "Angel" aircraft took to the air in mid-1955.15 CIA awarded Hycon a contract for the modified K-38 cameras, and Hycon, in tum. subcontracte:d to Perkin-Elmer to provide new lenses and to make other modifications to the cameras in order to make them less bulky. In its tum, Perkin-Elmer subcontracted to Baker to rework the existing K-38 lenses and later design an im proved lens system. To keep his liens-designing efforts separate from " Ibid. See,et
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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.