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.
“Burbank”10 pages
83 -see,, et P.OFQRPJ Chapter 2 The Steuart Building, home of the Photo-lntelligel"lce Division flood of photographs that the U-2 would bring back. so in May 1955 . t~~ Directorate of Support (DS) authorized expanding PID to 44 per sons. Soon afterward the division moved from its room in M Building to larger quarters in Que Building. The Photo-[ntelligence Division continued to expand in anticipa tion of large quantities of U-2 photography. lts authorized strength doubled in January 1956 when a new project known as HTAUTOMAT came into existence to exploit U-2 photography. All of the products from this project would be placed in the new control sys tem. By the summer of 1956, the PlD had moved to larger quarters in the Steuart Building at 5th Street and New York Avenue, NW. PID photointerpreters had already begun to work with U-2 photography following a series of missions in April 1956. when U-2s photo graphed a number of US installations that. were considered analogous to high-priority Soviet installations. As a result of these preparations, PrD was ready for the mass of photography that began coming when U-2 operations commenced in the summer of 1956."" ~ For a more detailed history of photointerpretation in the CIA. sec Urban J. Li m:han. The National Photographic lmerpretation Center. vol. I . Antecedents anti Early Years. Directorate of Science and Technology Historical Sc:ries NPIC-2. December 1972. pp. 171 - 19~ (S).
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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.