Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 3
108
shutter ruined much of the photography of one of the flights. The third mission (2023), on the following day, included the Crimean Peninsula.³¹
The film from the first overflight (4 July) was flown to the United States immediately after the U-2 landed at Wiesbaden. Several members of the Photo Intelligence Division were on hand when the film was developed to check on the results. Also present was James Baker, who had accepted an offer by project officials to get a first-hand look at how the new A-2 lenses were working.³²
The photos from July overflights were generally good, despite occasional problems caused by cloud cover. The huge amount of film taken by these missions provided more information about the Soviet Union’s ability to track and intercept U-2s. Photointerpreters examining the films eventually discovered the tiny images of MiG-15s and MiG-17s beneath the U-2s in various pursuit and attack attitudes: climbing, flipping over, and falling toward Earth. It was even possible to determine their approximate altitudes. These photographs showed that the Soviet air defense system was able to track U-2s well enough to attempt interception, but they also provided proof that the fighter aircraft available to the Soviet Union in 1956 could not bring down a U-2 at operational altitude.³³
One problem with early U-2 photography became apparent only after the first films were developed. If there was surface water on the runway at Wiesbaden when the U-2 took off, the camera windows became begrimed. Although the water dried during the flight, the oily scum it left behind degraded the photographic image. To combat this problem, AQUATONE ground crews took brooms and spent several hours before takeoff sweeping puddles of water from the runway to be used by the U-2. Kelly Johnson eventually designed a jettisonable cover for the camera windows, which was released at the same time as the pogos so that it could be recovered and reused.³⁴
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³¹ Mission folders 2020 (9 July 1956), 2021 (9 July 1956), and 2023 (10 July 1956), OSA records, job 67-B-328, box 7 (TS Codeword).
³² Cunningham interview (TS Codeword).
³³ Lundahl and Brugioni interview (TS Codeword).
³⁴ Baker interview (S).
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25