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CIA/CSI/ History Staff Monograph, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and Oxcart Programs, 16 July 2002.

Central Intelligence Agency · 406 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a CIA History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, written in 1992 and approved for release in 2011. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974 and its two aircraft, the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. It follows their development, the overflights of the Soviet Union, the downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, and later operations. One section is titled "U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK."

  • p. 21 …carry a payload of 100 to 700 pounds of reconnaissance equipment, and have a crew of…
  • p. 24 …nonaf- terburning turbojet engine with 9,300 pounds of thrust (this was the same engine he…
  • p. 47 …The plane itself is so light (15,000 pounds), so obviously unarmed and devoid of military…
  • p. 59 …ex- ceed the weight limit of 450 pounds. Johnson ended his report by promising the first…
  • p. 60 …wheels under the tail—weighed only 208 pounds yet could withstand the force of touchdown for…
  • p. 63 …weight to the U-2's 450-pound payload limit. At the same time, Baker would…
  • p. 78 …Despite all these precautions, U-2 pilots normally lost 3 to 6 pounds of body weight…
  • p. 80 …which developed 13,000 pounds of thrust and weighed 3,820 pounds, giving it a power…
  • p. 162 …The paint penalty was calculated to be a foot of altitude for every pound of paint…
  • p. 165 …This new power plant generated 4,200 pounds more thrust while adding only 2,050 pounds…
  • p. 290 …Kelly Johnson then proposed to reduce the aircraft's weight by 1,000 pounds and increase…
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Arrival of U-2 prototype
(left); Article 341, the U-
prototype (below)
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Johnson had designed the U-2 to use the Pratt & Whitney
(P&W) J57/P-31 engine, which developed 13,000 pounds of thrust
and weighed 3,820 pounds, giving it a power-to-weight ratio of 3.4:1.
When the U-2 first took to the air, however, these engines were not
available because the entire production was needed to power specially
configured Canberra RB-57Ds for the Air Force. The first U-2s there-
fore used P&W J57/P-37 engines, which were 276 pounds heavier
and delivered only 10,200 pounds of thrust at sea level; the resulting
--soarer
UNCLASSIFIED

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About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom 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.