central intelligence agency

Nice-looking new title from Crecy/Hikoki from RC-135-pilot-turned-historian Robert S Hopkins III. Spyflights & Overflights Cold War Aerial Reconnaissance RRP: £29.95 Few aviation subjects have been shrouded in more secrecy or been more controversial than cold war aerial reconnaissance. Former...

New article from AW, including an image captioned 'This accurate model show the original KH-11 design that, like Hubble, carried about a 8-ft. mirror but with a shorter instrument base section.' Just looks like an image of Hubble to me & it would be a first for an image of it to be reproduced of...

Any information about this aggresor squadron from Kirtland AFB? Succesor Red Eagles? aircrafts: An-2, s/n ?, brought from Poland AF ? Mi-2, s/n ?, brought from Poland AF ? SBLim-1 „red 038“, s/n 1A 06-038, brought from Poland AF (1988) Lim-5 „red 010“, s/n 1C 10-10, brought from Poland AF...

This topic for built and unbuilt aircraft projects for the CIA, which are no longer in service. Video: View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfz6hs-5Rog&feature=plcp Video: View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXD36XOCpQM Video: View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEkMh54otJ8 Wikipedia -...

I came across a photo a few days ago of a very interesting Hughes 500 that might have been operated by the most secretive of C.I.A. units, codenamed Seaspray. I started up a thread on ARC and it has a link to the photo in question. This unit has existed since around 1980 but I think this might...

AQUILINE was a CIA project to develop a low-flying surveillance RPV in the late 60s/early 70s. From "Air Force UAVs The Secret History": "The CIA developed a few UAVs through the Directorate of Science and Technology’s Office of Development and Engineering rather than through the NRO. The...

I know that I am getting old and confused but can someone explain to me how the HMS Ark Royal and a few RAF ground attack Harriers are supposed to be able to recover the Falklands if the Argentinians take Mount Pleasant airbase? I realise that senior Admirals know much more about this sort of...

MODS - my apologies. Please move this topic to the Other/Military thread. Thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thought this might be of interest. Link: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb305/index.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Sky-Eisenhower-Aerial-Espionage/dp/159114082X/ref=pd_sim_b_18

Started in 1968, the Quiet One, an OH-6A Loach was modified to conduct a classified mission in December of 1972, to deploy a group of trained Laotian commandos into North Vietnam to tap into communication lines connecting NVA commanders. All operations were to be conducted at night. Pictures...

Robunos was suggesting having some pics of the Goodyear Inflatoplane, so here goes... The Goodyear Model 466 and 468 were called Inflatoplanes. Like the Hiller Flying Platform and other odd aircraft, they were part of a multi-service evaluation by the Army and the Navy's ONR, except here the CIA...

My biggest question regarding the Lockheed Suntan program is why they bothered investigating hydrogen turbojets in the first place. The best advantage I can think of was the ability to achieve the desired speed and range with an airframe that was much lighter than anything else in its size...

This is great! Rather appropriate music too.... View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eamnTyfkUBY Enjoy! Mark

No further data apart from whats on the drawings (better version on my blog - http://up-ship.com/blog/). These precede, at least numerically, the CL-282, which was Lockheed's first official stab at the U-2. They look to be lighter-constructed than the U-2.

I've missed this before. Just noticed a reference to a Westinghouse "KEMPSTER A" device mounted on A-12 131 or tests, which generated an electron cloud to reduce radar reflections.

Noted in a few sources that these were the intended powerplants for the Convair KINGFISH, but I thought that the requirements put forth for the program included the use of the J58? Can anyone clear this up for me or provide a source of information on these engines? Much thanks!

Just wondering if anyone knows what the tested maximum altitude and speed of the A-12/SR71 was? I contacted the USAF recently and they simply stuck to the published figures saying it flew at 85,000ft and could reach Mach 3.3. This doesn't seem to make sense as variants of the F-4, F-104 and...

Lockheed SR-71/YF-12 Blackbirds Excellent volume in the Warbird Tech series, good solid information from a good author. Recommended. ****

Blackbird: Beyond the Secret Missions A classic book, full of fascinating details about the design and operations of the A-12, YF-12 and SR-71, with good material on peripheral matters like Soviet MiG-25 and MiG-31 and Swedish JA-37 interceptions. <a...

I woul like to know something about the kinfish proposal for a strategic recon aircraft (in the competition won by the lockheed a-12) and about the super hustler design. Unfortunately the only information i foud are in Russian (quite strange for united states secret projects)...