Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Secret CIA overflights of China using converted Neptunes
The little-known RB-69A was used by the CIA and Republic of China Air Force to mount covert overflights across the mainland of communist China. Dr Kevin Wright explores the career of the USAF type that never was…
Secrets of the A-12: the SR-71 Blackbird's predecessor
For close on eight years, from selection to the programme’s termination, Ken Collins lived and breathed the CIA’s Project ‘Oxcart’ — testing the Mach 3-plus Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft from Area 51 and operating it over North Vietnam on the ‘Black Shield’ deployment, all in conditions of the utmost secrecy
The birth of stealth: Lockheed and the CIA
Paul Crickmore explains early US efforts to hide aircraft from radar following the shooting down of Gary Powers’ U-2.