CIA history ties UFO reports to the U-2
In 1997 Gerald Haines, historian of the National Reconnaissance Office, wrote in the CIA journal 'Studies in Intelligence' that U-2 and later OXCART flights from the Nevada test site accounted for many UFO reports of the late 1950s and 1960s, and that the Air Force had kept this from the public.
1997 CE · 37.23, -115.81 · status: official
The account
A fuller CIA history, released in 2013 to the National Security Archive, acknowledged Area 51 by name for the first time. Haines says Blue Book checked with the Agency's U-2 Project Staff and attributed many sightings to the flights without revealing their cause. He adds that Air Force 'unexplained' rates fell to 5.9% in 1955 and 4% in 1956. The 'over half' estimate comes from later CIA officials who had worked on the U-2 and OXCART. A CIA paper on the small reconnaissance drone AQUILINE (c. 1968) names Area 51 as its intended test site.
The sceptical view
Haines's claim that over half of the period's reports were spy planes has been questioned by researchers, who note many sightings were at low altitude or far from U-2 routes.
Connections in the atlas
- Project AQUILINE, the CIA's small spy drone
- Project Moon Dust
- The CIA's 1952 flying-saucer study (Chadwell memos)
- Area 51 (Groom Lake)