The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974

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312
6eeret NOFOAN
Chapter 6
Initial storage arrangements for
A-12s at Palmdale
POSSIBLE SUCCESSORS TO lrHE OXCART
The OXCART was the last high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft pro­
duced for the CIA. although the Office of Special Activities did
briefly consider several possible successors to the OXCART during
the mid- I960s. The first of these. known as Project ISINGLASS. was
prepared by General Dynamics to utilize technology developed for its
Convair Division's earlier FISH proposal and its new F-I I I fighter in
order to create an aircraft capable of Mach ~-5 at I 00,000 feet.
General Dynamics completed its feasibility study in the fall of 1964,
and OSA took no further action because the proposed aircraft would
still be vulnerable to existing Soviet ,countermeasures. In l 965 a more
ambitious design from McDonnell Aircraft came under consideration
as Project RHEINBERRY (although some of the work seems to have
come under the ISINGLASS designation as well). This proposal fea­
tured a rocket-powered aircraft that would be launched from a B-52
mother ship and ultimately reach spe:eds as high as Mach 20 and alti­
tudes of up to 200,000 feet. Because building this aircraft would have
involved tremendous technical chall.enges and correspondingly high
costs, the Agency was not willing to embark on such a program at a
time when the main emphasis in overhead reconnaissance had shifted
from aircraft to satellites. As a resuilt. when the OXCART program
ended in the summer of 1968, no mcire advanced successor was wait­
ing in the wings-only the veteran U-2.
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