CIA Project OXCART: Area 51

Selecting a place called Area 51 in Nevada and beneath a shroud of secrecy, the Central Intelligence Agency first flew the U-2, the Angel knowing at the time that the Russians would most likely shoot it down within 18 months. To replace the U-2, the CIA designed America's first stealth plane, using the slide rule to produce what today remains the highest flying and fastest manned, air-breathing aircraft ever flown, the A-12 Archangel. The agency named it the Oxcart, the first of a family of...