ilonorablo Cyrus u. Vance deputy Secretary of Defense OopartMont of flefonse aaahimgton,.
Dear fir. Vance:
In accordance with your suggestion to the Director.ossibility of uolat an OXCART vehicle in speed trials to urea* thepeed recuro
study witn tn* understand in* that we
should protect th* covert aspects of th* OXCART project a* well as maintaining security of the sensitive cliaracteriatica of thl* type aircraft.
In examining what ha* to be done in order toorld speed record, we have found that tbets for certifyingecord ar* a* follows:
J Th*d trialse conducted by the *adoration Aeronautloue Internationale (FAI) (inorking through the ational Aeronautic Association (ma).
la possiblelikely probable)nationals would insist on taking part in
ral/KAA representatives must:
l- iuspect the aircraft on behalf of the Ml and report to them.
2. Certify the takeoff and landing.
a. Validate tue photo panel and/or barograpo installation used for test purposes.
DATE: '!
ilANDlA VIA CTfKaiAii CONTROL SYaTSW
age 3
4. Certify positive radar *nd optical tracking duriDg tbe test runs.
l
view of the foregoing, there appears little llksli-hood of our protecting tbe security of OXCART as an operational vehicle.
Other factors whichearing on this problem arc as follows:
s the only vehicle thatoperating at tbe high speeds required forspeed record.
1 for the speedeliminate that vehicle from our flightfor an estimated three or four weeks,represent ten to twelve lost flight testa.
nique aircraft Inits teat instrumentation and is Invaluable inreliability and repeatability supportqualifying tha operational vehiclealight and tbeapability.
we ware to enter one of thepeed run, It would be easilydistinct from and as additional to the threeat Edwards, and the whole question of itacompanions, would than arlaa.
If we are to meat our primary objective of eetabllahing tbe OXCART operational reconna1aaance capability ataXTLaRK) at the earliest data practicable and certainly by early November, we conclude that It would uot ba wis* to attempt to uae an OXCART vehicle for world apaad triala at thia time.
Faithfully youra.
ddrossoe
- CI
- DDCI
- Exec. Hog.
- AD/OSA
D/SfcT Rog
Marshall S. Carter Lieutenant General, USA Acting Director
DDCI/MSCarter/bb
Original document.
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