“The President’s rapid disenchantment with the project was not lost on Richard Bissell. Fearing for the U-2 program’s survival, he met with the Land committee in early August 1956 to urge them to help make the U-2 less vulnerable to radar pulses. His goal was to reduce the aircraft’s radar cross section so that it would be less susceptible to detection. Edward Purcell had some ideas on this and suggested that he supervise a new project in the Boston area to explore them.”
The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance
The U-2 and OXCART Programs (1954-1974)
History Staff Central Intelligence Agency, 1992
March 7, 2026 — In 1960 the CIA found itself in trouble with the Lockheed U-2. A physicist—Edward Mills Purcell—helped find a solution. Half a century later the Agency confronted a different puzzle: Havana Syndrome. This time, no physicist came to the rescue. Why not? When the Sputnik 1 satellite was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, it triggered panic in Washington. The U.S. Congress responded with the National Defense Education Act (1958), funding science education, expanding fellowships, and strengthening physics and engineering programs. Today the Sputnik effect is long gone, and the golden age of physics feels like a distant dream. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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