R. Cargill Hall 

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THE 14 APRIL 1956 OVERFLIGHT 

OF NOR1L'SK, U.S.S.R. 

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Those familiar with the history of American intelligence operations know that United 

States leaders established the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) iti 1961 to consolidate in 

one organization all of the nation's "satellite and overflight reconnaissance projects." Many do 

not know, however, that the precursor of these covert overflight projects is traced to a once 

compartmented but now declassified Sensitive Intelligence (SENSINT) Program. President 

Dwight D. Eisenhower, today viewed as the "patron saint" of overhead reconnaissance, 

authorized this most secret peacetime overflight program sometime in the fall of 1953, shortly 

after hostilities ceased in the Korean conflict. U.S. theater commanders, the Joint Chiefs, and the 

Director of Central Intelligence (DC1) could request one or more of these special missions, while 

providing ample justification for taking the risk. The overflights Were conducted by standard or 

specially modified military reconnaissance aircraft. The President's "Special Group"---consisting 

• of his National Security Advisor, the Secretaries of State and Defense, the Chairman of the Joint 

Chiefs of Staff and the Da—vetted all covert operations including SENSINT overflight 

requests. and President Eisenhower made the final decision. Eisenhower terminated the militarydirected SENSINT Program in December 1956, shortly after the CIA's high-altitude U-2 aircraft 

began overflight operations. 

Of all the SENSINT missions, one of the most audacious and dangerous took place on 14 

April 1956, when three Strategic Air Command (SAC) RB-47E photoreconnaissance bombers 

took off from Thule Air Base. Greenland, to find and photograph a Soviet metropolis that was 

known to exist but had never before been seen by westerners—the city of Noril'sk. Located east 

of the Ural Mountains and some 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Noril'sk had been founded 

as a slave labor camp, or gulag, in the mid-1930s by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin who sought to 

exploit the rich nickel deposits nearby. The nickel products moved on a short rail line from 

Noril'sk to the town of Dudinka on the Yenisey River. There, loaded on board ocean transports 

during the summer months, they were shipped north on the Yenisey to the Kara Sea and then 

west to ports like Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula. By 1956 NoriPsk had become (and remains 

today) the largest nickel producer in the world. Its Kremlin masters declared the site a strategic 

asset. off limits to all but Communist officials and those who worked in its mines and smelters. 

In fact. travel to remote, frigid Noril'sk is still restricted, a point underscored in a recent article in 

The Washington Post. 

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All three of the three-man SAC aircrews * that launched into Greenland's sub-zero Polar 

air in April 1956 knew nothing of these things. For them, Norilsk was just a name and a set of 

coordinates on a map, a site to be imaged while operating at highest altitude and maximum 

speed. Though SENSINT aircrews would not speak of these missions for the next forty-five 

years, they remembered well their flight instructions: "One pass and haul ass!"—out of "denied 

territory." The seemingly endless winter darkness that enveloped Noril'sk had just begun to lift 

with the vernal equinox a few weeks before. Now the sun marched northward each day toward 

equally unending daylight and a brief summer. SAC meteorologists forecast excellent weather in 

northern Russia on 14 April, and mission planners called for the RB-47Es to arrive over Noril'sk 

just after noon, local time, when the sun angle in the far north would cast long shadows in the 

snow, permitting precise calculation of building sizes. shapes, and heights. 

'SAC's legendary reconnaissance pilot John Lappo piloted the lead aircraft. with Dyle Channe co-pilot and 

Han Ty Wolfe navigator. Charles "Bud" Mundy commanded the second aircraft with Howard Adams co-pilot and 

Ronald Whitely navigator. Franklin Roll piloted the third RB -47E, crewmembers unknown. 

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Norilsk imaged during a SENSINT mission on 14 April 1956 using 

the 6-inch focal length vertical camera mounted in a RB-47E. 

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Flying in close formation and operating in complete radio silence, the RB-47Es 

rendezvoused with. KC-97 aerial tankers over the North. Pole and took on full loads of JP-4 jet 

fuel. * The airplanes crossed the Kara Sea and coasted into Soviet territory over the Taymyr 

Peninsula, well east of 

the Yenisey River and 

the Soviet air base that 

straddled its mouth at 

Dikson, Carefully 

avoiding an altitude at 

which contrails would 

form, their cockpitwarning devices 

indicated that Soviet 

radars had not detected 

their presence. Cruising 

at 40,000 feet and at 

nearly f ill throttle, the 

SAC aircrews found and 

photographed for the first 

time the city of Norirsk. 

then swung south on the 

Yenisey River to image the town of Igarka and turned north to capture on film Noril'sk's port of 

Dudinka. Turning northeast once more, away from the Yenisey, they exited Soviet airspace at 

their approximate point of entry. 

As the three aircraft and their precious cargo of exposed film neared the North Pole. they 

rendezvoused once more with KC-97s for another refueling—enough, mission planners had 

determined, to return them safely to Greenland. But, now running late against schedule, the RB--

47Es encountered unexpected headwinds on the return leg over the North Pole, and their time of 

arrival in Greenland came and went. Forty-five minutes passed. In the control tower at Thule Air 

The KC-97s also operated in complete radio silence. but each mounted an electronic beacon that the 

reconnaissance bomber radars could home on and follow until the tankers were sighted visually. 

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Noril'sk's smelters imaged by a 36-inch 

focal length vertical camera mounted in 

a RB-47E. A close-up of the smelters 

appears at left. Note the elongated 

shadows cast by the smelter smoke 

stacks. Based on the smoke plumes and 

distribution of soot and ash that can be 

seen in the picture on the facing page, 

the wind at the surface on 14 April 1956 

was blowing in the opposite direction to 

the local prevailing winds. 

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Base, anxious planners finally broke radio silence. Using the lead aircraft's call sign, Lloyd 

Fields, Lappo's squadron commander, asked him to report how much fuel he had remaining. The 

welcome if disquieting radioed reply was a laconic: "Enough!" A few minutes later, one after 

another, the reconnaissance bombers touched down on Thule's 10,000-foot runway, their fuel 

tanks nearly empty. their fuel reserves far below the Strategic Air Command prescribed 

minimum at landing. 

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Once on the 

ground. the aircrews 

were escorted to a secure 

room at base operations 

and debriefed. A 

specially cleared 

photographic team at 

Thule developed the 

film from the bombers' 

reconnaissance cameras. 

Afterward, the original 

negatives and their 

copies were flown 

directly to SAC 

headquarters in Omaha, 

Nebraska, and to CIA 

headquarters at 2430 E 

Street, N.W., in 

Washington. D.C. The 

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aircrews that took the images of mysterious Noril'sk did not possess the clearances to see them. 

But you will see in the accompanying photos some of the nearly 50-year-old images of that 

remote city—a city and its inhabitants fixed on film at one moment in time. Smoke from the 

enormous chimneys at the coal-fired smelters hangs motionless in the frosty air of 14 April 1956. 

Even. the headquarters building of Norilsk Nickel, built in the early 1950s at the city's center, 

can be identified. For the U.S. Intelligence Community and the nation's leaders, this and other 

SENSINT overflight missions marked an important step in revealing the industrial and military 

secrets of the Soviet Union. * 

The most complete accounting of the SENSINT Program currently available is contained in R. Cargill 

Hall and Clayton D. Laurie, eds., Early Cold War Oveljiights, Simposium Proceedings, Volume I: Memoirs. and 

VOhone Appendixes (National Reconnaissance Office, Washington. D.C. 2003). 

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6 

Headquarters 

Noril'sk Nickel 

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The headquarters building of Noril'sk Nickel, pictured above on 25 May 2003, was built in the 

early 1950s and is identified in the overflight image below. The multistoried office complex 

behind the headquarters was constructed later in the 20 thcentury. 

Taken by a 36-inch focal 

length vertical camera, the 

image on the facing page 

captured the city center of 

Noril'sk and its electric 

power plant. A portion of the 

city at top left has yet to be 

finished. The electric plant's 

cooling pipes can be seen 

extending into the frozen 

lake at left center, from 

which steam emerges along 

the line discharging heated 

water. The inset enlargement 

on this page, shows the city 

center in greater detail. The 

headquarters of Norilsk 

Nickel can be identified by 

its shadow. 

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RB-47E Inboard Profile 

Aerial Refueling of RB-47 reconnaissance bombers by KC-97 tankers made possible deep 

penetration overflights of the Soviet Union. 

Office of the Historian 

National Reconnaissance Office 

August 2003 

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