CIA Museum Developments Gadgets & Devices

U-2 Pressure Suit

You can't have high altitude aircraft without high pressure resistant suits. This S-1010 suit was designed for use with the U-2 aircraft. It provided protection from cockpit de-pressurisation and it enabled the wearer to withstand the extreme temperatures both hot and cold that would kill a person who was not wearing it. The suit was also water submersible for wet landings after ejection.

A-12 Full Pressure Suit

The CIA were very much at the forefront of engineering and development of equipment and devices for military and covert operations throughout the Cold War period. This suit was an updated version of the U-2. The suits were made at a cost of approximately $30,000 each in the 1960s.

A-12 Flight Helmet

It was far too difficult and cost prohibitive to incorporate the comfort and safety of a pilot in the A-12, so the designers Lockheed switched attention to the suits instead. The Dave Clark Company and the Firewel Corporation were sub-contracted to design the highly impressive helmets. The aluminium outer skin and breathing apparatus enabled the wearer to withstand temperatures of 400 degrees, the effects of de-pressurisation and the extreme cold temperatures is a high altitude ejection is required.

Dynazoom

Stereoscopy enables the viewer to view two dimensional images in pairs. This creates an illusion of three dimensional depth. The Dynazoom was designed to enable the viewer to look at images from reconnaissance missions and magnify 300x via two microscopic viewers. This proved invaluable for the extraction of maximum intelligence and detail from a pair of stereo images.

X-Ray Detector Panel 

This is a glass panel which is a component of a detector used in X-ray imaging devices. Included on the panel are 1100 900 pixels. Each includes a field-effect-transistor switch and a light-detecting diode. The device was originally intended for digital mammography use, but the glass panel proved to have far more capacity for usefulness than the technology it replaced.

Lithium Iodine Battery

The research and development of Lithium Iodine Batteries by the CIA engineers to improve surveillance equipment  in the 1960s has proven invaluable in many subsequent applications. The  technology was declassified in the 1970s.
Since then, the design has been incorporated in anything from heart pacemakers to mobile telephones.