[0387-2222] PROJECT AQUILINE – Companion Dossier (PDF)

Description

In the wake of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, American intelligence faced a critical blind spot: Soviet microwave relay towers carrying top-level Warsaw Pact communications in narrow, line-of-sight beams. To penetrate these signals, the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology bypassed satellites and high-altitude spy planes to initiate Project AQUILINE—a covert operation to construct an undetectable avian drone powered by an isotopic Plutonium-238 core. Within this comprehensive Companion Dossier, explore the declassified forensic records chronicling the bizarre convergence of taxidermy, nuclear physics, and aerospace engineering. From front-company workshops in suburban Virginia to secure testing facilities at Andrews Air Force Base and Area 51, these documents trace how engineer Gordon Eckley and Smithsonian taxidermist Oskar Haag built a cybernetic prototype out of genuine feathers, titanium bones, and radioactive power cells. Complete with archival timelines, crash forensics, and detailed breakdowns of Artifact 17, this dossier offers an unsparing investigative look into an ambitious $60 million espionage experiment that pushed Cold War technology beyond physical limits.