Martin A. “Marty” Knutson

Following service in the Korea conflict and participation in F-84 developmental test and operational missions, Knutson joined the CIA’s Air Division flying the Agency’s highly classified U-2 planes at Area 51. Knutson deployed from Area 51 with the first CIA U-2 detachment where he flew the 3rd Soviet overflight – Mission 2020 on 9th July 1956 and the 20th Soviet overflight Mission 4125 codenamed Operation Touchdown, a 9-hour, 10-minute mission from Peshawar in northern Pakistan. North over Saryshagan test range and the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site followed by the nearby Dolon airfield. Then over the Urals to Sverdlovsk and Tyuratam before landing at Zahedan in Iran.

Retiring as a USAF colonel, Knutson served NASA as the manager of the Airborne Instrumentation Research Project, Chief of the Airborne Missions and Applications Division, the Director of Flight Operations for NASA’s Ames Research Center and as the Site Manager of the Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility in California.

For his role in the highly classified CIA U-2 project at Area 51 and leading role in the NASA activities on the NASA High Range in Nevada, Martin A. Knutson has earned his 2019 enshrinement into the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame.