In 1939 Sidney Cotton and Flying Officer Maurice Longbottom of the RAF suggested that airborne reconnaissance may be a task better suited to fast, small aircraft which would use their speed and high service ceiling to avoid detection and interception.
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Later offensives were also made against potential launch sites at Wizernes and 96 other launch sites in northern France.
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Sidney Cotton's aerial photographs were far ahead of their time.
;TALENT KEYHOLE (TK): TK covers space-based IMINT (Imagery intelligence), SIGINT (Signals intelligence), and MASINT (Measurement and signature intelligence) collection platforms; related processing and analysis techniques; and research, design, and operation of these platforms (but see Reserve below).
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The aircraft were tasked with flying deep level reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union to gather electronic and photographic intelligence.