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The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed " Dragon Lady ", is an American single-engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated from the 1950s by the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day and night, high-altitude (70,000 feet, 21,300 meters), all-weather intelligence gathering. [1]
U-2, single-seat, high-altitude jet flown by the United States for intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Perhaps the most famous spy plane ever built, the U-2, also known as the Dragon Lady, has been in service since 1956.
Nov 9, 2009 · The U‑2 Spy Incident was an international diplomatic crisis that erupted in May 1960 when the USSR shot down an American U‑2 spy plane and imprisoned its pilot.
Nov 4, 2023 · The Lockheed U-2, also known as the Dragon Lady, is a unique reconnaissance plane that has been in service since 1956. The U-2 was developed as a response to the need for better aerial reconnaissance capabilities to gather intelligence on the Soviet Union.
Aug 14, 2013 · The U-2 was one of the Cold War’s most infamous aircraft, a plane designed to fly over unfriendly territory too high for enemy fighters or missiles, and take pictures of unparalleled detail -...
Aug 31, 2024 · On May 5, 1960, the Soviet premier Nikita S. Khrushchev told the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. that an American spy plane had been shot down on May 1 over Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), referring to the flight as an “aggressive act” by the United States.
It was only a matter of time before advancing Russian anti-aircraft technology caught up with the spy plane. On May 1, 1960, a Soviet surface-to-air missile struck near a U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers, while on a reconnaissance mission over Russia.
Built by the famous ‘Skunk Works" by Lockheed under the direction of Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, the U-2 was truly one of the most successful intelligence- gathering aircraft ever produced. The U-2 on display at NASM flew the first operational mission over the USSR on 4 July 1956, piloted by Hervey Stockman.
Aug 9, 2023 · The U-2 “Dragon Lady” spy plane will officially retire in 2026, 69 years after it first flew. The plane was originally designed to overfly the Soviet Union, gathering vital information on the...
The first U-2 flights over the Soviet Union strongly sugested that there was no massive buildup of Soviet long-range bombers. The U-2 Spyplane: Toward the Unknown also addresses the question of whether the Soviets were mass-producing their long-range Bison bomber, a bone of contention between the Air Force and the CIA.
