Lockheed U-2

A U-2

The U-2 (nicknamed the Dragon Lady) is an espionage fixed-wing aircraft made by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). It first flew in 1955 and was introduced in 1957. It flies a lot like a glider.^[1] It was made during the Cold War, because the United States needed a way to look at the Soviet military from high up. Taiwan also used it to spy on China.

The United States wanted to keep the purpose of the U-2 secret,^[2] but on May 1, 1960, Francis Gary Powers was shot down in his U-2 by a Soviet SAM SA-2 missile. In 1962, Powers was released and traded for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.^[3] After this, the SR-71 Blackbird started spying on the Soviet Union, which was faster and harder to see on radar.

The U-2 is still in service even though the design is over 50 years old.

U-2 details (U-2 model)

The U-2S is 62.99 feet (19.20 meters) long, 104.99 feet (32 meters wide), and is 15.75 feet (4.80 meters) tall. It weighs 14,991 pounds (6,800 kilograms) empty, but when full, it weighs 41,006 pounds (18,600 kilograms). It is powered by one General Electric F118-101 engine with 17,000 pounds (7711.2 kilograms) of thrust. It can go 475 miles per hour (764 kilometers per hour), fly 7,000 miles (11,265 kilometers) without refueling, and can fly upwards of 70,000 feet (21,336 meters), possibly as high as 84,974 feet (25,900 meters).^[4]

U-2 Incident of 1960

The Soviet military shot down a U-2 spy plane that was doing aerial reconnaissance over the Soviet Union. They shot it down with a surface-to-air ballistic missile. The pilot survived and was captured and sentenced to 10 years of hard labour in a Soviet gulag for espionage.

Lockheed U-2 Media

Original U-2A at USAF Museum
Model "B" U-2 camera on display at the National Air and Space Museum
U-2 at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford
U-2 with range of possible payloads
U-2 testing aboard USS America (CV-66)
A pilot in a U-2 cockpit. The pressure suit worn by the pilot is similar to that used in the Lockheed SR-71.
U-2 "GRAND SLAM" flight plan on 1 May 1960, from CIA publication 'The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 And Oxcart Programs, 1954–1974', declassified 25 June 2013.
Kelly Johnson and Gary Powers in front of a U-2
External view from cockpit of U-2 near maximum service ceiling
One of NASA's ER-2s in flight over the California desert. A NASA ER-2 set the world altitude record for its weight class.