The “Dragon Lady” was used since July 4, 1956 by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), while already in 1959 there were suspicions – but no proof – in the USA that the USSR could eventually shoot down such an aircraft.
The strange figure of one black aircraft with huge wings and a thick black tube-like fuselage “glides” through Earth’s upper atmosphere and about 70,000 feet above vast expanses of the Soviet Union. The pilot of this U-2, who started operating on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) four years ago on missions, through the helmet of his special suit, suddenly sees various warning lights light up like a Christmas tree in his cockpit. The answer comes in what he sees rising from below, black columns of smoke that suggest it launching surface-to-air missiles to where it flies. Seconds later the U-2 is hit by an S-75 Dvina (SA-2 Guideline) missile and the pilot of the spy plane ejects for safety.
We are on May 1, 1960 and the historical fact is that one American U-2 spy pilot is shot down over Soviet territory. In the “heart” of the Cold War, this particular “Dragon Lady” (the U-2’s nickname) with Powers at the controls had taken off from Peshawar, Pakistan with a final destination of a base in Norway after a specially designed 2,900 mile course through the soviet airspace. The crash occurred near Sverdlovsk Oblast in the Ural Mountains, present-day Yekaterinburg.
The immediate result of the overthrow of Francis Gary Powers was the cancellation of the Paris Summit, which was scheduled to discuss the situation in divided Germany, the possibility of an agreement on arms control or a test freeze, and the possibility of easing tensions between the USSR and USA. After five years of diplomatic work on these issues, the event brings a “freeze”.
An aircraft born of the nuclear race
The U-2s were products of necessity. By 1955 officials in Moscow and Washington had an ever-increasing concern about nuclear capabilities in the US and USSR respectively. A threat that both superpowers wanted to “read” better and so at a Summit in Geneva in 1955, American President Dwight Eisenhower had proposed the “open skies” plan, based on which each of the two countries would have the permission to fly over each other to perform aerial inspections of related facilities. Nikita Khrushchev denied this, while the USSR at the time claimed to have developed numerous long-range ballistic missiles (ICBMs) for its arsenal. This led to the development of the U-2 spy plane, a unique reconnaissance tool with a cruising altitude of 70,000 feet, a height believed to make it undetectable from the ground and, with existing (then) Soviet weapons, impossible to shoot down.
The “Dragon Lady” was used from July 4, 1956 by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), while already in 1959 there were suspicions – but no evidence – in the USA that the USSR could eventually shoot down such an aircraft. After it was shot down, Powers was found on the ground and captured by the KGB, while parts of the aircraft were recovered and placed on public display in Moscow as proof of an American defeat.
On May 7 of the same year, Khrushchev revealed that Powers was alive and unharmed, on May 11, Eisenhower admitted the existence of the program and the flight of the American pilot, a flight that, according to the US, was the result of the non-agreement on carrying out flights that would be allowed by the “open skies” agreement.
The political clashes between Eisenhower and Khrushchev continued in the following days, the Paris Summit did not take place and Powers was convicted of espionage and sentenced to three years in prison and five in the works. In February 1962, he and a student in custody were nevertheless exchanged for a Soviet spy, a Soviet intelligence officer named Rudolf Abel. Although satellites soon brought other solutions to the problem of remote sensing during this period, the U-2 program continued. Not only did it continue, but even today a “Dragon Lady”, in 2022 may be flying somewhere on the planet for the US Air Force, but not for the CIA.
A unique public appearance
“This is one of the few aircraft built in the batch back in 1968. There are not many U-2S of this origin among the total of less than 30 such planes in normal service today». American Air Force engineer with APG specialty – from Airframe Powerplant General – Regan Jordan presents to APE-MPE a “Dragon Lady” that has gathered hundreds of aviation enthusiasts around her.
The presence of a U-2S at RIAT 2022 has been highly advertised in recent days since it is extremely rare to see such a historic and exotic “bird” from half a meter.
“As Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) engineers, we are certified to perform maintenance and modification work on the aircraft. A&P engineers can service most parts of the aircraft from brakes and air conditioning to engines,” adds Regan Jordan, turning to look at the “Lady of Dragons” with her massive wings to comment on the layers of history she hides. “You know, although this is one of the few built back in ’68, it is of course a fully modernized airplane, when everything was converted to the “S” model with new engines and many modifications a few years ago. It is one of only four aircraft built in the original order of 12 for the US Air Force in 1967-68“, explains the experienced US Air Force engineer.
The age of the aircraft for the “Lady of Dragons” technician is an issue, but in any case he is proud to have the honor of passing this stage in his career today. “It can have various challenges and give us many difficulties, since, for example, to do work on the engine you have to “disassemble” the entire aircraft, which is not even possible on the A-10 I worked on before, but days like her they reward us. The public talking to us ecstatically about the U-2 and asking about every detail is truly a reward that this historic aircraft generously gives”, confesses Regan Jordan, who a few 24 hours later will again have to maintain a “Dragon Lady” so that she is ready for her next mission high in the skies.
Powers may have died in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles County, California, at the age of just 47, but the 54-year-old “Lady of the Dragons,” with a projected service that could extend as far as 2050, may today, in 2022, to “tear” the thin atmosphere at 70,000 feet, in unknown to many parts of our planet, performing yet another mission.
RES-EMP
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