By Cpt. Greg Malone
Page Design by Cpt. R. Jarvis

High in the stratosphere and feeling restricted by his space suit, the lone pilot notices a blip on his planes radar.  It's moving fast and he has already realized he's the target.  His U-2, restricted in it's ability to maneuver quickly, lumbers halfway between space and earth.  Hundreds of miles from safety, the pilot awaits the impact.  Suddenly his aircraft shakes violently and starts to tumble toward the planet shrouded with patterns of clouds.  The year is 1960, a United States Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane is shot down for the first time.  The "spy plane" was brought down over Russia, by a surface-to-air missile and it's pilot is subsequently captured by the communists.  The pilot is Capt. Gary Powers.  The action by the Russians forces the United States to acknowledge the existence of a "Top Secret" U.S. military program which had begun in the mid 1950s.    The world soon knows about one of the most secret flying machines of all times, the U-2, the Dragon Lady.

LTC John Bowen, USAFR, the featured guest speaker at the Dallas Composite Squadron's weekly meeting, spoke about what it was like to pilot one of the most famous "SPY" planes in the world.  LTC Bowen, who flew this aircraft during the 1980s,  gave a history of the aircraft and a first-hand perspective of the challenges a pilot faced while flying the "Dragon Lady." 

When it became vital for the West to know the extent of the military developments in the Soviet Union, and the deployment of that

country's armed forces, the United States initiated a major program of aerial reconnaissance.  The US initially used the Convair B-36 and Boeing B-47, however in time, the MiG-15 began to intercept these aircraft. As a result, President Eisenhower decided, in December 1954, to produce a specialized spy aircraft and approached  several defense contractors to come up with a suitable aircraft for high altitude reconnaissance missions.  The contract was n out of the reach of present day defenses.  As you would expect, to the public it was kept Top-Secret. 

The result was the Lockheed U-2.  The U-2, under the direction of Kelly Johnson, was a product of Lockheed's secret  "Skunk Works" projects. The U stood for "Utility," one of the many steps taken to disguise the real purpose of the aircraft at the time.  The aircraft was originally designed from a modified F-104, but was later completely redesigned.  The contract originally called for 50 aircraft, however, Kelly Johnson and his team at Lockheed built 55 aircraft  and had money left over.  Try to imagine that happening today.  I don't think so.

The U-2 is loaded with data-gathering equipment to include a long-focus camera, which can scan through seven apertures and can record on 4000 pairs of photographs an area 125 miles wide by 2,200 miles long.  It is also equipped with a receiver which can monitor radio and radar transmissions from the ground.  The U-2 has flown countless missions which have proven to be vitally important to US intelligence, not only over the Soviet Union, but also over China, North Vietnam and Cuba.

In April 1960, a set  photographs taken over the Soviet Union revealed what appeared to be the first Russian ICBM installation.  Plans were made for another mission to be flown.  During this flight however, the U-2, piloted by Capt. Gary Powers, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.  Even after all of the international attention this incident received, the U-2 continued its work.  In October 1962, a U-2 flight over Cuba revealed the Soviet Union's attempts to install ballistic missiles in Cuba and provided the foundation  for the pressures President Kennedy used which eventually resulted the missiles being removed from Cuba.