Even today, the Lockheed U-2 is considered to be one of the most technologically advanced aircraft ever built. Nicknamed "Dragon Lady,” this American single-engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft was operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Its development in 1954 was shrouded in great secrecy since its primary role was strategic reconnaissance. Designed to fly for long periods at very high altitudes, it is essentially a powered glider with a sail-plane-like wing and lightweight structure.
The aircraft was designed and used for high-altitude communications and electronic intelligence and was capable of both day or night all-weather surveillance. The U-2 has been configured with an array of state-of-the-art cameras, electronic intelligence equipment and radar-homing and warning systems, depending upon its mission. Early flights over the Soviet Union in the late 1950s provided the president and other US decision makers with key intelligence on Soviet military capabilities.
Carmine Vito, one of the first six pilots trained to fly the high altitude reconnaissance craft for the CIA, is the only U-2 pilot to fly directly over Moscow. As explained by Eric Hehs in his article titled Carmine Vito: U-2 Pilot for Code One Magazine, his flight was the third operational flight over potentially hostile territory, or what the pilots called ‘hot’ flights. Carl Overstreet flew the first such flight of the U-2 on June 20, 1956. The mission overflew Poland and then East Germany. Then Hervy Stockman flew over Soviet territory on July 4, going as far north as Leningrad to photograph naval shipyards and then west to the Baltic States to cover jet bomber bases. The fourth, fifth and sixth missions were flown by Marty Knulson, Glen Dunaway and Jake Kraft. All were successful. The Russians launched planes to intercept Overstreet on the first flight, but they couldn’t reach him. Stockman’s flight was also detected by Soviet radar. Several MiG fighters scrambled to intercept him, too. As with previous flights, the intercepts failed. Soviet fighters couldn’t approach the altitudes needed to shoot down the lofty U-2.
Carmine Vito’s selection for the Moscow mission was more a function of circumstance than of design when the orders came to fly. The U-2 detachment at Wiesbaden, Germany, was typically given an alert notice from headquarters 12 hours before takeoff. The notice usually came before five in the afternoon. During those 12 hours, ground crew and pilots prepared for the flight. Lockheed, Pratt & Whitney, and Kodak crews conducted ground checks of the aircraft, engine, and cameras. Pilots suited up in their specialized partial pressure suits and breathed pure oxygen to ward off the effects of rapid decompression known as the bends. To purge nitrogen from their blood, U-2 pilots had to be “on the hose” for at least two hours before they were given the green lights for takeoff. “Without a go signal from headquarters, everyone headed for the club after five that evening,” explained Vito. “On that particular weekend, the 4th of July, most everyone was celebrating. When the late go came down from headquarters, I was the only one who had had only one drink. So, even though our order of mission flights had been predetermined by drawing straws, I was selected for the mission.”
After many years of describing this particular U-2 mission, Vito couldn’t be certain if he was telling the story from actual memories or telling it from memories of previous descriptions. Whichever the case, he remembers the firework display keeping him awake the night before the mission and the obligatory steak and eggs meal early the following morning. “They always fed us steak and eggs before a flight,” he recollected. “I didn’t want steak and eggs at two in the morning, but they were on the checklist. So, I had to eat.” His route of flight took him over Krakow, Poland, and then to Brest and Baranovici in the Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. He remained on this east-northeasterly route, overflying Minsk in Belarus on his way to the Soviet capital.
Vito’s mission took him directly over Moscow and its extensive network of newly built air defenses, which ringed the city in three concentric circles at twenty, forty, and sixty miles from the city center. A smog-filled sky hid the city below. “My bubble burst,” Vito recalls. “I thought, Gee, I came all this way for nothing. But, the filters on my camera cut right through the haze. A year or so later I learned that the resulting film picked up some remarkable detail.” According to a CIA history of the U-2, Vito’s mission came back with images of the Fili airframe plant where the Soviets were building their first jet bomber (known as the Bison to the West): a bomber arsenal in Ramenskoye; a rocket engine plant in Khimki; and a missile plant in Kaliningrad. From just east of Moscow, he turned north to the Baltic Coast and then back south toward the aircraft’s home in then West Germany. He accumulated some 450 hours on 65 flights before leaving U-2 headquarters at the CIA in August of 1960.
While Carmine Vito flew the U-2 on many occasions without incident, another American pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was not so lucky. His U-2 spy plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile on May 1, 1960 while he was flying a reconnaissance mission deep within Soviet airspace. This was a huge embarrassment to the US, which had tried to conceal its surveillance efforts from the USSR. It triggered what became known as "The U-2 Incident." The fallout over the incident resulted in the cancellation of the Paris Summit scheduled to discuss the ongoing situation in divided Germany, the possibility of an arms control or test ban treaty, and the relaxation of tensions between the USSR and the United States. Powers was convicted of spying and sentenced to three years in prison and seven more of hard labor, but was released in a prisoner exchange in February of 1962.
U-2s have since taken part in post-Cold War conflicts in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and supported several multinational NATO operations. The aircraft has also been used for electronic sensor study, satellite calibration, scientific research, and communications purposes. The U-2 is one of a handful of aircraft types to have served the USAF for over 50 years, along with the Boeing B-52 and KC-135, as well as the Lockheed C-130 Hercules and C-5 Galaxy. The newest U-2 models (TR-1, U-2R, U-2S) entered into service in the 1980s, and the latest model, the U-2S, had a technical upgrade in 2012. The US Air Force will fleet-divest its remaining 31 U-2 aircraft starting October 1, 2026. The increasing vulnerability of the aging U-2 to air defenses operated by even lower-tier potential adversaries, let alone near-peer competitors like China and Russia, has long been an argument in favor of retiring the jets. While no replacement for the iconic Dragon Lady has officially been named, one likely candidate is the classified Northrop Grumman RQ-180 stealth drone, the latest aircraft under development capable of penetrating airspace guarded by advanced air defense systems.
In the meantime, the US is confident that the U-2S is an agile and reliable high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft flying 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to ensure global security with unparalleled performance.
Until next time…travel safe.
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