U‐2 Spy Planes
U‐2 Spy Planes.To avert a surprise nuclear attack, some American intelligence analysts immediately after World War II believed that “pre‐hostilities reconnaissance” over potential enemy territory would be prudent. But since the Soviet Union, the only nation capable of threatening the United States, had few long‐range bomber aircraft and no nuclear weapons, American reconnaissance aircraft were ordered to respect Soviet air space.
The deepening Cold War and Moscow's growing inventory of nuclear weapons changed attitudes in the early 1950s. In 1954, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation began work on an aircraft that could fly above Soviet air defenses. Modifying an F‐104 interceptor fuselage and giving it a wingspan of almost 100 feet, Lockheed first tested the U‐2 aircraft in August 1955. Essentially a powered glider, the U‐2 could climb over 70,000 feet...
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