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Posted on 08/18/2025 12:25:29 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
Francis Gary Powers was on a CIA spying mission over Soviet Russia when his U-2 plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile. "I looked up, looked out, and just everything was orange, everywhere," Powers recalled. "I don't know whether it was the reflection in the canopy itself or just the whole sky. And I can remember saying to myself, 'By God, I've had it now.'"
In fact, Powers managed to parachute to safety, but his troubles were far from over. Having been arrested and interrogated by the KGB, he was put on trial in Moscow, where his family could only watch helplessly.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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Years later Powers became a helicopter pilot for a local news station in LA...Then he ran out of fuel, crashed and died. My pop knew Powers.....
Many years ago, Lee Majors played Powers in a made for TV drama. Quite compelling, as I recall.
wow. This guy had hard luck in his flying. Hope he had Jesus and is in Heaven.
Would you call that irony?
Boy I remember this...it was nuts...I was 16.
AVIATION Ping!....................
Just finished reading the U-2 chapter in “Skunk Works” by Ben Rich.
Turned out a Russian fighter pilot was also hit and Powers saw his chute.
Almost sounded like a lucky missile hit. Used to think I read that Powers had to descend a bit for some reason making him vulnerable.
They had been trying soome early radar spoofing stuff and one might have acted like a beacon for the missile.
His son started, and I believe still runs, the Spy Museum in D.C.
Anyone who could fly a U2 is one hell of a good pilot. And flying it over the Soviet Union… balls of iron.
You can see the tail-end of the U2:
Another nearby museum is the "Air Force Flight Test Museum – Century Circle" at Edwards Air Force Base.
There's a small museum at the "Mojave Air & Space Port" with some great exhibits. Burt Rutan used this as his main development base.
At the altitude the U-2 was flown, a small turn would cause a 500 feet loss or more.
The air is very thin. Those flights were extremely dangerous.
Powers and all the other U-2 pilots had great courage!
Yeah, read up on the “coffin corner” those guys had to fly in.
All with no autopilot to help them, sheesh.
We regularly saw the U-2 and the “me too” flying out of Davis Monthan when my dad was training for Vietnam in the F-4.
I use to listen to his traffic reports on the radio. It was not until he died that I learned the story behind his life.
I was in the army in Germany in 1983 and was sent on a tour to Berlin. We also spent a day in East Berlin. One of sights we saw was the bridge where Powers was exchanged.
The aircraft he was flying had a history of flaming out. It was thought that he had descended to try to restart the engine but in his book “Operation Overflight” he stated that he was flying at proper altitude when he was hit.
“he stated that he was flying at proper altitude when he was hit.”
Pretty much what Ben Rich wrote.
They did suspect that an experimental jammer in the tail might have been beaconing rather than jamming.
The SA-2 could not maneuver at that altitude, so it was a straight in shot.
Pilots could take no evasive action and had no radar warning geat to warn them of a launch.
Big brass ones to fly over the center of Russia like that
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