Posted on 05/01/2026 8:17:47 PM PDT by Red Badger
On May 1, 1960, U.S. pilot* Francis Gary Powers was allegedly shot down while flying an Air Force Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance airplane, affectionately known as the “Dragon Lady.” He was 1,200 miles into Soviet Russia airspace, near Sverdlovsk, about 850 miles east of Moscow. A mystery persists about whether or not the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile, or if it was forced down by mechanical problems. Other suppositions exist. The incident sparked a verbal battle between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S., and led to the collapse of the Paris Summit at the height of the Cold War. The conference was intended to forge agreements that would ease hostilities and suspicions of military buildup and surprise attacks by any world power on any other.
Background
Following World War II, a power struggle evolved between the United States and the Soviet Union. The U.S.S.R. wanted to expand its communist doctrine into “neutral” countries; the U.S. expended a great deal of time, money, and energy to counter the threat. A buildup of nuclear weapons had begun. Mistrust was rife. The U.S. wanted to monitor the buildup, but the Soviets would have none of that. In 1955, U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower offered an “open skies” policy, allowing mutual territorial surveillance, to Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The offer was rebuffed. What resulted was the creation of the U-2 fly-over program, with the first flight occurring in June 1956. The CIA was to be in control so that no security breaches would occur. Ironically, Powers’ assignment was a last-minute throw-in mission before the flights were to be suspended. Had he not flown and been downed, the Cold War may have ended much sooner.
The mission
The mission was the 28th flight of Powers’ U-2 experience. He was to overfly and photograph two major missile test sites in the Soviet Union, en route to Bodo, Norway; one was at Sverdlovsk, the other, at Plesetsk. A heavy concentration of antiaircraft missile batteries guarded both sites. The U-2's design allowed the aircraft to perform various missions, including mapping studies, atmospheric sampling, and the collection of crop and land management photographic data. One source says that Powers’ U-2, while on his fateful photo run at 67,000 feet (about 12.5 miles), was the target of a number of SA-2 surface-to-air missiles at his aircraft. Although the SA-2s could not gain the same altitude as the U-2, the aircraft broke up from the shock waves caused by the exploding missiles. Powers managed to parachute to safety, but was arrested upon landing.
Aftermath
Though convicted of espionage by the U.S.S.R.'s Military Division of the Supreme Court and sentenced to 10 years' confinement, Powers was held as a prisoner for only 21 months until the U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to exchange him for Soviet spy Colonel Rudolph Ivanovich Abel. On February 10, 1962, the two men walked across the Glienicke Bridge between Berlin and Potsdam, then passed each other silently with a slight nod of their heads. After the men were returned to their respective territories, they were put through a series of debriefings, after which it was concluded that no valuable information was divulged.
AVIATION PING!...............
“Allegedly” shot down 🙄
Technically the plane was not hit directly.
It disintegrated from the shockwave of a missile detonating close by...............
That’s “shot down”. If the explosion causes structural damage that makes the plane come apart....
The Ben Rich book about the Skunk Works has some info on the shootdown.
IIRC, the U-2 had a rudimentary radar jammer that might have been damaged or failed and was beaconeing.
The Russian salvo’d several missiles, nailing Powers and one of the Soviet interceptors sent up.
Oooops.
Yes, Powers later said he saw a red and white parachute on his way down, obviously the Russian pilot...
They launched a salvo of missiles hoping that that would happen. They also shot down one of their own planes. Pilot bailed at the same time Powers did..........
I use to listen to Francis Gary Powers on the radio. He was on Kgil doing traffic reports .I had no idea of his previous history until he died in a helicopter accident.
Francis Gary Powers Jr. is a neighbor of mine.
And somehow attached is the name of a certain USMC ground radar operator who defects to Russia in this timeframe.
That man comes back to the USA, is noted passing out handbills of communist propaganda in New Orleans.
Later, he made Dallas very famous.
I recall reading what might have been a declassified document that the reason he was in missile was due to the then-top-secret vulnerability of the U2’s turbofan engine: Flameout at high altitudes.
I can’t find what I was looking for, but this article elaborates on the problem.
My understanding is that it was some of both.
An engine flameout/problem of some sort resulted in loss of altitude as Powers tried to restart the engine.
That loss of altitude brought the U2 into missile range.
What a step down. (To go from flying high-altitude missions over Russia to reporting traffic in LA.)
Supposedly, the reason for the helo crash was that a faulty fuel gauge had been repaired but he was not informed. He had been making a mental adjustment for what he thought was an incorrect reading but which was actually the correct reading.
Even a torpedo isn't actually striking a ship, although nobody denies the torpedo sank the ship.
Bridge of Spies, about the prisoner exchange, is an excellent movie.
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