1960 U-2 incident
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On 1 May 1960, a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while conducting photographic aerial reconnaissance deep inside Soviet territory. Flown by American pilot Francis Gary Powers, the aircraft had taken off from Peshawar, Pakistan, and crashed near Sverdlovsk, after being hit by a surface-to-air missile. Powers parachuted to the ground and was captured.
A Lockheed U-2 similar to the one involved in the incident
Francis Gary Powers, pilot of the plane
U-2 "GRAND SLAM" flight plan on 1 May 1960, from CIA publication The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 And Oxcart Programs, 1954–1974, declassified 25 June 2013
The combat crew, distinguished by the destruction of U-2 on May 1, 1960
Lockheed U-2
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The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is an American single-engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated from the 1950s by the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day and night, high-altitude, all-weather intelligence gathering.
Lockheed U-2
Original U-2A at USAF Museum
Model "B" U-2 camera on display at the National Air and Space Museum
U-2 at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford