WINDHAM: A spy plane for the Cold War and beyond

When one visits the Museum of Aviation and walks into the Century of Flight building, it is striking to see the SR-71, the HH-53 and the RQ-4 Global Hawk with a wingspan of 116 feet. As impressive as these aircraft are, sitting among them is a plane that perhaps is not as impressive visually, but certainly has a history that is just as interesting. That aircraft is the museum's U-2C.

The U-2 played a big part in the history of the Cold War as it was to be a spy plane for the U.S. We needed a plane that could fly above the radar technology of the Russians and take photographs of ballistic missile sites and any military buildup that may have occurred after World War II. This aircraft could do just that at 13.25 miles. The pilot of this plane would have to wear a pressurized suit.

In the early 1950s, the Air Force saw the need for a new reconnaissance aircraft that could fly at 70,000 feet and have a larger range of flight. After attempts by several aircraft companies, it was Lockheed that won out with a design that met the specifications needed for spying on the enemy. Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was the designer out of Lockheed Skunk Works. The first flight was in 1955.

The U-2, also called "Dragon Lady," was used first by the Central Intelligence Agency and then by the Air Force. Later the National Aeronautics and Space Administration also used the aircraft for satellite support, stratospheric sampling of things such as pollution, disaster assessment, mapping water resources, collecting information on the oceans, as well as other types of data collecting.

There were two incidents during the Cold War where U-2s were shot down and had the world on edge. The first was in 1960 when U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was flying over the Soviet Union and was spotted on Russian radar. The Russians had spotted our planes before but did not have the technology to reach the altitude of our planes.

Little did we know that the Soviet Union had developed a surface-to-air missile, the SA-2, that could now reach their high altitude target. Powers' plane was damaged by a missile that exploded near the plane. He was able to bail out and parachute down, but he was quickly taken into custody and accused of being a spy.

The United States denied that there was a spy plane, but Russian President Nikita Khrushchev had the wreckage of the plane and he had Powers. President Dwight Eisenhower had to admit the truth. Negotiations for nuclear arms agreements were not to be and the relationship between the two most powerful countries in the world became even more tense.

Powers served fewer than two years in a Russian prison and was part of a swap for another spy that the Soviet Union wanted back.

The second incident occurred over Cuba in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This time it was not the CIA in command of the U-2 but the United States Air Force. Just a few days before the event, a U-2 had taken photographs that indicated that there were ballistic missiles in Cuba. It was determined that the Soviet Union was supplying the Cuban government with weapons that could reach the United States.

On Oct. 27 1962, Major Rudolf Anderson, a former reconnaissance pilot during the Korean War, had begun his mission over Cuba when he was hit with shrapnel from the explosion of an SA-2 surface-to-air missile. It is believed that the shrapnel penetrated his pressurized suit and he died from the depressurization.

The museum's U-2C is an interesting plane in that it was the ninth U-2 built and the last of the original U-2 fleet to retire. In 1971 it was transferred to NASA. Its history is not completely known. It was used by NASA to collect atmospheric samples from Mount St. Helens after it erupted in 1980.

In 1989, less than two weeks before retiring to the Museum of Aviation, our plane set 16 time-to-climb and altitude records that still have not been broken.

We would love for you to come and see our U-2, and by the way, there is an SA-2 missile that sits behind the SR-71.

Marilyn N. Windham is a volunteer at the Museum of Aviation. She can be reached at mnwindham@aol.com