Shot Down In USSR. The Story Of Gary Powers And The U-2 Spy Plane That Inspired Bridge Of Spies

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The story of Gary Powers and his U-2 Dragonlady Spy plane that was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960. In 2015, the Steven Spielberg feature film Bridge of Spies was released, which dramatized James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks)'s negotiations for Powers's release, but took certain liberties with what really happened. For instance, Powers is shown being tortured by the Soviets, when in reality he was treated well by his captors and spent much of his time doing handicrafts. 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. The single-seat aircraft, flown by American pilot Francis Gary Powers, had taken off from Peshawar, Pakistan, and crashed near Sverdlovsk (present-day Yekaterinburg), after being hit by an S-75 Dvina (SA-2 Guideline) surface-to-air missile. Powers parachuted to the ground safely and was captured. Initially, American authorities acknowledged the incident as the loss of a civilian weather research aircraft operated by NASA but were forced to admit the mission's true purpose a few days later after the Soviet government produced the captured pilot and parts of the U-2's surveillance equipment, including photographs of Soviet military bases. The incident occurred during the tenures of American President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, around two weeks before the scheduled opening of an east–west summit in Paris, France. Khrushchev and Eisenhower had met face-to-face at Camp David in Maryland in September 1959, and the seeming thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations had raised hopes globally for a peaceful resolution to the Cold War. The U2 incident shattered the amiable "Spirit of Camp David" that had prevailed for eight months, prompting the cancellation of the summit in Paris and causing great embarrassment to the U.S. on the international stage. The Pakistani government issued a formal apology to the Soviet Union for its role in the U-2 mission. Following his capture, Powers was convicted of espionage and sentenced to three years of imprisonment plus seven years of hard labor; he was released two years later, in February 1962, in a prisoner exchange for Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel. On 28 April 1960, a U.S. Lockheed U-2C spy plane, Article 358, was ferried from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to the US base at Peshawar airport by pilot Glen Dunaway. Fuel for the aircraft had been ferried to Peshawar the previous day in a US Air Force C-124 transport. A US Air Force C-130 followed, carrying the ground crew, mission pilot Francis Powers, and the backup pilot, Bob Ericson. On the morning of 29 April, the crew in Badaber was informed that the mission had been delayed one day. As a result, Bob Ericson flew Article 358 back to Incirlik and John Shinn ferried another U-2C, Article 360, from Incirlik to Peshawar. On 30 April, the mission was delayed one day further because of bad weather in the Soviet Union. Specifications (U-2S) 3-view line drawing of the Lockheed U-2 Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1989–90, United States Air Force Lockheed Martin U-2S product card General characteristics Crew: 1 Capacity: 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) payload Length: 63 ft 0 in (19.20 m) Wingspan: 103 ft (31 m) Height: 16 ft 0 in (4.88 m) Wing area: 1,000 sq ft (93 m2) Airfoil: root: NACA 63A409; tip: NACA 63A406 Empty weight: 16,000 lb (7,257 kg) Max takeoff weight: 40,000 lb (18,144 kg) Fuel capacity: 2,950 US gal (2,460 imp gal; 11,200 L) Powerplant: 1 × General Electric F118-101 turbofan engine, 17,000 lbf (76 kN) thrust Performance Cruise speed: Mach 0.715 (412 kn; 470 mph; 760 km/h) at 72,000 ft (22,000 m) Cruise speed: 413 kn (475 mph, 765 km/h) at 65,000 ft (20,000 m) Stall speed: 65 kn (75 mph, 120 km/h) Range: 6,090 nmi (7,010 mi, 11,280 km) plus Endurance: 12 hours Service ceiling: 80,000 ft (24,000 m) plus Rate of climb: 9,000 ft/min (46 m/s) Time to altitude: 60,000 ft (18,000 m) in 12 minutes 30 seconds Lift-to-drag: 25.6 Wing loading: 40 lb/sq ft (200 kg/m2) Thrust/weight: 0.425 Fuel consumption: 910 lb/h (410 kg/h) in cruise #U2 #aircraft #spy