U-2

U-2, single-seat, high-altitude jet aircraft flown by the United States for intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Perhaps the most famous spy plane ever built, the U-2, also known as the Dragon Lady, has been in service since 1956. A prototype flew in 1955, and the last plane in the series was built in 1989.

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At first the plane was used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to monitor electronic emissions, to sample the upper atmosphere for evidence of nuclear weapons tests, and to photograph sites deep within the territory of the Soviet Union, China, and other Cold War enemies. On May 1, 1960, a U-2 was shot down over the Soviet Union, precipitating the U-2 Affair, and in 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, a U-2 took photographs that confirmed the presence of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba. Strategic intelligence-gathering missions have continued, but the U-2 also has been used for battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance in numerous conflicts and tension spots where the United States has been engaged since the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Over its long service life the U-2 has periodically faced competition from other intelligence-gathering systems—for instance, Earth-orbiting satellites or the supersonic SR-71 Blackbird spy plane—but intelligence and military services consistently have found it useful because of its operational flexibility, excellent aerodynamic design, and adaptable airframe. In 2011 the USAF indicated that the U-2 was scheduled for retirement from service sometime after 2015, with many of its functions to be adopted by high-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles. With the expansion of the U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in 2014, however, the retirement of the U-2 was pushed back indefinitely.

The U-2, built of aluminum and limited to subsonic flight, can cruise for many hours above 70,000 feet (21,000 metres) with a payload weighing as much as 3,000 pounds (1,350 kg). Its exact operational specifications are secret. It was designed by Kelly Johnson, head of the Lockheed Corporation’s famous, semisecret “Skunk Works,” based on the fuselage of the supersonic F-104 Starfighter interceptor. In the late 1960s the airframe was enlarged by more than one-third over the original structure, bringing the aircraft to a fuselage length of 63 feet (19 metres) and a wingspan of 104 feet (32 metres). An array of systems for mapping and imaging terrain, detecting communication signals, and performing a host of other intelligence-gathering and surveillance activities is installed in bays located in the aircraft’s nose, in the fuselage behind the pilot, and in large pods located at mid-wing. Most of these systems operate autonomously or under the control of operators located on the ground. The pilot, wearing a sealed pressure suit and breathing bottled oxygen, is almost exclusively concerned with flying the plane.

Since the 1980s the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has operated modified U-2s, designated ER-2 (for “Earth resources”), for the collection of data on the atmosphere, Earth, and celestial phenomena.