8/4/2023 0 Comments U2 aircraftPowers ejected from his crippled plane and parachuted into Russia, where he was immediately arrested, detained and questioned by the KGB. While flying over the Ural Mountains, Powers’ U-2 was struck by a surface-to-air missile and forced to crash-land. Soviet air defences became aware of this mission and scrambled jets – but the U-2’s altitude prevented it from being located. Another U-2, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, was launched on May 1st with orders to photograph Soviet installations, including ICBM silos and a plutonium factory. In April, a U-2 launched from Pakistan played cat-and-mouse with Soviet MiG jets before landing in Iran. These operations were conducted by the CIA, largely because the presence of an American military plane over Soviet territory could be construed as an act of war. In 1960 the US conducted U-2 runs over Soviet bases, test sites and missile silos in central Asia. To minimise the dangers of discovery, these U-2s were armed with a self-destruct mechanism and their pilots supplied with suicide devices. Pilots had to wear high-altitude gear that bore some similarity to spacesuits.Īmerican U-2s began secret flights over Soviet territory in mid-1956. The aircraft had to be flown at close to maximum speed to prevent stalling it was very sensitive to crosswinds and troublesome to land. Flying the U-2 was notoriously difficult, however. Its underbelly contained an array of cameras so powerful they could capture a newspaper headline from miles in the sky. The U-2 was designed primarily for reconnaissance. This high ceiling allowed it to overfly enemy territory, largely undetected by ‘spotters’ and radar. CIA pilot Francis Gary Powersįirst constructed in the mid-1950s, the U-2 was a jet aircraft capable of flying at 21,000 metres, twice the altitude of modern passenger jets. One innovation, developed and built by the United States company Lockheed, was the U-2 spy plane. He started talking to the downed pilots and joined the effort to pick them up, coordinating with an F-15 to keep the enemy away.Cold War tensions fuelled a constant demand for up-to-date intelligence about the ‘enemy’. He recalls one mission on a cloudy day over Afghanistan in August 2007, when two separate helicopters crashed roughly 100 miles from each other. Some of those missions involved talking to assets on the ground and making decisions while flying over unforgiving terrain far from home, out of radio range of base. Stationed at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, he flew missions over Iraq and Afghanistan.įlying in the desert, he racked up his first 1,000 hours within three years. In 2007, as a newly qualified U-2 pilot, Jethro was deployed for the first time. "When you're done with that, you are qualified pilot ready to go on the road." ![]() Passing that means you're qualified on the U-2, and "then we send you over to mission qual - another syllabus where now that you know how to fly it, you know how to defeat threats," he added. Their in-flight meals are pureed and come in a metal toothpaste-style tube for ease of use.Īfter 14 flights, pilots go through an evaluation. The technicians also handle the pilots' food orders and preferred Gatorade color pre-takeoff. Walking up the ladder into the aircraft and getting seated is yet another dance, as U-2 pilots can't strap themselves into the cockpit while wearing the suit and again need the technicians' help. It can be hot and tight in the inflated suit. ![]() Once he's suited up, he gets moved to a big reclining chair and hooked up to oxygen and cooling air. "It's a dance, and the first time you do it you have no idea how that dance works," says Jethro. Watching new U-2 trainees work with the Physiological Support technicians to get in and out of the suit can be awkward and comical. The technicians care for the flight suits with the same attention aircraft maintainers give their aircraft. ![]() Jethro into his pressure suit, September 29, 2021. Airmen from the 9th Physiological Support Squadron help Lt.
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