The U-2's Record

The moment the Lockheed U-2 made a name for itself, it was a goner--grounded by the unforgiving glare of publicity. But in its brief career, while its mission and its methods were still a well-kept secret, the high-soaring U.S. intruder logged one of the most rewarding records in the history of military aviation. Bits and pieces of that record leaked out last week after the U-2 was ordered from the flight line, its clandestine usefulness damaged beyond immediate repair by the bad luck of getting caught.

Over the four years of its unchallenged high flying, the U-2 made contributions to U.S. defense, said one high-ranking Air Force general, that were "simply colossal." Using its infra-red detectors, its radars and its conventional cameras, it mapped hundreds of thousands of square miles of Soviet territory. With its pinpoint pictures it revised the face of Air Force charts. Prior to U-2 flights, the U.S. depended primarily on World War II German aerial photos for target material. Today the folders of SAC bomber crews bulge with accurate pictures of potential enemy targets. Guidance data, which are cranked into the navigation systems of U.S. B-52s and B-47s, come from the long-winged U2. Thor missiles in England, the new Atlases in the U.S., even the lowly, air-breathing Matadors and Maces facing eastward from Europe have been primed with dope from U-2 missions.

But this is the kind of information that ages overnight. Targets change; new menaces appear. The demand for more and more intelligence is endless. The U-2 had a busy future planned when everything was ruined by Pilot Francis Powers' crash near Sverdlovsk. Powers himself had hoped to photograph the ICBM and satellite launching area in the vast, lonely desert near the Aral Sea. His specific target was a great new rocket at least twice the size of the U.S.'s mighty 107-ft. Atlas Centaur. Earlier, in 1958, the Soviets had set up a giant rocket complex in the same area, and the U28 had snapped shots of one of the superbirds on its pad. Then the rocket, the pad--everything--disappeared. Only a huge crater and surrounding area of destruction suggested the disaster that had hit the test site.

Much of the U-2 accomplishment is still held secret and much of its career will remain under wraps indefinitely--at least until successful, camera-equipped reconnaissance satellites take its place in global skies. Apart from Francis Powers, even its skilled pilots from CIA's secret 10/10 squadron will have to remain anonymous. "If the full story is ever told," said a high-ranking U.S. intelligence man last week, "there won't be enough medals to pin on pilots."

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