Strategic reconnaissance aircraft U-2. Iron Lady American Air Force

May 1, 1960. The Lockheed U-2 strategic intelligence officer flew out of the base in Pakistan with the CIA task-at an altitude of 21 thousand meters to cross the USSR from south to north, having photographed the military and industrial facilities of the enemy No. 1. However, near Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Francis Gary Powers, a anti-aircraft missile ... U-2 Dragon Lady (literally translated as a “dragon”, but synonymously Russian “iron ladies” was created in the mid-1950s, when the American intelligence services were needed A car with an unattainable flight for Soviet air defense. After the death of the Powers aircraft, flights over the territory of the Soviet Union were stopped and continued only along its borders. In total, Dragon Lady could fly over the USSR 24 times. In 1962, it was the U-2 who launched the Caribbean crisis, which put the world on the brink of the third world, shooting the starting positions of ballistic missiles under construction in Cuba. U-2 with its long (as much as 30 meters) wings became not only one of the most recognizable symbols of the Cold War, it still consists in the service of the US Air Force, equipping with digital equipment for conducting electronic intelligence, and its latest modification has a special antenna for transmission Intelligence in real time. The new book of leading aviation historians for the first time in all details restores the history of the creation, design, service and many (until recently-super-secret) operations of the legendary reconnaissance aircraft. The publication is illustrated by exclusive drawings and photographs