The U-2 is still considered today to be one of the most technologically advanced aircraft ever built. It’s development in 1954 was shrouded in great secrecy since its primary role was strategic reconnaissance. Designed to fly for long periods at very high altitudes, it is essentially a powered glider with a sail-plane-like wing and lightweight structure.

The aircraft was designed and used for high-altitude communications intelligence and electronic intelligence and was capable of day or night all-weather surveillance. The U-2 has been configured with an array of cameras, electronic intelligence equipment and radar-homing and warning systems, depending upon its mission.

Early flights over the Soviet Union in the late 1950s provided the president and other US decision makers with key intelligence on Soviet military capability.

Carmine Vito, one of the first six pilots trained to fly the high-altitude reconnaissance craft for the CIA, is the only U-2 pilot to fly directly over Moscow. As explained by Eric Hehs in his article Carmine Vito: U-2 Pilot for Code One Magazine, his flight was the third operational flight over potentially hostile territory, or what the pilots called ‘hot’ flights. Carl Overstreet flew the first such flight of the U-2 on Jun. 20, 1956. The…