First, The U-2 Plane allowed the US to win the Cold War because it gained intelligence on Soviet Nuclear weapons that other planes couldn't get. During the Cold War the USSR was very hard to survey due to its size and security. Aircraft that got anywhere near Russian airspace were shot down which made it almost impossible to gain intelligence on Soviet Russia. Within a month of its first test flight the U-2 attempted to breach the “Iron Curtain” as it was called. As the plane …show more content…
This capability allows for it to evade most if not all anti-aircraft missiles and opposing aircraft. There has been only one case of a U-2 being shot down. On May 1st, 1960 Pilot Francis Gary Powers was making a routine reconnaissance mission over Russia. It was tracked for almost all of its flight. Russia sent a fleet of MiG fighters to intercept the U-2 but they could not fly high enough and returned to Russia. As the famed U-2 flew over Sverdlovsk, a Soviet missile hit it. The missile was a surface-to-air missile which crashed Powers into russian Territory.Many people rushed to his aide thinking he was a Russian pilot but they soon found out he was american and he was put on trial for spying. American officials denied that he was a spy saying it was a weather plane that had veered off course. That theory was disproved with the finding of a camera and an unused suicide