Lockheed U-2

The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed the Dragon Lady, is an American single-engine, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft flown by the United States Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency since the 1950s. It was designed for all-weather, day-and-night intelligence gathering above 70,000 feet. Lockheed proposed it in 1953, it was approved in 1954 and its first test flight was in 1955. From 1956 to 1962 it flew covert missions over the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam and Cuba. CIA pilot Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, and Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. was shot down over Cuba in 1962. The type later supported operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the development of electronic sensors, the calibration of space-based instruments and high-altitude atmospheric experiments. It is one of a handful of aircraft types to have served the USAF for over fifty years, and it is now operated by the USAF and NASA.