the u 2 spy plane belonged to soviet union.
the u 2 spy plane belonged to soviet union.
who did the u 2 spy plane belong to?
soviet union
the united states sent pilot francis gary powers in a u-2 spy plane on a mission over russian airspace to accumulate intelligence on the soviet union on may 1, 1960. the eisenhower administration authorized multiple such flights into russian airspace, however, this one increased the tension on american-soviet relations. on this day, powers' plane was shot down and recovered by the soviet union. president eisenhower and the united states tried to claim the plane was only used for weather purposes. the incident occurred just weeks before the two countries were supposed to attend a summit along with france and great britain. soviet premier nikita khrushchev would not release any information about the plane or its pilot in the days leading up to the summit so that the united states would continue its "weather plane" lie, though eventually eisenhower would be forced to admit that the cia had been conducting such surveillance missions for years. this was because, at the summit, khrushchev admitted that soviets had captured the pilot alive and recovered undamaged sections of the spy plane. he demanded that president eisenhower apologize at the summit. eisenhower did agree to bring the intelligence gathering excursions to an end but would not apologize for the incident. upon eisenhower's refusal to apologize, the summit came to an end as khrushchev would no longer contribute to the discussion. one of eisenhower's primary goals as president was to improve the american-soviet relationship, however, this exchange proved to damage such relations. the summit was also an opportunity for the two leaders to finalize a limited nuclear test ban treaty, but this was no longer a possibility after the united states handling of the incident.
cold war (1953–1962)
he and edwin land were instrumental in persuading president dwight eisenhower to have the u-2 spy plane built. baker also designed the lenses and most of the cameras used on the u-2 spy plane and later the sr-71 blackbird. in addition, he designed the lenses and cameras used in the samos satellite program, and a modified version of these optics were later used in the lunar mapping programs.
james gilbert baker