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The aircraft was designed by Nikolai Polikarpov to replace the U-1 trainer (a copy of the British Avro 504), which was known as Avrushka to the Soviets. [6]The prototype of the U-2, powered by a 74 kW (99 hp) Shvetsov M-11 air-cooled five-cylinder radial engine, first flew on 7 January 1928 piloted by M.M. Gromov. [6]
Initially, American authorities acknowledged the incident as the loss of a civilian weather research aircraft operated by NASA, but were forced to admit the mission's true purpose a few days later after the Soviet government produced the captured pilot and parts of the U-2's surveillance equipment, including photographs of Soviet military bases.
The last U-2 and TR-1 aircraft were delivered to USAF in October 1989. In 1992 all TR-1s were re-designated to U-2R for uniformity across the fleet. The two-seat trainer variant of the TR-1, the TR-1B, was redesignated as the TU-2R. After upgrading with the GE F-118-101 engine, the former U-2Rs were designated the U-2S Senior Year.
After the U-2 shootdown, the wreckage was examined by Soviet aviation specialists. The investigation, conducted by Georgy Beriev of OKB-49 at Taganrog , led to a decision of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union on 28 June 1960 that the aircraft and its Pratt & Whitney J75-P-13 engine should be copied.
It also includes both native Soviet designs, Soviet-produced copies of foreign designs, and foreign-produced aircraft that served in the military of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its successor states of the CIS. The service time frame begins with the year the aircraft entered military service (not the date of first flight ...
Bell P-39 Airacobra (5,007 supplied from the United States, 4,719 reached Soviet Union) Bell P-63 Kingcobra (2,421 supplied from the United States) Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk/Tomahawk (2,425 supplied from the United States) Hawker Hurricane (2,952 supplied from UK) Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-1 (100) Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 (6,528)
However, the downing of an American U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union in 1960 caused a shift from manned bombers to ballistic missiles, and in 1961 President Kennedy billed the upcoming XB-70 as ...
On 4 July 1956 the first U-2 flight over the Soviet Union took place. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev angrily protested this overflight and feared that "when they understand that we are defenseless against an aerial attack, it will push the Americans to begin the war earlier." [10] This prompted the Soviet Union to develop new air defense systems.