What Really Happened when Gary Powers was Shot Down
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- Опубліковано 15 гру 2020
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Very informative and engaging! I was in the program in the late 80's and early 90's. got to fly the C model for my interview and the R model operationally. You were spot on about how badly Powers was treated publicly but in private it was acknowledged he did very well with what little he had to work with. He was eventually awarded the Silver Star (posthumously) in 2012. Looking forward to the rest of your series!
Sadly, she didn’t even get how he was shot down correctly.
Francis Gary Powers (1929-1977) was also awarded the 1963 CIA Intelligence Star, but only received it in 1965.
Source: 1970 hardcover "Operation Overflight - The U-2 Spy pilot tells his story for the first time " by Francis Powers & Curt Gentry
🇨🇦 Bravo Amy. These long form deep dives are just as good to listen to as the audiobook versions for your books. Can’t wait for the next chapter. 💚
My dad had Frances Gary Powers as a college roommate. He was a Navy pilot, and I think it was training at Milligan College in East Tennessee.
Powers was definitely a USAF Pilot
Yes indeed.
Great video. I read a book on this years and years ago, I believe authored by Francis Gary Powers, and you seem to have hit all the highlights. Wish I could remember the name of the book. I’ll add that aircraft 360 suffered an auto pilot failure that day forcing Powers to hand fly the airplane in a narrow speed window of about 4 kn, too slow and it would buffet and stall, too fast and he would be in a Mach buffet. It was supposedly was very difficult to tell the difference between the two.
Regarding the self-destruct switches, the book mentioned that some pilots feared that the CIA had rigged the switches to destroy the entire airplane and kill the pilot to prevent his capture. Some feared the ejection seat was also booby-trapped on operational missions. Whether this was true or not is unknown, but some pilots believed it to be true. The fact that no one thought the pilot could survive after being hit supports this theory. Powers’ description of the incident was very convincing and led me to believe that he really was thrown out by centrifugal force and could not have reached the switches in any event.
Another issue with the flight was that the first segments of the flight repeated paths flown several times on previous missions, making tracking and interception easier than it otherwise might have been.
I also read that Eisenhower was going to bring up the Open Skies proposal again at the May summit in the vein of “you might as well agree to Open Skies because we can surveil you anyway”. Events of course precluded that.
Powers later became a radio/TV station helicopter pilot and was killed when his helicopter lost power. He was autorotating towards a clear schoolyard when he saw children in the schoolyard. He sacrificed a safe landing which could have endangered kids and veered away and crashed. He was often made out to be a traitor for allowing himself to be captured and not committing suicide, but in my opinion he was a hero.
Is "Operation Overflight" the title you're looking for?
He basically committed suicude in the end. If he lived and the children died, in most cases it is a one day news, but in his case he would have been trashed again, which he probably could not bear
On one of the early overflights the pilot was informed by one of the ground crew that he had been directed to set the time delay on the self-destruct device to 0 which meant it would detonate when the device was armed. After that, all the pilots presumed it was set to 0.
Amy: I love the new longer formats you are now producing! Very interesting and I can tell you really were searching for every scrap of info on the U-2 and Francis Gary Powers. Keep on charging and thanks for the new UA-cam info clips!
This is a wonderfully researched deep dive into a really interesting time in aviation history. It is excellent work and I am learning more than I previously knew about the U-2 program and the Gary Powers incident.
Great to hear your coverage of the U-2 and it's history.
I had the wonderful opportunity to support the pilot training and got to know the subject matter experts, current and former pilots.
The U-2 community is relatively small and close-knit. The applicant pilots are all volunteer, maybe half eventually qualify for this demanding program.
You have a clarity and sense of narrative that is quite impressive. From the broad overview to the in-depth details, this three-parter shines.
Finally! And the timing is always a surprise with you. Thank you Amy we appreciate you. Time to re-watch the whole thing.
So glad I ran across your video. The flight was always something I was curious about, and you explained it all so well.
Another brilliant history. Thanks Amy!
I love seeing one channel I watch commenting on another channel I watch!
I fully agree!
Thank you. It's fascinating how the best most engaging teachers are now on UA-cam. Thank you for turning history into entertaining learning.
@Marc Kunze yes I picked some up the other day in my Pinkly Taurus.
Appreciate the effort you put into these videos and I always look forward to what subjects you cover.
Great video, Amy. You are amazing at making mid century space and aviation history come alive. You also seem to have an incredible memory for names and dates.
She has a nice chest, that’s about it. She is a typical TULS (read backwards)
Brilliant as always. You might want to check the coordinates of Novaya Zemlya.
Might need a little more reconna-sonce. ;) (just kidding, Amy. Great video!)
It was great fun punching the pogos in though! Lol.
Really enjoying early jet aviation topics Amy - ty much
Your channel and you are brilliantly wonderful! Thank you, the shows are always enormously informative, educational and simply enjoyable.
It bares repeating that after this whole incident, Francis Gary Powers was later killed in a simple traffic reporter job after flying at 66,000 feet. Seems somewhat ironic.
I always thought the same about Pete Conrad's death. He got killed crashing his Harley driving it 15 MPH.
Dont know the specifics of U2 safety but helicopters crash a hell of a lot more often than jet planes
But Yeager died at 97 in a Californian hospital
He also likely crashed where he did after diverting from a higher probability landing in a field, and he diverted at the last second, when he saw kids on the field. He sacrificed his life for others... that’s as bad assed as it comes!
@Matthew K
Also he & his cameraman were on their way back from (not heading to) a wildfire in Santa Barbra Co. when they ran out of fuel.
Amy’s content is spot on and full of well researched large I cannot emphasize how refreshing it is to spend mom is watching her videos thank you
"...spend mom..."???
That's one hell of a Freudian slip.
Im sorry but I cannot understand what you are saying here
Why does every breeder think she is special because she gave birth to a crotch goblin? Nobody cares that you are a mother.. every female has kids, you are *NOT* special. Get over yourself.
Amy is a fantastic author, as well as a wonderful host, and storyteller. Love her channel, books, and tv appearances.
Any, your amazing. Thanks for bringing some of my favorite lectures. You make my workday better. So glad your back on the air. Cheers. Also, your bangs rock
Take all the time you need. Your content is too good to be rushed.
Another great job of filling in the details of this history!
Really learned a lot about the inner workings of the Eisenhower Administration as it pertained to the U-2 program. Thank you for laying all that out for us. Appreciate the comprehensive account you've provided. Looking forward to Corona!
This is by far the best and most thorough lecture of the U-2 incident I've ever watched. I've always been an aviation enthusiast with especially interest for the U-2, A-12, and SR-71 planes. I'm from Norway and old enough to remember the cold war, and I've read and watched countless books, articles, documentaries about the subjects you covers in this video, but I still learned a lot by watching it. This video is packed with information and the information is very well presented. Well done indeed.
Packed with lots of detail, good stuff, thanks.
This is super interesting! I studied classics and this is so far from my usual period of interest and the amount of detail is exhaustive (compared to antiquity, at least). Great research and presentation!
Love to see you again in the tube !
Very well done !
Thank you Amy👍
Well researched and presented. A fascinating and absorbing look into an interesting story. I look forward to your next project.
Thanks for another great video Amy! I really enjoy your work, its very well put together and informative.
Those yesteryears were plagued with geopolitical turmoil! It’s surprising we’re all alive. Your exposé on what happened then is pretty much on the button 👌❤️
Love your channel,
Keep up the good work,
From Montreal: John
An extremely well researched and informative video adding to my knowledge of an event that has captured my interest for many years. Thanks!
Excellent video Amy, enjoying this series 👍
Another great video Amy. Looking forward to the rest of this series. Loved the Canadian "soory" you slipped in. ;)
Beauty, eh?!?!
Take off
Thanks for this series. I really enjoyed your deep dive into the U2.
Sure do look good today! I was born 1 year before this incident. Joined the Air Force and spent several years re-fueling these aircraft .
I was living on a US Army post in Frankfurt, Germany when this happened, and I can assure you people were VERY concerned about this, though not a nervous as in October 1962.
Wow. Out of country for Cuban Missile Crisis. I never thought about what it was like for military personnel abroad at that time. Do you think that Powers flight was a set up to prevent Eisenhower from cooling tensions w/Kruschev? Seems like we had some issues w/top generals, starting w/MacArthur, believing that they had to take actions to prevent presidents from national security “mistakes.”
Excellent presentation of the story. Thanks a lot!
I love your microphone too...
Amy, your level of details and knowledge is amazing. Thank you for such an interesting story.......one I remember from my childhood.
Powers was a hero. He was disrespected by the government for military and political reasons, even though he was found to have performed with the interests of the United States as his highest regard.
RIP Gary Powers. You are not forgotten.
The Kennedy admin could be really nasty behind the scenes. Enough to be no worthy in a notoriously rough environment. We wouldn't see this kind of behind the scenes rank or again until the 90s and 2000s. But that of course is for another time.
Lol, a hero?
Imagine if the USSR did this. There would have been a war.
Awesome video as always Amy. You make us Torontonians proud. 🏒
Brilliant and fascinating research and reportage, Amy... as per usual. Thank you so much for sharing all your amazingness-ness.
Such wonderful detail in your presentations. Keep up the great work.
Well done as always. Super interesting. Your channel is a pearl on UA-cam, just like you!
Tremendous. Really well done, Amy!
Sure love to see more Ami, hopefully after holidays lots of episodes on both channels. Keep up the good work
Amy, your graphic has Powers taking off from Incirlik, Turkey instead of Peshawar, Pakistan. Also, your Soviet interceptors (which seem to be F-14s... ;-) ) are shown firing the missiles at Powers, when in fact, the missiles were ground-launched SAMs: S-75 Dvinas (NATO reporting name: "SA-2 _Guidline_ ").
I noticed the same thing.
Well done, old man. I like to see the truth told. Amy has made several errors in her depiction of events.
I thought I heard something that just doesn't seem right. At 10:21, I thought I heard something about "NASA Press" officials being involved with the discussions about Powers' plane being shot down . . . .
@@johndemeritt3460 Their cover story was that he was doing atmospheric research for NASA.
The U2 was flown from Incerlik in Turkey to Pesahawar. Powers arrived by C-130 for the flight. The communications for the flight (tracking) was handled by the 6937th Comm Group in Peshawar.
Nice presentation! You should do a short episode on the signed pictures in the background.
Brilliant! Was looking forward to this.
Very informative and great presentation. Thanks Amy..
Awesome as always. Great job Amy.
The U2 is such an intersting story. I remeber learning the the U2s started in Wiesbaden and that the small airfield i saw almost every day and never payed attention to was one of the U2 bases.
Beautiful! Articulate, and shows a real interest in the subject. As an AF pilot I salute you. Cheers,
Always a pleasure to listen and look at Amy
Yes, I remember watching the 4 PM news on KNBC on that fateful day. The broadcast was solemn. Francis Powers was their helicopter reporter. Francis and his pilot saw that they were headed towards a playground active with children. He and his pilot agreed to try another spot to land safely but it didn't work out well. Telecopter reporting was new to KNBC. Francis proved to KNBC that it was a wonderful asset and greatly told the story. These days, telecopter reporting is a normal thing.
Same here. I grew up in Los Angeles listening to Powers' traffic reports on the radio and found it ironic that he survived being shot down over the USSR, but died in a helicopter crash in the U.S.
I got to meet Francis Gary Powers-very gracious man. He passed away when the news helicopter he was flying ran out of fuel and went down.
Damn, really? Brings to mind Audie Murphy dieing in a plane crash after all he did and survived.
@@jim1934 Yes, and General George Patton died from a simple army vehicle accident after WW2. Ironies!
Amy I love your channel. Well thought out and presented with beauty and confidence. Well done.
Very comprehensive coverage awesome stuff Amy
Fantastic content, I love how so many youtubers are making these deep dive historical vids! Keep it coming'!
Creeeeepyyyyyyyyyy
Amy, I just found your channel, and I love it. One small critique on the shoot down. Every thing I've read, and including a conversation with a former U-2 pilot says Gary was shot down by a Russian SA-2 Surface-to-Air missile, which also shot down a Russian MiG-19 in the same salvo. Now, to continue on binge watching your great shows.
Very interesting video series! Thank you!
This was a great series. Thanks for presenting all of this great history. I had always thought that Powers was shot down with a surface to air missile. Your description of how the Soviets tried many times on previous overflights to get to the U-2's shows how by the time of the Powers flight they had figured out how to shoot them down. If only the CIA/USAF had figured this out prior to the flight. I can't wait for your future episodes on Corona and the SR-71. Thanks again!!
I'd be interested to know your source for Powers' U-2 being shot down by a fighter launched missile. Every source I have read over 30+ years has indicated the aircraft was brought down by an SA-2 surface-to-air missile after evading several other SAM's.
I saw a video (here on YT) claiming that Powers suffered a flame out and had to descend to just above 30,000 ft for a restart. This is the reason he was hit. Of course I don't know what is true. I do find the SA-2 story much more believable. We need to know aircraft type,where the aircraft were based,what type of missile. These three points of data I mention can be verified. Maybe not 100% but close. What aircraft/missile combo, where was the attacking plane(s) based? Is there any data on a Soviet missile that did the type of end around Amy mentions?
In the late seventies I remember reading about Gary Powers U2 shoot down drama. The story goes that a timed bomb was planted on Gary Powers U2 plane by a payed off maintenance worker so it would explode over Soviet air space . creating the belief that the Soviets had the weaponry to counteract USA military technology of the day , so to deter and holt further flyovers and that it did But that action actually helped ramp up the arms race and expand the cold war .But then again the reverse psychology angle trick can also work to achieve the same goals , we live in a smoke n mirror's world . The point is IF true who planted the bomb the Soviets or the USA
Correct remark as one of the Soviet Mig-19 fighter jets was shot down by a Surface-to-Air-Missile as the pilot forgot to update his IFF-code, being 1st May the start of a new month.
Another Soviet Sukhoi SU-9 fighter jet got visual with Powers' U2, probably tried an aerial ramming maneuver, diving from its highest possible altitude to hyperbola some extra height !
Another excellent history video! Well done and thank you!
This is one of your best videos Amy, I enjoyed it! Good work and good research.
Very comprehensive! Great video. It's a great subject and history
Thank you for your deep dives into our recent past. So frequently this history is not covered in school. Please keep up this great work!
Its not taught in school because the kids might ask some delicate questions. Or if it is taught in school it’s just turned into propaganda by the home country and whatever the enemy country is.
@@conors4430 I learned about this shit in school. I am sure poorly funded schools didn’t get to stuff like this because, hell, they’re barely getting kids literate.
Another great video, look forward to the next one.
Great video Amy, well done- very interesting.
Hey Amy,
Great presentation as always.
When I was studying remote sensing in the 1980's, we used NASA aerial photos of the U.S. that we were told were taken by U2 aircraft. So it appears that there was a U.S. civilian aerial photography program in later years. The quality of these images was beautiful.
I always wondered about the origins of the U2. Thank you for providing the backstory.
Cheers from Juneau Alaska,
Greg Chaney
This really is just such a well done video! Thank you!
This is really brilliant historical journalism. Thumbs up!
@The VIntage Space
Rewatching the series. Excellent job!
I do love me some Kerbal space program music. This series shows me how much of a gem this channel is.
That's KERBALS space program musac
Great content, keep up the good work!
Thanks for the great research and fascinating story. Long ago I read in an electronics magazine that the U2 required an automated control for speed at maximum altitude since there was such a small difference between max speed and stall speed. Apparently the control system failed and Powers had to reduce altitude under manual control and was vulnerable to the SAMs. I was hoping you might have found out more on that, as I haven't been able to find more on that with google. Interesting you mentioned that plane had maintenance problems. Seems there is a lesson in that.
Great video, thank you for your hard work creating such a fascinating show.
Hi Amy,
thanks for covering the U-2 story. You look wonderful, btw. I need to update one fact though. The new variant of the U-2 by Lockheed began in around 1977 or '78 in CA. I joined the program in 1980. The new version was called the TR-1 (Tactical Recon) Also of note, we built 2 trainers with a dual-cockpit. It's also used as a demonstrator to take politicians and dignitaries high flying, stratospheric ride when they need more money!
He was flying to my hometown, learned a few years ago he had been at the air force base in Bodø before the incedent.
Edit, Lyndon Johnson also visited at around the same time, he was described by the local media as a rude cowboy.
Your local media weren't wrong. On the other hand, Johnson's administration made a lot of progress on civil rights, so he wasn't entirely without merit.
I am not surprised by this summary of Lyndon Johnson! He was noted to be arrogant, pushy and I have not heard one word about any kind thing he's done while interacting with the non-family public. I'd like to hear something to the contrary, but I haven't yet!
Your Videos are the Essence of Awesomeness. I always wonder how so much of his plane survived the crash.
The U2's construction is very lightweight--more like a glider. The terminal velocity of the falling pieces would not be that high. If you see the pieces in Moscow, they are in worse shape than the pictures indicate.
I must say I love your new focus on Aviation. When I met you in Sydney I suggested that aviation is the foundation of space travel and to understand space travel one must understand and appreciate aviation. Every space exploration is a flight and it is no accident that space travel pioneers were all aviators particularly naval aviators the most precise aviator there is. 🙂 When you understand and appreciate the link between aviation and space travel, you will change your.mind about the space shuttle. 😉
I never understood her hard-line stance of ruling out the shuttle, I know there's an explanation video but still an essential part of space operational history with deep links to early programs.
Enjoying this series. Listened to Operation Overflight earlier in the fall. Gave me a new appreciation for Francis Gary Powers. Without understanding exactly why, I think I always had a somewhat negative view of him. Listening to his own version of events changed all of that. If anything, I now think his service-including his 11 months in Soviet prisons-was greatly under appreciated. He served his country well. Looking forward to the Corona episodes. I’m pretty familiar with the the U-2, A-12, and SR-71 stories, but much less so with Corona. Keep up the good work. Also, your black dress is very flattering. Last thought, would love to see you and Annie Jacobsen collaborate on something, perhaps AATIP, Nimitz Encounters, and Tic Tacks; UFOs will always be vintage space.
Amy what a great job you are doing. After 50 years I am learning new things!!
As always a very well researched and informative video. Thank you for posting.
Wonderful. Glad this is available. Thx
Great series on the U-2 program! Love this episode in particular! FYI-USS America (CV-66) is depicted at 39:13 (note the number “66” painted on the ship’s island in the left background). Same class as USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), however.
Here in Russia I've heard another story. There were 7 rockets fired, and the very first one hit the U2. But there was no confirmation (debris from U2 on radar screen were confused for false targets, released by the plane), so more rockets were launched, hitting a soviet fighter.
interesting. All my sources have always mentioned Powers being shot down by an SA-2 or SA-3 surface to air missile, not fighter launched missiles.
@@jwenting I don’t think Sizuy implied there were any air to air missiles fired.
@@jwenting Fighters did not fire, they couldn't reach high enough. It was S-75 (SA-2) rockets fired by two separate squadrons (or batteries, not sure which one would be the correct term in English).
I have a suspicion that the confusion about which missile got the U-2 is because it wasn't a missile: it was a small time bomb planted aboard before take-off in Pakistan. I saw an interview with the man who did it; the Russians didn't HAVE a missile with that capability (yet) so they planted a bomb and then claimed to have shot it down as a disinformation measure. (That interview was quickly suppressed, of course.) They got the missile capability soon after that.
Thanks Amy brilliant to watch best wishes 👍👍
Awesome video, looking forward to one on the sr71
Wow, great information, thank you so much for making this amazing content!!!
Thank you for this story. This guy had some really bad luck, getting the crappy plane everyone knew was hanger queen, getting reinstated but then not because his wife wanted a divorce. Having his country turn their backs on him.Being demoted in life from the most expensive to a helicopter that ran out of fuel. But then again he had incredible luck surviving the crash.
Once again a brilliant video very informative thank you
This channel is awesome!
Please continue the awesomeness
Just subscribed. Thank you for what you’re doing.
Great series of videos.
I saw a U-2 takeoff at the Van Nuys Airport in the San Fernando Valley around 1966. Don't know what it was doing there.
Superbly writtten. Thanks.
I enjoy these longer videos, very interesting and entertaining
very weird I've never never happened upon your channel. I'm very surprised. I love and always watch stuff like this.
Excellent work on this presentation.