Lockheed U-2 Fragments

Fragment of the American spy plane that was downed by an SA-2 missile on May 1, 1960.

Shortly thereafter, NASA issued a press release with a cover story about a U-2 conducting weather research that may have strayed off course after the pilot "reported difficulties with his oxygen equipment."
To support the cover-up, a U-2 was painted in NASA markings displayed for the news media at the NASA Flight Research Center on May, 6 1960.

The next day, Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev exposed the cover-up by revealing that the pilot had been captured and espionage equipment had been recovered from the wreckage. Parts of the U-2 were displayed in Moscow on May 11.

The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was jailed in Moscow until he was exchanged for captured Russian spy Rudolf Abel in February, 1962.

A more extensive collection of fragments can be found at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow.