It provides day and night, high-altitude 70, feet, 21, meters , all-weather intelligence gathering. Lockheed Corporation originally proposed the aircraft in It was approved in , and its first test flight was in Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. The U-2 has also been used for electronic sensor research, satellite calibration, scientific research, and communications purposes.
The committee was led by Carl F. Overhage and was overseen by the Air Force's Gordon P. Land , who would design the specialized optics in the U During the early s, the best intelligence the American government had on facilities deep inside the Soviet Union were World War II German Luftwaffe photographs taken during the war of territory west of the Ural Mountains , so overflights to take aerial photographs of the Soviet Union would be necessary.
The committee suggested a plane with advanced optics, flying above 70, feet 21, m. After , Soviet air defenses consistently intercepted all aircraft near the country's bordersβsometimes even those in Japanese airspace. Existing US reconnaissance aircraft, primarily bombers converted for reconnaissance duty such as the Boeing RB , were vulnerable to anti-aircraft artillery, missiles, and fighters.
Richard Leghorn of the United States Air Force suggested that an aircraft that could fly at 60, feet 18, m should be safe from the MiG , the Soviet Union's best interceptor aircraft , which could barely reach 45, feet 13, m.
He and others believed that Soviet radar, which used American equipment provided during the war, could not track aircraft above 65, feet 19, m. At the time, the highest-flying aircraft available to the US and its allies was the English Electric Canberra , which could reach 48, feet 14, m. The British had already produced the PR3 photo-reconnaissance variant, but the USAF asked for English Electric's help to further modify the American-licensed version of the Canberra, the Martin B , with long, narrow wings, new engines, and a lighter airframe to reach 67, feet 20, m.
