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Aircraft · Air

U-2

High-altitude surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft family.

by Lockheed Martin · Unveiled May 7, 1956

FieldedAircraftAirFirst flight1967
af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104560/u-2stu-2s
A U-2S reconnaissance aircraft taxiing on a runway

Photo: Photo by Ronnie Macdonald from Chelmsford and Largs, United Kingdom via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · Resized and reencoded as WebP; no additional crop.

Milestones19551967
  1. First flightOriginal U-2A first flight, confirmed
  2. UnveiledU-2 publicly announced under NACA cover story, confirmed
  3. First flightU-2R variant first flight, confirmed

Timeline3

  1. First flightConfirmed

    Original U-2A first flight

    SourcesU-2S/TU-2S > Air Force > Fact Sheet Display

  2. UnveiledConfirmed

    U-2 publicly announced under NACA cover story

    NACA announced the named aircraft under a weather-research cover story. NASA history p. 167 and timeline p. 238 establish the date; this was not disclosure of its reconnaissance mission.

    SourcesNASA

  3. First flightConfirmed

    U-2R variant first flight

    SourcesU-2S/TU-2S > Air Force > Fact Sheet Display

Solid entries are confirmed, outlined reported, dashed estimated or still to come; dotted italic entries are speculative. Dates show only the precision the sources give.

Built with1

Operators1

  • USUnited States

Sources4

  1. 1.
    Other360° U-2 Spy Plane Flight | Full Cockpit Ride to 70,000 Feet

    Sam Eckholm · May 4, 2025 · Supports: System · name

    “U-2”
  2. 2.
    OtherFlying the U-2 Spy Plane 70,000 Feet to the Edge of Space

    Sam Eckholm · Feb 16, 2025 · Supports: System · name

    “U-2”
  3. 3.
    Government recordUnlimited Horizons: Design and Development of the U-2

    NASA · Supports: System milestone

    “May 7, 1956 NACA director Hugh L. Dryden announces existence of U-2”
  4. 4.
    Government recordU-2S/TU-2S > Air Force > Fact Sheet Display

    Supports: System, System · operator countries, System · system component:f118-101, System milestone

    “The U-2 provides high-altitude, all-weather surveillance and reconnaissance, day or night”

Each fact on this page is attached to the sources that support it. Archived copies are linked when we keep one.