 By the time the YouTube aerial reconnaissance plane was ready to fly in the spring of 1956 President Eisenhower was still unconvinced that okaying the mission was the right move He worried that if a plane was somehow downed over Soviet territory Even though everyone involved said it couldn't happen that the Soviets would have a field day claiming unfairness aggression and ruthlessness on both the part of himself and the United States He worried an incident would start another world war for all the technical challenges the YouTube presented The political decisions were among the biggest and it turned out Eisenhower's instinct to be wary was right Hello everyone, I'm Amy This is the vintage space my little corner of the internet where we talk about all things mid-century that quite frankly interest me Like Cold War aerial espionage Welcome to part two in this series covering the YouTube the corona satellites and the a12 slash ox cart slash SR 71 Part one is right here. If you haven't seen it I'd recommend checking it out before watching this video just to get the backstory of why high altitude spy planes became necessary And as this series is a deep dive It might contain more detail than you already know and it will also introduce you to some of our major players So with all that said, let's pick things back up with the first cl 282 Which was the utus original designation just about ready to fly In the spring of 1955 the cl 282 was getting close to test flights which meant the program needed a testing site There was no question of flying it out of Lockheed's Burbank facility though There was a runway it was far too publicly exposed an area not to mention potentially disastrous to test an unconventional design Over a major city on April 12th 1955 Richard Bissell who was heading the program for the CIA Colonel Osmond Ritland the senior US Air Force officer on the project Kelly Johnson the cl 282's main designer and Lockheed test pilot Tony Levere flew out over Nevada to look for a good site They found an airstrip by a salt flat called groom lake near the northeast corner of the atomic energy commissions in Nevada Proving Ground that turned out to be an old World War two aerial gunnery training site for the Army Air Corps Bissell got the AEC to add groom lake to its real estate holdings and the site was named for its map designation area 51 Kelly Johnson loved the site, but didn't like the clinical sound of the name So he nicknamed it Paradise Ranch in the hopes that it would be more appealing to the workers Who would soon be spending a lot of their time in the remote part of the desert? One of the first things the team built was a paved runway Which was much safer than compacted ground when rained from the nearby mountains flooded the old lake bed Which it did earning the runway its own nickname of Watertown Strip as the planes near the end of construction in Burbank Special terminology was put in place to keep things secretive as they left the factory The planes were called articles and the pilots referred to as drivers in all communications in cable traffic The aircraft were referred to as KW extra with a two-digit number identifying the specific vehicle The pilots were similarly referenced as KW glitter with a two-digit number identifying the individual The idea was if anything fell into the wrong hands It wouldn't be obvious what the transmission was even referring to Paradise Ranch was ready when on July 25th 1955 the wings and tail of CL 282 article 341 were removed the pieces wrapped in a tarpaulin and Loaded onto a C124 for transport to the desert site The plane wasn't quite the final version the camera was the preliminary a one iteration and the engines were the Pratt and Whitney J75 slash P37 engines a power plant that was 276 pounds heavier and 20% less efficient than the J57 slash P31 engine designed for the CL 282 But for the moment the Air Force didn't have any to spare. They were all installed in reconfigured Canberra's Nevertheless, the new plane was ready to fly once article 341 arrived and was reassembled It needed a name there would be a cover story circulated since people would doubtless see it in the skies So it needed a publicly safe designation Colonel Almond T. Culbertson and Lieutenant Colonel Geary looked through aircraft designer handbooks They knew it couldn't be a bomber fighter or transport designation And they didn't want to give it any name that would even hint that it was a reconnaissance plane either They ultimately decided the best way to hide the plane's true identity was to hide it in plain sight and call it a utility plane There were already two on the books the U1 and the U3 which meant the CL 282 fit into this theme redesignated as the U2 The same month the first U2s arrived in the Nevada desert Eisenhower took steps to make it an unnecessary program all together At the Geneva summit on July 21st 1955. He presented open skies This proposal called for an agreement of over flights between the United States and the Soviet bloc So both countries would know the other's capabilities Eisenhower offered to provide information about airfields and other US facilities for the Soviets to conduct aerial photography If the Soviets would do the same for their installations as Eisenhower wrote in his memoirs quote If taken seriously and agreed to by the Soviets It would have done much to reduce this danger to the United States and the chances of a global war I'll give it one shot. He said then if they don't accept it will fly the U2 The proposal was never taken seriously by the Soviet delegation Christoph passed on the idea immediately The Soviets refusal of open skies pushed the U2 program forward with missions more firmly on the books Finalizing the inter-service arrangement was the next step on August 3rd 1955 director of central intelligence Alan Vellis and Air Force chief of staff Nathan Twining signed the agreement on Organization and delineation of responsibilities for project oilstone Oilstone being the Air Force's code name designed to hide its crossover with the CIA the CIA name being a project aquaton Edwin land one of the most vocal supporters behind the YouTube program from the start Recommended establishing a permanent task force of Air Force and agency personnel to develop and coordinate mission of requirements This need spawned the ad hoc requirements committee established December 1st 1955 with James Q. Weber as intelligence requirements officer for the program as and as chairman of the ad hoc Requirements committee which meant for the first time on February 1st of 1956 All parties involved agreed that the main targets should be long-range bombers and guided missiles and nuclear energy installations CIA representatives generally focused on strategic intelligence aircraft and munitions factories power plants nuclear establishments roads bridges and inland waterways and Because the CIA was the major shareholder in the program as it were its needs weighed heaviest The military representatives on the other hand focused on order of battle data The US Air Force wanted intelligence on the location of Soviet and Eastern Bloc radar setups and airfields exploitation of the overhead photography fell under a new project project equine under the oilstone agreement the CIA assumed responsibility for the camera the security contracting film processing and all arrangements at foreign bases Managing the gathered intelligence was subcontracted to the Eastman Kodak company that would process the film between its Rochester plant and CIA Quarters it would be interpreted by the CIA then it shared with appropriate parties as needed as The final pieces of the program fell into place. The U2 took its first steps into the sky The first taxi test on July 27th 1955 had Tony Lovier at the controls and saw the plane reach just 50 knots on August 1st Lovier got up to 70 knots to start feeling out the ailerons and midway through the test realized to his utter Estonishment that he was airborne the unintentional flight turned out to be something of a tradition for lucky planes He immediately tried to land but couldn't figure out how high he was off the ground There weren't any markings on the lakebed to help him judge distance or altitude He managed to touch down but dangerously in a 10-degree bank The first official flight came on August 4th again with Lovier And it taught him that the most consistent way to land was with the rear wheel touching down first Then easing the rest of the plane onto the runway The first official flight came four days later on August 8th 1955 Kelly Johnson Richard Bissell, Colonel Osmond Ritland, Richard Horner and Garrison Norton were all in attendance The U2 flew to 32,000 feet and performed well all program deadlines for delivery and proof of airworthiness had officially been met Further test flights explored the stall envelope stress limits and speed potential of the plane on September 8th It hit the 65,600 foot design ceiling though largely successful These tests did reveal the first issues with the U2 on September 22nd The engine flamed out at 64,000 feet Restarted then flamed out again at 60,000 feet the interim P 31 just didn't have the restart capability of the P 37 And it was clearly not up to the task of the U2 flights But it was all the plane had for the moment Nevertheless by and large the flight tests were successful enough for Lockheed to set up a true production line at the Skunk Works facility in Burbank At the same time activity picked up at the Groom Lake site with more planes testing project personnel had to figure out Transferring crews and a certain personnel to area 51 CIA and Air Force personnel as well as Lockheed employees All without arousing suspicion The solution was to fly them out on Monday and back home Friday on an Air Force C 57 Military transport service aircraft. It was quickly dubbed Bissell's narrow gauge airline With the planes coming off the assembly lines and necessary personnel taking up part-time residents in the desert The final piece of the puzzle was the pilots As per the CIA Air Force contract pilot selection fell to the latter with the former having a say in the final roster There was some argument early on in the program that U2 pilots should be non-American to further hide the plane's true Nature if it was downed over enemy territory But that turned out to be better in theory than in practice some discussion on this point is still classified But technical experience was one issue barring non-Americans Pilots from other countries just didn't have the same specialized background as the US Air Force pilots that the CIA wanted flying these dangerous missions Language was also another barrier with some nations a handful of foreign pilots were interviewed and some even made a few test flights But the idea of using non-American pilots was abandoned in autumn of 1955 Lieutenant General Emmett Rosie O'Donnell the Air Force deputy chief of staff Eventually authorized Air Force pilots to fly for the U2 program But the pool was limited to strategic air command pilots with reserve assignments No regular pilots were up for consideration because of the challenge of getting them through the resignation process without arousing suspicion Even for sack pilots it wasn't easy They had to be willing to resign and assume civilian status a process known as sheep dipping Many wanted the challenge of the U2 but were afraid of losing their military careers and ranks as Compensation and to make the prospect more alluring They were offered better pay and the promise of reinstatement to the Air Force once their time with the U2 was finished Once the procedures were in place the actual selection was quite rigorous Anyone with a nervous disposition was immediately Deselected those who passed were screened at the lovelace clinic under the direction of aviation medicine pioneer dr. Randy lovelace Here they underwent extensive testing to uncover any physical or psychological issues The few who made it past this phase and then met the CAA's requirements began training at area 51 under Tony Levere Who was the only person who had actually flown the plane? Levere quickly found that teaching someone to fly this half jet half glider was complicated and made it more challenging by there being No, two-seat training model He instructed new pilots on the ground and hoped they would remember it all once they were up in the air for the pilots The U2 was so challenging because it was so unique The first U2's could not fly faster than 190 knots at sea level in smooth air or 150 knots in rough air at Operational altitude going faster than Mach 0.8 could bring fatal stresses to the airframe Even for seasoned fighter pilots managing airspeed was challenging and critical Only six knots separated the speed where the U2 would stall from where it would go over speed Both situations leading to stresses on the airframe that could literally rip the plane apart This is the infamous coffin corner even navigation was new for a lot of pilots They had to learn to use a sextant for celestial fixes in case cloud cover made ground tracking with the periscope impossible But most had success with dead reckoning and were able to fly with an error of less than one nautical mile over a 1,000 nautical mile course By September of 1955 there were six qualified U2 pilots ready to fly the future of the program as a whole however Was very uncertain on December 27th, 1955 President Eisenhower approved project genitrix a high-altitude photo reconnaissance program using balloons the setup was simple Balloons carrying automatic cameras were released over Eastern Europe the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China Ballast was triggered to drop according to a preset timer bringing the balloons payload back to earth It was on the whole a crude and imperfect system by the end of February 1956 the Air Force had launched 516 balloons 46 of whose payloads were recovered and just 34 yielded useful results Wins meant some balloons didn't pass over their targets and a handful were shot down and Human error setting some of the timers meant the ballast released early and the balloons came down in enemy territory The Soviets were able to collect this American spy technology Everything from the polyethylene gas bags cameras and even the transmitters to figure out exactly what its enemies capability was The retrieved objects were put out for the world press in an embarrassing display The Soviets also directly profited from these missions one role of genitrix film ended up returning the first ever pictures of the lunar Farside when the Soviets used it in the Luna 3 spacecraft But more problematic than spy technologies falling into enemy hands was the negative publicity that came from these balloons The US Air Force circulated the story that they were weather balloons gathering high-altitude data for the international Geophysical year the year of cooperative science between international nations But the downed balloons destroyed that story the Soviet Union sent formal protest to the United States on behalf of countries where balloons were lost Some of which claimed those flying over Eastern Europe even endangered civilian aircraft Eisenhower was hugely upset by the results of genitrix ultimately feeling that quote The balloons gave more legitimate grounds for irritation then could be matched by the good obtained from them He ordered the program stopped and on February 7th, 1956 Alan Dulles said there would be no more flights But he also didn't apologize to the Soviet nations Though genitrix was plagued by political problems the method totally unreliable and the images mediocre at best It nevertheless represented the best intelligence that the US had The program had also inadvertently gathered information on Soviet block radar systems The 91 centimeter steel bar that supported the gas bag camera and ballast equipment Turned out purely by chance to correspond to the radio frequency used by the Soviet token system It resonated when hit by the Soviet radar This unintended effect allowed the United States and NATO to find radar tracking stations in Soviet countries They hadn't known about earlier revealing what the you too would be up against when it finally flew America was getting a clearer picture of what was going on behind the Iron Curtain But for Eisenhower the political risk still outweighed the need for new data He nixed any further balloon programs and the CIA began to worry that Genetrix's failure would impact the president's feelings on the whole you too program While Genetrix was embroiled in controversy the you too took definitive steps towards mission readiness In anticipation of photo reconnaissance that would impact policy decisions Dulles brought key members of Congress into project Aquatown in February of 1956 at the same time Richard Bissell worked out the cover story with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics NACA President Hugh Trident Agreed to the cover story that the you too was flying high altitude weather research and upper atmospheric sampling flights The rationale was said to be preparing for nuclear fallout in the atmosphere from atomic testing Which really was a valid concern at the time This cover story also worked to keep subcontractors on a need-to-know basis when Kelly Johnson ordered altimeters calibrated to 80,000 feet for the you too It raised some eyebrows because the manufacturer Coleman usually calibrated the instruments to 45,000 feet Saying it was for an experimental space plane was a very simple explanation For the sake of protection the cover story itself was treated as though it was classified Everyone in the know was barred from discussing it by phone And anyone who asked too many questions was reported to program security personnel In early April of 1956 the advanced A2 camera James G Baker had been working on since 1954 was finally ready This system pioneered the use of software algorithms to model and perfect lenses And design around the variations that would pop up from specific lens curvature Spacing and different glass compounds the A2 emerges as a trimetragon system Three separate K38 framing cameras with 24 inch f-stop eight focal lenses using nine and a half inch film magazines One right oblique one left oblique and one vertical There was also one three inch tracking camera on the whole the A12 marked a 240 improvement Over the earlier A1 model this new camera system was installed in the U2 and the updated planes made flights over the continental US to test the flight and camera systems in tandem And the veil of secrecy shrouding the U2 started lifting away Every overflight brought a chance that the pilot would need to make an emergency landing before getting back safely to area 51 To give him a safe course of action the cia sent sealed briefings to commanders at every air force base With strict instructions not to open it unless expressly ordered to do so Inside were need to know details about the unfamiliar plane so that when it landed it wouldn't be a shock The envelope also held procedures to get as many personnel away from the runway as possible So the fewest pairs of eyes would see the plane Another consideration was other pilots seeing it in the sky military and civilian alike At the time planes were not flying at 60 000 feet The cia knew that pilots seeing a glint of metal where metal wasn't supposed to be would raise alarms And there were sightings events pilots saw in flight were recorded and sent to the air forces project blue book staff Who checked every one of them against u2 flight logs This final phase of at-home flight tests also saw the first fatality on may 15th 1956 Pilot wilburn s rose had traveled dropping the wing pogos He shook the left one loose on a low pass over the runway But stalled turning to make a second pass to shake the right one loose and crashed He was killed and the plane disintegrated there was however a razor thin silver lining to the incident That the plane was destroyed gave program managers increased confidence that an intercept over enemy territory wouldn't leave any traces They felt sure the u2 secrets would die with the plane Only eisenhower remained trepidatious as he wrote in his memoirs of all those concerned I was the only principal who consistently expressed a conviction that if ever one of the planes fell into soviet territory A wave of excitement mounting almost a panic would sweep the world Inspired by the standard soviet claim of injustice unfairness aggression and ruthlessness Test flights confirmed the u2's operational altitude of 72 000 feet Meaning it would fly safely beyond the reach of all known anti-aircraft weapons and interceptors The a2 camera too had been confirmed to have better resolution than anything that preceded it But the plane's range of 2950 miles wasn't enough to fly to the soviet union or another eastern european target from american soil Richard bissel needed a european base from which to mount missions and settled on lacon heath air force base in the uk A royal air force base also used by the u.s air force strategic air command The first group detachment a started deploying to the english site on april 29th 1956 and by may 4th Four aircraft four pilots and all the required personnel to keep things running were at lacon eight Publicly the group was the first weather reconnaissance squadron provisional the provisional designation was a security thing Provisional groups didn't have to report to higher authorities The n a c a have released a press alert on may 7th 1956 to corroborate this cover story The group was officially studying the jet stream convective clouds Temperature and winds at the jet stream level as well as cosmic ray affects up to 55 000 feet But not long after the americans arrival anglo-soviet relations became strained in mid april a soviet naval squadron brought sergey khrushchev And nikolai bulganin to the uk while the ships were docked at portsmith commander linel krab undertook a mission to investigate the Hulls of these soviet vessels and disappeared his headless body later washed up on a beach The so-called frogman incident caused an uproar in bridge parliament that was met with protests from moscow The whole thing scared prime minister anthony eden who asked president eisenhower on may 16th To hold off launching any soviet over flights from the english base less attract mission make anglo-soviet relationships worse Two days later a u2 on a training flight flew into a british radar network and caused the raf to scramble thinking the plane was an enemy intruder This strained anglo-american relations It was only then that richard bissel learned that the u.s. State department had told prime minister eden There was only one u2 in the uk not before that were really there Bissel became wary of putting a more strain on anglo-american relations So moved detachment a to v spot in germany on june 11th 1956 This was one of the busiest airfields in the country and he did it without telling the german government He reasoned that it was temporary while the cia prepared geiselstadt An old world war two base that had served as a launch site for the genetrix balloons Once the four u2s arrived in v spot and they were finally fitted with the upgraded j 57 slash p31 engines and renamed the u2 b Finally bissel had everything in place a detachment close to the soviet target nations and multiple pilots to fly the multiple planes All fitted with updated engines and cameras all he needed was approval to fly and fast There was a window of good weather between june 20th and july 10th On may 28th allen delis met with eisenhower to discuss over flights But the president still didn't give his approval He remained deeply concerned with the risk of international backlash and increased stresses on already tense american-soviet relations He knew the flight would just bring new hostilities The cia once again affirmed that its best intelligence said the soviets were unlikely to track the u2 consistently enough to intercept or otherwise engage with it A vulnerability report said the soviet's max radar detection was 55 000 feet But that information was based on world war two error radars and on testing with us radars Which the cia assumed were more sophisticated than what the ussr would have These assurances failed to alleviate eisenhower's fears of what might happen if a plane crashed He wasn't even comforted with the cia's conviction that both plane and pilot Wouldn't leave enough evidence to be traced back to the united states But the need for intelligence to confirm or disprove soviet advances in long-range missiles and bombers was growing Citing suggesting the soviets had as many as 30 bison bombers were eventually proved false It turned out that the same 10 planes made multiple passes in air show to present the image of a larger fleet But there was still concern over soviet guided missiles US intelligence knew the soviets had tested a missile with a range of 900 miles Which put it technologically ahead in some areas of development That fear was compounded when khrushchev announced on april 23rd that quote I am quite sure that we shall have very soon a guided missile with a hydrogen bomb warhead Which could hit any point in the world The americans couldn't risk being unprepared for a soviet attack Or being baited into reacting to soviet power that wasn't real the growing need Finally pushed eisenhower over the edge. He authorized 10 days of over flights in july of 1956 On wednesday june 20th 1956 carl k overstreet flew a test mission over poland and germany Raiders did see the plane but misread the altitude as 42 000 feet It seemed the u2 was able to avoid true detection But that still didn't say anything about soviet radar systems when eisenhower learned the result of this first flight His attention shifted to tracking if the plane could be spotted on radar Could they at least successfully avoid being tracked? The cia couldn't give eisenhower an answer All analysts could say for sure was the altitude was safely above radar range And the film developed by the photo intelligence division revealed good quality images Getting ever so slightly more comfortable with over flights eisenhower set a time frame khrushchev had invited a us air force delegation to the moscow air show that opened on june 23rd Eisenhower didn't want any soviet over flights until the u.s. Delegation had left russia The last thing eisenhower wanted was to make sure west german chancellor konrad adnauer was informed ahead of time He did not want a repeat of the half trees told to a fellow leader The question of whether the soviets could track the u2 still wasn't settled when her v stockman left v spotten on the morning of july 4th 1956 he flew over poznan poland them bella russia then headed north towards leningrad before the final leg over the soviet Baltic states he covered his main target of naval shipyards in leningrad as well as a handful of airfields To make an inventory of new bison bombers Carmine veto followed a similar path the next day but flew further east going more than 200 kilometers past moscow Also hunting for bison's two daring flights right out the gate was richard bissel's idea He reasoned it would never be safer to fly over moscow than while the americans still had the element of surprise The soviets detected these initial over flights But it seemed they couldn't track them well and attempts to intercept the u2s were unsuccessful Boyed by these early successes detachment a made three more over flights two on july 9th over eastern europe bella russia and the soviet union and one on july 10th over the cremian peninsula The first eight flights beyond the iron curtain five of which entered soviet airspace brought back valuable intelligence Photographs revealed that the soviet union did not have the more than 100 bison bombers It claimed revealing the bomber gap was less of a gap and more just propaganda Photographs also revealed just how well the soviets were able to track the u2 Images showed meg 15s and meg 17s as tiny dots well below the u2 But obviously in pursuit of it at attack altitudes Some photos showed the soviet jets flipped over and falling after what looked like failed attempts to rise to the u2's altitude It was clear the soviet defense system could track the plane well enough to get close But it remained safely out of reach Dreams of a hidden reconnaissance flight were well and truly dashed when a formal protest note reached the us embassy in moscow But interestingly for the united states The note revealed that the soviets didn't really know what they were dealing with The u2 was described as a twin engine medium bomber They didn't seem to think a single engine plane could fly that high and the note said it was operated by the us air force It listed the route but failed to mention leningrad or moscow Nevertheless, the soviets did identify the flight as very obviously quote intentional and conducted for the purposes of intelligence The note arrived at the white house on the evening of july 10th leaving eisenhower deeply unnerved He immediately ordered ritchard bissel to stop all over flights until further notice general andrew jackson good pastor eisenhower staff secretary told allen dellis that he wasn't allowed to mention quote The existence of the project or of operation incident to it outside the executive branch The president wanted to manage the number of people who knew about this act of aggression and was especially keen to keep it out of the public eye More than the soviet reaction He was worried that the american people would be angry about the over flights And he knew their descent would be harder to manage than the soviet protests Eisenhower's enthusiasm for the youtube program quickly waned much to richard bissel's chagrin He thought the caliber of photographs was worth the risk Bissel was so keen to continue flights that he initiated a program to shrink the youtube's radar cross section So it would be harder for the soviets to track this begat project ht namable Which established a proprietary firm called the scientific engineering institute led by former air force colonel Richard s leghorn the man who had first pushed the service to consider high altitude photo reconnaissance in the 1950s Experiments with radar absorbing materials began on november 26th under project rainbow A first attempted solution was fitting bamboo than fiberglass poles on the wings But this trapeze arrangement failed to scramble radar signals and lowered the u2's operational ceiling The next solution was a plastic wallpaper containing a printed design that absorbed radar pulses between 65 and 85 megahertz glued to the fuselage nose and tail This brought a significant weight and drag penalty and in one test caused the engine to overheat killing test pilot robert syker It seemed the u2's inherent altitude advantage was for the moment its best defense soviet overflights stalled when on july 26 1956 egyptian president gamal abdel nasser nationalized the suez canal company This was a retaliatory move against the u.s And the uk for withdrawing financial support for the aswan dam project to get a bird's eye view of the situation as it developed The u.s set up a second u2 operation detachment b based at the inserlic airbase in adana turkey Operating under the krypton mkw cork and under the guise of the second weather reconnaissance squadron provisional These u2 missions flew over greece israel egypt lebanon syria turkey and the gaza strip Film from these missions was flown back to the united states for development and interpretation Then shared with the british government to help both nations navigate the crisis This new usage for the u2 meant it was suddenly expected to perform like a tactical reconnaissance program Monitoring a developing situation around the clock To keep to this new continuous schedule managers had to establish a new program to develop the film on site Project ht automat saw a new development of photo interpreting set up in western germany on september 17th 1956 deputy director of the cga charles cable and Richard bissel met with eisenhower at the white house to ask permission for more soviet flights Their argument was the same that photo intelligence was worth the risk Neither cable nor bissel cared about world opinion They instead stressed that the u2 might not stay safe from soviet interception for long So the time to act was sooner rather than later But alan dellis was also growing wary of the political ramifications of continued penetration to soviet airspace He was on the fence, but still leaning more towards overflights before they became too risky While key players in the u.s argued over the continuation of overflights the situation eastern europe escalated The soviet union backed away from a confrontation with communist leaders in poland only defined a similar situation in hungary And this time nikita khrushchev ordered troops to suppress the uprising eisenhower newly reelected for a second term in office and watching the situation from afar Denied any u2 flights over the crisis, but seeing such hostile aggression from the soviets pushed him over the edge He knew world opinion was that the united states occupied such a positive position as a military power Something it hadn't really had since the end of the war and that overflights risked costing the country that privileged position He was also worried about his reputation He was known for his honesty when negotiating with other leaders and he didn't want to jeopardize something He knew was vital to his maintaining america's relations and image Damaging this asset for some pictures hardly seemed worth it Torn between his desire to maintain a correct and moral status and his need to know what the soviets were doing Eisenhower found an acceptable middle ground overflights of eastern europe and along the soviet border But without penetrating soviet airspace The first mission in this resumed soviet program came on november 20th 1956 Gary powers flew along the soviet iranian border drawing soviet interceptors who again failed to reach the u2 The flight garnered another protest note and led eisenhower to halt all soviet flights on december 18th in an attempt to ease growing tensions But border flights continued and on march 18th 1957 one accidentally entered soviet airspace Pilot james w shelbono got lost in heavy clouds and only realized where he was when he saw soviet interceptors trying to reach him The stall in soviet overflights led the u.s air force to try and arrest control of the entire u2 program It had its own growing fleet of u2s But richard bissel fought back to quote maintain greater security employ deeper cover and use civilian pilots Keep the aircraft outside military control and therefore make possible more plausible denial of u.s military responsibility in the face of any soviet charges eisenhower similarly rejected the air force's proposal to undertake its own reconnaissance missions appeasing the service by Okaying peripheral flights near the kamchatka peninsula and lake baikal He also okayed missions near the soviet's atomic testing area at semi palatinsk to see where the sobiets were reportedly testing nuclear missiles On june 8th 1957 a u2 took off from islesen air force base in alaska on the first intentional Overflight since eisenhower had called them off a half a year earlier This also marked the first flight of detachment c officially weather reconnaissance squadron provisional 3 The far east division that was set to move to the naval air station in that sugi japan us intelligence said the soviet's far east radar network was less sophisticated than what existed along its western borders Offering a potentially safer entry point for american overflights At the same time growing concern over soviet missiles led to a new base of operations for detachment b at the airfield at lahore in pakistan Operation soft touch was designed to look for soviet guided missiles and evidence of nuclear programs The first soft touch flight left on august 5th 1957 with buster edens in the cockpit He managed to photograph the soviet space launch facility east of the arial sea in kazakhstan Revealing for the first time that it was close to the village of to iratam and not by kanur Though that was the name the soviets used for it by kanur was in reality more than 200 miles north Follow-up flights on august 20th and 21st flew over the nuclear site at semi palatinsk and revealed a new missile test center at Sarisaghan This was where radar was tested against incoming missiles fired from kaput stonyar 1400 miles away It wasn't until august 23rd that the air force chief of staff told eisenhower about soft touch While the president was happy to have the information he denied further over flights But it quickly became obvious the reconnaissance was vital Three days later on august 26th The soviet news agency tas released a statement Confirming that a super long range multi-stage icbm had been successfully tested and was now possible to send missiles To any part of the world U2 flights were able to confirm that there was only one launch pad to fire these missiles Throughout the summer and fall of 1957 the majority of soviet overflights were done by detachment b and adana and detachment c in etsugi They were less risky as starting points than detachment a in v spot and since soviet radar and defenses were strongest along that western border But activity was starting to slow down by november Eisenhower reinstated his ban on soviet overflights allowing only border flights and issued a very strict warning against violating soviet airspace Once again seeking to ease soviet american tensions Eisenhower sent the ussr a note calling for a reachable study of technical elements to safeguard against a surprise attack He was especially concerned about soviet nuclear atmospheric testing Khrushchev remained unwilling to strike a deal with the us but did pursue a peace treaty with east germany in november of 1958 A new crisis that made the us even wearier of darting into soviet airspace The u2 program was back in limbo By the time operation soft touch was drawing to a close Bissell's promised two years of overflights free from soviet intervention were up He and u2 program managers had to acknowledge that the soviets were developing new technologies that could pose a real threat to the high flying plane The new mig 19 and mig 21 could climb higher than previous iterations And the new high altitude mandrake r or yak 25 r m an improved version of the yakalev 25 all-weather interceptor Was also a threat the soviets were getting that much closer to the u2's operational altitude New american intelligence also found out how the soviets were learning to attack the u2 The mig's tactic was to fly on the same compass heading as the u2 But 10 000 feet below it the pilot would then dive with a fully open throttle to gain speed Then pull back and zoom up as high as possible The goal was to get right under the u2 long enough to use guns and missiles before falling The mig just couldn't operate at that altitude for long The u2 pilots now worried that a mig would actually collide with their spy plane on this aggressive upward swoop Recognizing that they were effectively sitting ducks They asked for a camouflaging layer of black paint that could hide the metal plane against the black canopy of space The lull in soviet overflights saw a development elsewhere in the program Notably the inclusion of british pilots at detachment b in adana For eisenhower british pilots helped mitigate some of the political risk of further overflights For bissel it meant he could appeal to another authority for permission for these overflights But it wasn't a new arm of the american program The british pilots flew a u2 signed over to their government And british authorities were more interested in middle eastern missions that had more immediate implications for european nations The advent of the space age brought new concerns from behind the iron curtain when the soviets launched sputnik on october 4th 1957 the new concern was over the r7 rocket that launched it Additional satellite launches coupled with soviet boasts about successful missile tests fueled american fears On december 4th 1958 a soviet delegate to the geneva convention on surprise attacks stated that soviet icbms are at present in mass production Five days later christiav said that the soviet icbm could carry a five megaton nuclear warhead 8 000 miles That same month the us test of the titan icbm failed fueling more fears that the americans were falling behind It was the bomber gap all over again No one knew if the disparity between countries was real or propaganda By early 1959 the defense department was pushing eisenhower for more overflights to settle the question of the missile gap Though eisenhower was keen to wait for the corona satellite program to be flight ready orbital satellites would be well above airspace violations He eventually relented sort of on april 10th eisenhower approved soviet overflights But withdrew his approval two days later opting instead to pursue negotiation talks But when negotiations once again proved fruitless He approved two electronic intelligence or elent missions on june 9th and 18th 1959 that were joined u2 rb 57 d canberra missions Alan delis and rt. Bissell again appealed to eisenhower on july 7th 1959 They wanted a penetration flight and they got their approval two days later One u2 flew a diversionary mission along the soviet iranian border While a second mission flew from peshawar pakistan over the url mountains and found that the soviets were expanding to your attempt Those few missions didn't immediately lead to more Nikita khrushchev was scheduled to visit the us from september 15th to 27th And eisenhower didn't want to strain relations more before that meeting But soviet progress in space with the luna 2 mission brought more boasting about its missile power By the end of the year the soviet premier was announcing that his country had quote Such a stock of rockets such an amount of atomic and hydrogen weapons that if they attack us We could wipe our potential enemies off the face of the earth He added in one year 250 rockets with hydrogen warheads came off the assembly line in the factory we visited eisenhower still refused to allow soviet over flights But the british government had fewer qualms in december of 1959 rf pilot robert robinson flew from peshawar Over kibchev saratov engels airfield and kaputstin yar, but he didn't pass over to yura tem Leaving the soviet missile question unanswered By the beginning of 1960 dullis was desperate for information about the soviet ss6 sapwood missile installations He wanted to fly over soviet sites and follow nearby railway lines that might be transporting materials Or even finished missiles to other launch sites in the country without presidential approval Cia and military planners pushed forward and in mid february presented eisenhower with plans for four additional u2 soviet missions Detection when flying from the peshawar base was increasingly likely they advised so the time to act was now On march 28th 1960 eisenhower consented to one penetration flight as early as april within this time frame He had two options Operation grand slam called for a flight south to north from peshawar flying over to yura tem Sverdlosk Kirov Kotlas Severodvinsk and mormansk before landing in norway Operation time step called for a u2 to fly from the air force base in thul greenland over novaya zemlia Then follow railways from the poli arnie yura mountains to kotlas Passing over mormansk before landing at either bodo or andoya on norway Time step was considered less desirable The route was thought to have a 90 chance of detection and accurate tracking Which at the very least would lead to a detailed diplomatic protest the same issues weren't raised for grand slam eisenhower approved grand slam on the condition that it fly by may 1st of 1960 at the very latest He didn't want anything to sour relations too close before the paris summit, which was scheduled to begin on may 16th With the mission finally approved Cia planners began working on the details for operation grand slam That is where we're going to end things for now. Like I said, this is part of a larger series Up next we're going to be diving into the powers incident looking at detail at what happened on that mission And what effects it had on the youtube program and the cold war as a whole After that and after a break for the holidays It'll be the corona satellites and finally the a12 slash ox cart slash s r 71 Quick reminder that my new book fighting for space is available However, you like to consume books as is my first breaking the chains of gravity I have links for both of those in the description below A special shout out to all my patreon backers and youtube members You guys truly make these videos possible So thank you so much for your ongoing support If you would like to help keep the vintage space up and running and also get access to my space center discord I've got the link you need in the description below And of course links on how to connect across social media as well Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today and I'll see you next time