Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady: books - history and deployment

50 Years of the U-2 - The Complete Illustrated History of the Dragon Lady

When the U-2 first took off in 1955, no one involved in its top-secret project dreamt that this unique reconnaissance aircraft would still be flying today. The long story of the Dragon Lady is amazing, and complex; this book tells it all, in unprecedented detail, from the early days overflying the Soviet Union under CIA sponsorship, to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and on to the Vietnam War. The epic missions over Communist China were flown by nationalist pilots from Taiwan.

How the U-2 was improved, enlarged and put back into production - twice. It led the real-time recce revolution with data links and high-tech sensors. Then it played a key role in Desert Storm, over Bosnia and Kosovo, and most recently over Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to the CIA's own historian, Chris Pocock is the foremost authority on the U-2. To write this book, he flew in the aircraft, conducted 250 interviews, and analysed more than 1,000 declassified documents.

U-2 Spyplane - Toward the Unknown - A New History of the Early Years

The full story of the development and early use of the U-2 has never been properly told - until now.

This book describes in vivid detail how the high-flying spyplane was conceived, designed, built, and deployed in record time. It explains why the CIA, and not the U.S. Air Force, controlled the project. It traces how the Iron Curtain was pried apart by the epic overflights of "denied territory" from 1956 to 1960. It discusses why these flights were needed, what they were looking for, and how the intelligence they returned was processed and analyzed.
Readers are taken inside the Soviet Union's military machine, as it developed new strategic weapons and (eventually) the means to shoot the U-2 down. The book also explores the political dimension, telling how President Eisenhower and Premier Khrushchev each faced the challenge of the U-2 flights - albeit from very different perspectives. "Toward the Unknown" will appeal to students of aviation and intelligence history, and to anyone wishing to learn more about a key episode in the Cold War.

U-2 Flight Manual - Models U-2C and U-2F Aircraft

U-2 Dragon Lady - Pilot's Flight Operation Instructions

Conceived during the dark days of the Cold War, the U-2 is a single-engine,single-seat, surveillance aircraft. Designed by aeronautical engineer "Kelly" Johnson, the plane was used by the C.I.A. to photograph installations deep inside Soviet Russia. Known as the "Dragon Lady", the U-2 was classified.

The U-2's existence remained a secret until 1960, when a U-2 flown by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Soviet territory. The U-2 went on to have a long and illustrious career. Upgraded airframes remained in use five decades after it first debuted.

Originally printed by Lockheed and the USAF in the 1960s, this handbook taught pilots everything they needed to know before entering the cockpit. The manual was recently declassified. This affordable facsimile has been slightly reformatted.

Shady Lady: Flying the U-2 Spy Plane

Rick Bishop, a former U-2 pilot, takes the reader deep into the Black World of 'air-breathing' (non-satellite) reconnaissance, with a revealing and detailed account of the trials and challenges of flying a machine widely acknowledged as 'the most dangerous aircraft in the world', as well as revealing the personalities and adventures of some of the elite cadre of hand-selected pilots who have the right stuff to tame the Dragon Lady.

From the gruelling two-week interview process, through early training flights to many exploits flying top-secret missions around the world, and his eventual rise to Commander, the author sheds new light on a world that is largely unknown outside the tight fraternity of U-2 pilots and support personnel.