Skunk Works

The first Russian overflight occurred on July 4, 1956. A CIA pilot named Harvey Stockman flew over northern Poland into Belorussia and over Minsk, then turned left and headed to Leningrad. He was tracked on radar all the way, and dozens of Soviet interceptors tried in vain to reach him, but he made it back safely into Germany having flown for nearly nine hours. When I came to work after that holiday weekend, Kelly sent for several of us in the analytical section and briefed us in a somewhat limited fashion. “Well, boys, Ike got his first picture postcard. The first take is being processed right now. But goddam it, we were spotted almost as soon as we took off. I think we’ve badly underestimated their radar capabilities. We could tell from overhearing their ground chatter that they were way off in estimating our altitude, but we always figured they wouldn’t even see us at sixty-five thousand feet. And you know why? Because we gave them lend-lease early-warning radar during World War II and presumed that, like us, they wouldn’t do anything to improve it. Obviously they have. I want you guys to brainstorm what we can do to make us less visible or help us go even higher.”

The Soviets were launching half their damned air force to try to stop these flights, and the president was upset at how easily they were tracking the U-2. “Mr. B is trying to bunch these flights before Ike gets cold feet or the Russians get lucky,” Kelly sighed. “The president has given us ten good weather days for these missions. After that, who knows?”