Artifact Details
On 1 August 1955, during a high-speed-taxi test in the first U-2, Article 341, Lockheed’s Flight Test Pilot Tony Le Vier inadvertently became airborne at a remote test site in Nevada. This test would later be considered the first unofficial flight of the U-2.
Two years later, on 4 April 1957, during a Project Rainbow test with Lockheed’s Flight Test Pilot Robert Sieker at the control, a malfunction occurred, and both the plane and pilot were lost.
Forty years later, after five years of searching, the wreck site was rediscovered, but only a handful of small parts were found. This is one of those parts that were preserved in Lucite blocks and flown on an Air Force U-2S aircraft to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of U-2’s first flight.
Artifact Specs
9.3 cm x 7 cm x 1.7 cm
(L x W x H)
Learn More
The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954-1974
The U-2 Program: The DCI’s Perspective
The U-2 Program: A Russian Officer Remembers