Lockheed U-2 | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2019-05-07

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2


00:01:50 1 Development
00:01:59 1.1 Background
00:04:39 1.2 Lockheed proposal
00:07:33 1.3 Approval
00:10:10 1.4 Manufacture
00:13:32 1.5 Fuel
00:15:35 1.6 Radar cross-section reduction
00:16:05 2 Design
00:23:28 2.1 Sensors
00:24:47 3 Operational history
00:24:58 3.1 United States
00:25:07 3.1.1 Pilot selection and training
00:28:01 3.1.2 Test flights
00:32:12 3.1.3 Cover story
00:34:24 3.1.4 First overflights of Communist territory
00:39:39 3.1.5 "Bomber gap" disproven
00:41:02 3.1.6 Suez Crisis
00:42:58 3.1.7 Renewal of Eastern Bloc overflights
00:47:00 3.1.8 The "missile gap"
00:50:56 3.1.9 May 1960 U-2 incident
00:55:24 3.1.10 Restructuring
00:57:24 3.1.11 Cuba
01:01:19 3.1.12 Asia
01:05:48 3.1.13 U-2 carrier operations
01:07:04 3.1.14 1970–2000
01:09:31 3.1.15 Recent use and planned retirement
01:16:32 3.2 United Kingdom
01:20:23 3.3 Republic of China
01:26:43 4 Variants
01:26:53 4.1 Primary list
01:29:36 4.2 U-2E/F/H details
01:30:52 4.3 U-2R/S details
01:32:19 4.4 ER-2 details
01:33:10 4.5 TR-X/RQ-180
01:37:35 5 Operators
01:43:09 6 Aircraft on display
01:43:19 6.1 China
01:43:56 6.2 Cuba
01:45:00 6.3 Norway
01:45:16 6.4 Russia
01:45:43 6.5 United Kingdom
01:46:01 6.6 United States
01:47:52 7 Specifications (U-2S)
01:51:01 8 In popular culture
01:52:14 9 See also



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SUMMARY
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The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is an American single-jet engine, ultra-high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day and night, high-altitude (70,000 feet; 21,000 m), all-weather intelligence gathering.Lockheed Corporation originally proposed it in 1953, approval followed 1954, and the first test flight occurred in 1955. It was flown during the Cold War over the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and Cuba. In 1960, Gary Powers was shot down in a CIA U-2A over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile (SAM).  Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. was shot down in another U-2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. 
U-2s have also taken part in post–Cold War conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and supported several multinational NATO operations. The U-2 has also been used for electronic sensor research, satellite calibration, scientific research, and communications purposes. The U-2 is one of a handful of aircraft types to have served the USAF for over 50 years, like the Boeing B-52 and Boeing KC-135. The newest models (TR-1, U-2R, U-2S) entered service in the 1980s with the latest model, the U-2S, receiving its technical upgrade in 2012.