WI Powers dies in the 1960 U-2 incident?

Alright, I'm normally not this incoherent, but I can't figure out a better way to ask these questions on my mind.

What if Powers hadn't bailed out in time and died in the U-2 crash or committed suicide shortly after hitting the ground with the concealed poisoned needle in his possession? Also, is it possible for the SAM to do such a thorough job of destroying the U-2 that little if any evidence of the aircraft's presence survives the explosion?
 
If Powers had died at the time he was shot down, it would give the US a lot more plausible deniability for what the aircraft's actual mission was. Initially, they had put forth the story that it was a NASA research plane that went off course after the pilot reported having oxygen problems. Having a live pilot blows a quite large hole in that theory. Although the Soviets probably would have eventually found bits of the camera and such, and probably pieced together the true story from that.

Regarding your second question, if the SA-2 had actually hit the plane, instead of detonating it, it might have made any surviving pieces virtually unrecognizable. I don't think it would have been sufficient to completely vaporize the plane, though.
 
When you consider how much of crashed airliners NTSC have been able to put together when investigating accidents, I doubt that a SAM would have been able to render the U2 unrecognisable.
 
When you consider how much of crashed airliners NTSC have been able to put together when investigating accidents, I doubt that a SAM would have been able to render the U2 unrecognisable.

Didn't the Russian's already have some understanding of the U2 based on pieces from Taiwanese piloted U2s shot down over the PRC or did those missions start after Gary Powers?
 
The Soviets knew it was a spy plane so they ID'ng it isn't the issue.

The issue is damaging it enough that the Soviets couldn't prove it was such.
 
Meh, the Soviets knew it, but they also knew they couldn't make a big fuss because they knew it would destroy their air of invincibility if they revealed that they'd been unable to bring one down for so many years.
 
Derailing my own thread, but here's a 1965 photo of wreckage that the PRC claimed to be from a downed ROCAF U-2

_62660162_u2_aircraft624.jpg


It looks pretty complete to me.
 
If Powers isn't alive there isn't a 'U-2 Incident' With no pilot to put on trial the U.S. just completely stonewalls the issue. It was only the existence of a walking, talking prisoner that made it an international incident that was difficult to deny
 
*ROCAF U-2 info


Not to further derail the thread, but in the book about the Skunk Works I have, it mentions that the ROCAF U-2s had ECM kits installed in them. However, intel suspected that the PRC had figured out the frequencies used by the jammers, and changed their missiles so that they would home on those frequencies. Apparently, one day, three out of four ROCAF U-2s that went over China got shot down, and the only one that didn't forgot to turn his ECM device on.
 
Top