Inside The Spy Plane That Was At The Center Of Kennedy's Cuban Missile Crisis

At the time of the Cold War, Russia had nothing that could shoot the U2 out of the sky. Even their MiG jets had a ceiling 10,000 feet below the U2's gliding altitude.

One pilot said they'd buzz around below him, "like angry bees."

When the U-2 "Dragon Lady" debuted in 1957 it was an astonishing piece of technological achievement.

Able to fly reconnaissance from more than 13-miles above the earth, gather data through all weather conditions any time of day or night, while staying beyond the reach of Soviet military — it was an unbelievable achievement.

(Special thanks to the guys at Airmen magazine for the great imagery.)

When you plan on scraping the edge of space, you have to wear a space suit

At it's top altitude, if the spy plane's engine went down, it could glide more than 250 miles

Pilots were required to keep the bird in a five knot speed window