U-2

Powers had flown for the U.S. Air Force before shifting to the Central Intelligence Agency to become one of the first U-2 pilots in 1956. He flew 27 successful missions in U-2s (not all of them over the Soviet Union) before a surface-to-air missile downed his ship near Sverdlovsk on May 1, 1960.The Soviets captured him immediately, but took their time telling the news. This made the Eisenhower Administration very uncomfortable because it initially denied that the lost and presumably dead pilot had any intelligence connection. In August 1960, Powers was tried and convicted of espionage against the Soviet Union. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. Powers was cleared by the U.S. government of all allegations of misconduct after his repatriation.