Tag: Kelly Johnson

Losing a U-2 over the Soviet Union was the nightmare scenario, and Francis Gary Powers was not dreaming. It was around 6:20 on Sunday May 1, 1960 when a member of the crew pulled the ladder away and slammed the canopy shut. The pilot then locked it from the inside. As Francis Gary Powers taxied on...

“Along with the SR-71, the F-104 is Kelly Johnson’s greatest creation,” Ed Carney, U.S. Navy A-7 Corsair II pilot who flew the Starfighter with the West German Navy from ’79-’82 The Lockheed F-104 was the first operational fighter capable of sustaining speeds above Mach 2. Thanks to this ability the Starfighter was a huge leap forward when strictly compared to the old subsonic...