Misc.: Francis Gary Powers

For a brief period starting in 1960, the name Francis Gary Powers was known by virtually every literate American who paid any attention whatsoever to the news.

Powers, who had flown for the Air Force in the Korean conflict, was a CIA spy-plane pilot who was shot down over the Soviet Union while on a mission. The high-altitude U-2, which had taken off from a base in Pakistan, was fling ususally low and was hit by a Soviet missile. Powers parachuted to safety but was picked up by the KGB, tried for espionage, found guilty, and sentenced to 10 years.

Less than two years later, however, Powers was exchanged in Berlin for a Soviet spy who had been captured by the West.


After his return to the States, Powers worked as a test pilot and later as a TV news helicopter pilot. Due to a faulty fuel gauge, his copter crashed near Burbank in 1977, killing him.