Who would have thought that the Lockheed U-2, Kelly Johnson’s late, uninvited, and losing entry into a 1950s Air Force competition for a reconnaissance aircraft, would still be flying intelligence-gathering missions 60 years after its first flight? Challenged for its role as the sultan of surveillance by reconnaissance satellites, by Lockheed’s Mach 3 glamour puss, the SR-71 Blackbird (retired in 1999), and most recently, by the big Northrop Grumman surveillance UAV, Global Hawk, the U-2 flies on—above 70,000 feet, for as long as 12 hours at a time.

In this special section, we report on the hazards faced by the pilots who fly the U-2 today, the experience of one of the test pilots who flew for Lockheed in the 1960s, the special requirements of handling this unique aircraft, and its 57-year history. We also offer a pair of stories about two Chinese encounters with the U-2: one from a MiG pilot who tried to shoot it down; one from a Chinese American who knows more about the images held in the National Archives than anyone else in the world.

—The Editors

That New Black Magic

Killer at 70,000 Feet

Area 51: Origins

Diary of a Spy

I Flew the U-2

Dragon Lady: A Portrait Gallery

Lin Xu’s Obsession

Project Equine

Bring Down the Spyplane

The U-Deuce

Wingman in a Pontiac

Area 51’s Black Jets