The Air Force/U.S. Government has long insisted that the U-2 is a reconnaissance aircraft, not a “spy plane”. That sounds very nice and pretty too. But back in 1957, the U-2 seen here belonged to the CIA and that meant it was very much in the business of spying. No doubt the CIA would call that “intelligence gathering”, but to scoop up such info, they still needed to do what is known as the age-old act of “spying”.
Thanks to Max Pashnev for this photo taken from the original negative.