Quote:
Originally Posted by lacad01
There was a film made of the incident starring Lee Majors (Six Million Dollar Man), wasn't too bad if I recall
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Hi Adam,
That is indeed correct and it was a made-for-TV movie that was shown
here several years back.
It was difficult to deny the U-2's true purpose once the Soviets went over the wreckage.
The aircraft's equipment bay was referred to as the Q-bay and its camera contents
were regarded as Top Secret. The Q-bay was fitted with a destructor unit
wired to a little over a kilogram of RDX explosive. Activating the destructor
was a two step process. The pilot first had to throw one switch and then
a second which would begin a 70 second countdown. With the Q-bay location
directly beneath the cockpit, the pilot risked serious injury should it detonate
whilst he was in the aircraft. Powers didn't activate the self-destruct mechanism.
Pilots were also issued with poison pins.
Several years ago, I passed by the airforce base just outside of Peshawar, Pakistan
where Powers began his secret flight.