Spy in the Sky

Originally airing on PBS's American Experience series, Spy in the Sky tells the extraordinary story of one of America's most embarrassing moments during the Cold War. Desperate to learn about the military might of the Soviet Union, the U.S. developed what many thought was the ultimate spy weapon...the Lockheed U-2 jet. After a stumbling early start, the U-2 began to fly surveillance missions in 1956, but all of that changed on May 1, 1960, when President Eisenhower received word that a U-2 had been shot down and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, captured by the Soviets--an event that permanently shattered the fragile accord established between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and Eisenhower. Combining archival footage, interviews, and narration by Roy Scheider, this absorbing chronicle of the history of the U-2 from its inception in 1955 through its use into the 1990s is particularly notable for its detailed examination of one of the defining events in the Cold War. Recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (J. Carlson)