Before the advent of satellite reconnaissance technology, the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was the world's most advanced reconnaissance aircraft . It can fly at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters. This altitude makes the fighter and air defense artillery far beyond the reach. In 1956, the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft began to enter service and first conducted reconnaissance on the Soviet Union and obtained a lot of confidential information. In May 1960, a U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft of the US military was shot down by Soviet air defense forces while conducting intelligence reconnaissance on the Soviet Union. The pilot Bowers was captured after parachuting. After
After that, the United States no longer dared to send U-2 to investigate the Soviet Union, and it targeted China again. This time, the Americans learned their lesson and decided not to send their own pilots to the scene. Instead, they trained a group of pilots for Chiang Kai-shek and helped him form a " Black Cat Squadron ". Since April 1961, the "Black Cat Squadron" has sent pilots to fly U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance planes to invade the mainland for reconnaissance. At that time, our country's air defense power was still relatively weak, and there was no way to use the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
Later, with the assistance of the Soviet Union, our army formed three surface-to-air missile battalions. On September 9, 1962, the 2nd Missile Battalion led by Yue Zhenhua opened the first record in Nanchang and captured the first U-2 reconnaissance aircraft . In the following four years, my country shot down four U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, setting a world record for the largest number of U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. A foreign reporter who had a good news at that time asked Chen Yi What weapon did our country use to shoot down the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. Marshal Chen Yi said humorously: "We poked it down with a bamboo pole."
U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft is expensive, and the cost of cultivating a pilot is also very high. After five aircraft were shot by China in succession, the United States no longer dared to send U-2 to our country to steal intelligence. After that, the United States, which was unsuccessful, began to develop unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and handed over the mission to the famous Lockheed company . At the same time, the US military also proposed a series of stunning indicators to designer Johnson: the flight speed is required to be above Mach 3.3, the altitude cannot be lower than 27,000 meters, the range must be more than 5,600 kilometers, and it must be invisible and avoid the tracking of radar .
Anyone with discerning eyes can tell at a glance that the United States developed this drone at that time with China and the Soviet Union as its imaginary enemy, otherwise it would not have repeatedly emphasized the cruising range of 5,600 kilometers. At that time, the project was at the top secret level. The R&D funds it needed were not provided through public channels, but were funded by a top secret project fund of the US Air Force. The US military believes that if these indicators can be achieved, then this unmanned reconnaissance aircraft will have the ability to come and go freely in the airspace of any country in the world."
In the end, this unmanned reconnaissance aircraft was named D-21, nicknamed "Pocket Blackbird". Due to the high performance requirements of the US military for the D-21, many problems arose during the development process, and the cycle was greatly extended, and accidents occurred many times during the test flight. In May and July 1969, the D-21 successfully completed two consecutive test flights. Although the performance is not very stable, the US military can't wait to put it into active service. At that time, our country had conducted multiple nuclear tests on Lop Nur , and the United States was eager to obtain information on this.
On March 20, 1971, a D-21 high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft invaded our country from over Beibu Gulf . Since it flies at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters, it is extremely fast and uses stealth technology, my country's radar system has not been able to capture it. D-21 came to Lop Nur without any obstacles, successfully completed the reconnaissance and shooting mission, and then returned on the established route. Unexpectedly, when passing through Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, he fell into the primeval forest due to a power system failure.
Due to the buffering effect of trees, this D-21 high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft did not completely crash, and the wreckage was preserved quite intact. The militia that arrived later worked together to transport the D-21 wreckage and handed it over to the military. Under the circumstances at that time, our country did not have the ability to imitate D-21, but scientific researchers still gained a lot of valuable things from it. In order to find this "missing" D-21, the United States even dispatched the elites of FBI, but they were unable to find it and finally had to give up.In 2010, the Beijing Xiaotangshan Aviation Museum announced the debris of D-21 for the first time. Only then did the United States discover that the D-21, which was fruitless, was actually lying in a museum in China. This is tantamount to the elites of the FBI.
