Spyplanes: The Illustrated Guide to Manned Reconnaissance and Surveillance Aircraft from World War I to Today

375 Pages·2016·33.71 MB·English

by  Norman Polmar

SPYPLANES
THE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO MANNED RECONNAISSANCE AND SURVEILLANCE
AIRCRAFT FROM WORLD WAR I TO TODAY
BY NORMAN POLMAR
AND
JOHN F. BESSETTE
WITH
HAL BRYAN
ALAN C. CAREY
MICHAEL GORN
CORY GRAFF
AND
NICHOLAS A. VERONICO
CONTENTS
Perspective
PART I Spyplane Operations
PART II The Spyplanes
Germany
Great Britain
Russia/Soviet Union
United States
Endnotes
Index
PERSPECTIVE
To “spy” is to acquire information that another nation—enemy, neutral, and
sometimes allied—does not want one to obtain. Spyplanes have been invaluable
in obtaining such information for more than a century. And despite the advent of
satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles for this role, manned aircraft continue to
have great importance as spyplanes. This book is about the development and
operations of those aircraft.
The terms observation, reconnaissance, and surveillance are closely related,
with definitions that differ depending upon the source and perceived function.
Observation: Gathering information about the target area from above, primarily
using visual means. The term emerged during World War I—especially in the
US military—and survived into World War II, when it was largely replaced by
“reconnaissance.”
Surveillance: Gathering information, but usually when the targets or goals are
not well defined. Good examples are maritime surveillance missions, in which
aircraft search broad expanses of ocean seeking possible shipping or naval
activity.
Austrian guards on the Galician border take aim at Russian aviators making reconnaissance flights in aircraft
fitted with electric searchlights. The military potential of aerial observation had been noted as far back as the
eighteenth century, but it saw its first true expression with fixed-wing aircraft in World War I. Private
Collection/© Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images
Reconnaissance: Similarly gathering information, but increasingly using more
technical means, such as photographic, electronic, and communications intercept
systems as well as visual sightings. Usually reconnaissance missions have
specific targets or at least specific goals in mind (that is, to determine the
frequencies of a specific radar set). Within “reconnaissance,” there are two broad
types of missions—tactical and strategic: Tactical reconnaissance involves
operations in the vicinity of, or in direct support of, ongoing or impending
battles.
Strategic reconnaissance covers all other aspects of information gathering in
this context, for example, monitoring borders of hostile or potentially hostile
entities during times of tension, or gathering information on political, economic,
and military aspects away from the battlefield.
Determining which aircraft to include in this volume became an exercise in
deciding which aircraft to exclude. In the broad sense, virtually all military and
many civilian aircraft have had a role in “aerial spying” at some time in some
place. From the very beginning of armed flight, nations have asked (or ordered)
their aircrews—whether on combat missions such as fighter escorts or nuclear
strikes, or airlift large and small—to report their observations of the enemy to an
intelligence officer. Thus, all aircraft are in some sense “spyplanes.”
Some spyplanes are covert—innocent-appearing transport aircraft,
commercial/civil or military—with hidden electronic surveillance gear. These
include Sydney Cotton flying covert photo missions in a Lockheed 12A over
Germany in the 1930s on behalf of the British government, and US Air Force C-
97G Stratofreighters flown over East Germany during the Cold War. Most
spyplanes are overt, like the high-flying, highly publicized US U-2 and SR-71,
or the lumbering, graceful Soviet/Russian Bear.
A major issue when describing spyplanes is the “cut” between tactical and
strategic aircraft. An aircraft such as the LTV RF-8 Crusader was primarily a
tactical recon aircraft, but during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the RF-8s
from Navy light photograph squadron VFP-62 were employed to obtain
strategic-level intelligence of Soviet missile emplacements. Similarly, the
Lockheed RF-80 Shooting Star, another tactical recon aircraft, flew strategic
missions into Manchuria to ascertain the status of Chinese and Soviet airfields
during the 1950–1953 Korean conflict. Thus, the lines between tactical and
strategic spyplanes often become blurred. We have decided to address both types
of “spyplanes,” in part because of this overlap in missions and assignments.
The officially recognized American short term for reconnaissance is “recon,”
which is used in this book, while the British tend to use the term “recce.”
ABBREVIATIONS
AAF Army Air Forces (US, 1941–1948)
AFB Air Force Base
AWS Air Weather Service (US)
ASW anti-submarine warfare
CIA Central Intelligence Agency (US)
COMINT communications intelligence
CV aircraft carrier
CVA attack aircraft carrier
CVAN attack aircraft carrier (nuclear-propelled)
CVS anti-submarine aircraft carrier
ECM electronic countermeasures
ELINT electronic intelligence
FEAF Far East Air Forces (US)
FLIR forward-looking infrared
HASP high-altitude sampling program
JCS Joint Chiefs of Staff
LPH amphibious assault ship
Mach speed of sound (named for Ernst Mach)
MAD magnetic anomaly detection
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
PACAF Pacific Air Forces (US)
PARPRO Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Program (US)
RAF Royal Air Force (UK)
RPA remotely piloted aircraft
SA-( ) Soviet surface-to-air missile (NATO designation)
SAC Strategic Air Command (AAF command, 1946–1947; USAF/US Specified Command,
1947–1992)
SENSINT sensitive intelligence
SIGINT signals intelligence (includes COMINT and ELINT)
SLAR side-looking aircraft radar
TV television
unmanned aerial vehicle
unmanned aerial vehicle
UAV
USAF US Air Force (1948–)
USAFE US Air Forces Europe
USN US Navy
VFP light photographic squadron (US Navy)
VQ fleet air reconnaissance squadron (US Navy)