Скачать или смотреть One Photograph Destroyed Russia's Most Secret Airplane

Martin Knutson was alone at the edge of space.

He was 70,000 feet above Soviet Russia, strapped into a U-2 spy plane so fragile it could barely survive turbulence. Below him, the Russian steppe stretched endlessly in every direction.

For years, American intelligence had feared the Soviets were building a new kind of weapon, one powerful enough to cross oceans and erase cities. They called it the Bomber Gap.

Then, Engels Airfield drifted into view. Knutson’s camera triggered. Looking down, he saw them: dozens of Myasishchev M-4 Bisons, lined up wingtip to wingtip across the tarmac.
His heart sank: The Gap was real.

He turned his aircraft home, believing he carried proof America was losing the Cold War.

When the film reached Washington, the room went quiet.
Not because of what was on the tarmac… but because of what wasn’t.

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