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Reconnaissance aircraft
Reconnaissance aircraft is an aircraft designed to perform aerial reconnaissance which can be carried out for both military and civilian purposes. The role of reconnaissance aircraft mostly is to observe and gather information like images, signals, and measurements. These kinds of aircraft are considered spy planes for the military used to collect imagery intelligence and also act as real-time weather-gathering aircraft.

Before the 20th century


Before the 1900s, armies didn't have flying machines like we do today. Instead, they tried using balloons during wars like the Napoleonic Wars and the Franco-Prussian War to look at enemy movements from above.

Civilian usage
Before experts can guess where a hurricane will go or how strong it will be, they have to gather a lot of information about the storm and the weather. They use satellites the most for watching hurricanes, but they also need data from the ocean, land, and especially from flying in the air.

Before satellites were around in the 1960s, forecasters used planes to find storms over the ocean. The first time a plane deliberately flew into a hurricane was in late July 1943, by Joseph B. Duckworth and Lt. Ralph O’Hair. Since then, planes have been flying into hurricanes and gathering important information. After this, flying into hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and typhoons in the Northwest Pacific Ocean became a yearly thing. But in 1987, they stopped routinely flying into typhoons in the Northwest Pacific. Back then, forecasters would ask planes to fly into storms based on limited information from islands and ships. Crews would go out with only a rough idea of where the storm was and had to use their own eyes to find it. They guessed the wind speed and direction by looking at the sea. The Beaufort scale is a way to measure wind speed based mainly on how rough the sea is. The U.S. National Weather Service uses a modified version of the Beaufort scale, which goes from 0 to 12, to describe hurricane-force winds.

World War I
During World War I, airplanes were used in the beginning of battles to gather information for the ground troops. They were like the army’s eyes in the sky. From World War I until 1945, most aerial reconnaissance was done using modified fighter and bomber planes with cameras attached. Taking pictures became the main way for these planes to gather information by the end of World War II. At the start of World War I in 1914, the British Royal Flying Corps sent out three different teams to find where the German armies were in France. This helped the British troops on the ground to avoid getting surrounded, trapped, and beaten by the Germans. World War I, French forces benefited from their own airplanes for spying on German troops. Louis Breguet, an important airplane maker, flew up to see what the Germans were doing and told General Joseph S. Gallieni about it. Gallieni then launched an attack that helped the French gather their troops for the Battle of the Marne, where they managed to stop the Germans from advancing further. With these contributions, long-range spy missions played a big part in preventing France from being quickly defeated by Germany and winning the war by winter 1914.



Over the next 85 years, a lot changed in long-range spy missions. The distance they could cover changed a lot—from 15 miles to a few hundred, and then to a few thousand. The way they gathered information also changed—from just looking with their eyes, to taking pictures with really good cameras, to collecting signals in the air and space with advanced equipment.

After World War I, most countries had tight budgets, so they didn’t spend much on their armed forces. This meant that spy missions suffered the most. George W. Goddard was a big supporter of spy missions in the Air Service/Air Corps, and he worked hard to improve them. Despite facing challenges from his bosses, like Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, Goddard’s efforts paid off. He improved things like cameras, equipment, training, and the planes and crews used for spying. His work formed the foundation of intelligence gathering for the Army and Air Force for many years.

During the time between wars, spy missions in the US Army were mostly focused on helping artillery by giving them information to aim better. This didn’t change much until 1943, when the need for both tactical and strategic spying became clear on all fronts.

World War II


During World War II, there was an immediate need for reconnaissance, but the US Army Air Forces didn't have planes specifically for that job. Instead, fighters and bombers did some reconnaissance along with their main duties.

After the war and during the Cold War, the US created special planes just for reconnaissance, like the U-2 and SR-71, to keep an eye on what the Soviet Union was doing with its nuclear weapons. They also made other planes for listening in on signals and monitoring electronics.

By the end of World War II, the US had a good reconnaissance system with enough planes and people. But after the war, they got rid of a lot of it. When the Cold War started, they didn't have a good system anymore.

Since the Cold War, satellites and drones have taken over a lot of the reconnaissance work. This has been proven to work well, like when Israel and the US used them during Desert Storm. Long-range reconnaissance developed in two main ways: some planes were modified from bombers and fighters to stay near enemy territory, while others were made specifically for the job and could do incredible things.

Radical Transformation


In the 1950s, because tensions were high around the world, it was very important to find better ways to gather information about what the Soviet Union was doing. People were already working on this. For example, the Air Force was making big changes to the B-57 airplane to turn it into the RB-57D and later the RB-57F. These new planes had really big wings and could fly very high. Then, in March 1953, a guy named Maj. John Seaberg at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio came up with a plan for a new system. This system would be able to fly 1,500 miles away from where it started and carry up to 700 pounds of spying equipment. Seaberg's plan focused on using a new kind of camera invented by a guy named Edwin Land, who was famous for making Polaroid cameras. This new camera would use special lenses made by a company called Hycon Corp. and a new kind of film from Eastman Kodak.

The Skunk Works team made an amazing plane called the U-2. It had its first official flight on August 1, 1955, flown by Tony LeVier. The first time a U-2 flew over Soviet land was on July 4, 1956. The Soviet Union was very mad that the US could fly over its land without getting caught, but they couldn't do much about it at the time. They complained a little, but not too loudly, because they didn't want to admit they couldn't stop the flights.

Over 23 flights over the Soviet Union, the U-2 got a lot of information. It found out way more than anyone knew before, not just about what Moscow was up to, but also what it wasn't able to do. The U-2 showed that the Soviet bomber fleet wasn't as big as people thought, and they didn't have as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) (a ballistic missile with a range greater than 5,500 kilometres, primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery) as people feared. The U-2 also flew over other countries in the Warsaw Pact, as well as places in the Middle East and other parts of the world where there were problems.

The final Straw
The last time a U-2 flew over Soviet territory was on May 1, 1960. During this flight, Francis Gary Powers, who was an Air Force officer secretly working for the CIA, was flying his U-2 over Sverdlovsk when it was attacked. The plane was hit by about 14 surface-to-air missiles and broke apart. Powers parachuted to the ground and was captured by the Soviet Union. He was put on trial and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but he was later exchanged for a Soviet spy named Rudolf Abel in 1962.

After that incident, the U-2 didn't fly over the Soviet Union anymore, but it was used a lot over China. Some of these missions were flown by pilots trained by the US Air Force in Taiwan, and unfortunately, some U-2 planes were lost during these flights. The U-2 played a crucial role during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 when President John F. Kennedy got clear pictures of Soviet missile sites in Cuba from U-2 flights. But during these flights, Cuban forces shot down one U-2, and the pilot, Maj. Rudolph Anderson Jr., was killed. Even though Lockheed, the company that made the U-2, started working on a replacement, the U-2 continued to be updated and improved. The latest version, called the U-2S, recently won a prestigious award.



Nowadays, reconnaissance missions have changed a lot. Instead of just taking pictures, reconnaissance planes like the U-2 and RC-135 use advanced equipment to gather electronic intelligence and radar signals in real time. They also do other tasks like airborne early warning and monitoring the weather. There are also new unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are used for reconnaissance and are showing where future warfare might be heading.

How it started and why it started
During World War I, the use of aircraft for reconnaissance was primarily limited to visual observation due to the modest capabilities of their engines, which could only support a pilot and occasionally an observer. However, these aircraft quickly demonstrated their value in providing crucial information on enemy positions and movements. Aerial photography became a vital tool for military planners, offering detailed insights into enemy dispositions. British reconnaissance aircraft, in particular, were highly effective. Modified versions of aircraft such as the Spitfire and the Mosquito were stripped of armament and equipped with additional fuel tanks to extend their range. These reconnaissance aircraft were also outfitted with electronic countermeasure (ECM) devices and relied on electronic and infrared sensors to enhance their surveillance capabilities.

Their missions included locating and photographing targets using radar and traditional photographic methods, as well as probing enemy electronic defense systems to gather intelligence. This marked the beginning of aerial reconnaissance's crucial role in military operations, providing commanders with essential information for strategic decision-making.

In more recent times, the headlines have highlighted incidents involving reconnaissance aircraft, such as the shooting down of a United States plane over East Germany and reports of high-altitude flights over Communist China. These incidents underscore the importance of aerial reconnaissance in national intelligence efforts and hint at the technological complexities involved in the ongoing clandestine struggle between Communist and non-Communist powers.



The recent loss of United States aircraft, including a Douglas RB-66, in East Germany raises questions about the circumstances surrounding these incidents. While the RB-66 was equipped for tactical reconnaissance with cameras and electronic sensors, its obsolescence and the unusual circumstances of its presence over heavily defended airspace suggest the possibility of navigational errors or deliberate interference by Soviet electronic equipment. These incidents serve as reminders of the risks and challenges faced by reconnaissance aircraft operators in navigating hostile territories.

Martin Model 294


To speed up the process of creating a temporary reconnaissance aircraft, the Model 294 was built using the Martin B-57 bomber as a base. This Model 294, part of project Black Knight, had its engines replaced with more powerful ones and its wingspan extended. By April 1955, it was officially named the RB-57D, with an initial order of six planes increasing to 20. There were three versions made: the first 13 were single-seat models equipped with cameras and sensors behind the pilot, one had high-resolution radar for day and night use, and the last six had a second crew member for electronic intelligence gathering. The RB-57D had an innovative but problematic wing design using an aluminum honeycomb. It was strong and light, but it had issues with water seepage and stress. Flight tests in 1955 and 1956 showed that the wings could crack and needed strengthening. They weren't built to handle long hours of intense flying, and some planes had their wings broken after landing, though thankfully not during flight.

Fairchild M-195
During the initial design phase at Fairchild, they explored various configurations for the aircraft, ranging from slower turboprop-powered planes with long wings to faster rocket and ramjet-powered ones. The supersonic ideas were quickly ruled out because they would take too long to develop. In their analysis, Fairchild engineers focused on wing loading and studied designs with different engines, eventually settling on ones powered by the J57 engine. These designs had long, straight wings and could fly at high altitudes, between 65,000 and 67,200 feet.

Considering both weight and aerodynamics, the team chose a single-engine configuration using the J57 engine and built the aircraft mostly from aluminum using standard methods. The cockpit was pressurized and had an ejection seat. The plane could carry various cameras in a sensor bay. Instead of a nose wheel, the aircraft had a tail wheel for steering, and the main landing gear retracted into the wings. The wings were placed low on the fuselage and had a system to raise the flaps and ailerons in gusty conditions.

A unique feature of the design was the engine intake located behind and above the cockpit, which minimized duct lengths and improved efficiency. This also allowed for shorter pressurization ducts to the cockpit and sensor bay, reducing weight.

Weight was a major concern for the engineers at Fairchild. They calculated that the total weight of the aircraft, including payload and engine, would be around 10,943 pounds when empty. With crew, fuel, and other essentials, the total weight at takeoff would be approximately 19,000 pounds. With this weight in mind, the M-195 could follow a specific mission plan: it would climb to 61,100 feet at a speed of 150 knots over a distance of 139 miles. Then, the pilot would ascend further to an operational cruising altitude of 65,000 feet over 161 miles. Once at cruising altitude, flying at a speed of 390 knots, the plane could travel about 1,200 miles to its target. On the return journey, it would maintain its cruising altitude before spiraling down to land, with a projected landing weight of around 12,106 pounds.

Bell Model 67


In the design study, Bell's Model 67, later called the X-16, emerged as a strong contender. While the Martin RB-57D was a quick solution for high-altitude reconnaissance, it was only temporary. Fairchild's M-195 met some requirements but wasn't as advanced as Bell's design. The X-16 was chosen as the favorite.

After Air Force approval in May 1954 and a contract signed in September, Bell aimed to have a prototype ready in 18 months, followed by 27 more planes. Led by Richard Smith, the Bell team designed the X-16 to fly at 70,000 feet for 3,300 miles without refueling. It could carry cameras for photography along a 50-mile wide path up to 795 miles long.

The X-16 had lightweight, high-aspect-ratio wings and was powered by modified Pratt & Whitney J57-P-31 engines. To save weight, it had a unique bicycle landing gear configuration with outrigger wheels. Due to weight restrictions, the airframe was very flexible, with a structural-dynamic envelope allowing for maneuvers rated between +3 g's and -1 g.

There were concerns about the wings becoming unstable at high speeds, so the design included angled wings and inward ailerons. The cockpit was pressurized and equipped with standard instruments, an ejection seat, and navigation tools.

The prototype construction went smoothly initially, but there were changes brewing. The CIA believed civilian agencies should handle covert reconnaissance, and Lockheed's Kelly Johnson submitted his own proposal after hearing about the project.

Operational history
Note: Numbers are approximate. Some aircraft took on missions not listed here.

Development of material in aircraft
Improving airplane materials has been crucial for making planes safer, more fuel-efficient, faster, and able to fly longer. Since the Wright Brothers' first flight in 1903, airplane materials have become much stronger, lasting longer, and performing better.

Development of UAV


Drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are planes that don't need a person inside to fly them. They can be controlled remotely or fly by themselves using sensors and technology. Drones come in different sizes and shapes and are used for military, business, and helping out during emergencies. Nowadays, they're really important because they can do a lot of different things and have changed how we think about the military, business, and helping people in need. Investing in drones can bring a lot of benefits because they make the world more connected, sustainable, and innovative.