---
born: 1929-08-17
category: Nuclear Scientists & Programs
died: 1977-08-01
location: Jenkins, Kentucky, USA
summary: Gary Francis Powers was an American pilot whose U-2 Spy Plane was shot down
  over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960, leading to a major international incident.
tags:
- Person
- Nuclear
- Israel
---

Gary Francis Powers was an American pilot whose [U-2 Spy Plane](/concepts/u-2-spy-plane/) was shot down over the [Soviet Union](/places/soviet-union/) on May 1, 1960, leading to a major international incident. Powers and his colleagues continued intermittently to overfly the Middle East, and were steadily back at work in the area in 1958, when the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/)'s photo interpreters began seeing significant activity at an Israeli Air Force practice bombing range south of [Beersheba](/places/beersheba/), which turned out to be the early signs of the [Dimona](/places/dimona/) nuclear reactor.[^1]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 4.