From WCVE Public Radio’s Charles Fishburne – Fifty years ago, (May 1st) an American spy plane was shot down deep in Soviet territory. Its pilot, Gary Powers, was a young man from Pound, Virginia–the son of a coal miner. Through intelligence and native abilities, he had become one of the country’s best pilots. Powers flew one of the country’s most secret aircraft, the high-flying U2 Spy Plane, thought to be beyond Soviet reach. He would find himself in the midst of a crisis that threatened a nuclear confrontation at the height of the Cold War.