Francis Gary Powers

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Francis Gary Powers" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Francis Gary Powers
Powers in 1964
Born	(1929-08-17)August 17, 1929 Jenkins, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	August 1, 1977(1977-08-01) (aged 47) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Helicopter crash
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Education	Milligan College (B.S.)
Known for	1960 U-2 incident
Spouses	Barbara Gay Moore ​ ​ (m. 1956; div. 1963)​ Claudia Edwards Downey ​ ​ (m. 1963)​
Awards	Senior Pilot Silver Star Distinguished Flying Cross Intelligence Star Prisoner of War Medal National Defense Service Medal Director's Award
Aviation career
Rank	Captain

Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot who served as a United States Air Force officer and a CIA employee. Powers is best known for his involvement in the 1960 U-2 incident, when he was shot down while flying a secret CIA spying mission over the Soviet Union. Powers survived, but was captured and sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet prison for espionage. He served 21 months of his sentence before being released in a prisoner swap in 1962.

After returning to the US, he worked at Lockheed as a test pilot for the U-2, and later as a helicopter pilot for Los Angeles news station KNBC. He died in 1977, when the KNBC helicopter he was flying crashed.