Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Updated Model of Spy Plane Unveiled : Aviation: The first three of the refitted U-2 planes are displayed before rocketing skyward, headed for base near Sacramento.

PALMDALE —  Three reborn U-2 planes, of the type that years ago were hidden in governmental secrecy and the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere, were rolled out Friday onto a stage larger than any mounted by the spy plane’s namesake rock band.

Before a crowd well-supplied with earplugs, the ominous flat-black jets let loose a blowtorch blast from their new engines, a song that would drown out the namesake Irish band’s loudest number.

The three aircraft are the first updated models--known as the U-2S--of the Cold War’s most famous spy plane. And after a morning ceremony in front of a Gargantuan hanger at Lockheed Advanced Development Co., the narrow, glider-winged aircraft rocketed into the eastern sky, banked back to the west and headed for service at Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento.

Even the old-timers were impressed.

Tony LeVier, now 81, was the first man to pilot a U-2 back in 1956, when it was fueled by common lighter fluid. He last took a spin as co-pilot in a two-seat model in 1980.

“We went straight up, to 10,000 feet,” he said, still impressed after four decades of flying. “There’s nothing like it. Nowhere.”

And the U-2S is better, he said.

Designed in 1954 to fly at more than 70,000 feet--far out of effective range of fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles of the time--the original U-2 was built to photograph military installations in the secrecy-wrapped Soviet Union.

During its 40 years of service, warfare and reconnaissance changed drastically, and the Soviet Union ceased to exist, but the fleet of 37 existing Air Force U-2s was still sailing along with ancient Pratt & Whitney J-75 engines.

So in recent years, as two or three U-2s were sent to NASA for use in environmental research, the Air Force decided to update the power plant in the others.

Refitted with General Electric F118-GE-101 engines, the U-2S flies a heavier payload than its predecessor, can carry the craft 3,500 feet higher, and can travel an extra 3,500 miles before refueling. The engine, 1,200 pounds lighter than the Pratt & Whitney model, will also substantially reduce expensive operating and maintenance costs.

The retrofitted version even gets about 15% better fuel usage. Plans call for installing the new engines in all military U-2s within four years.

While the dark ship with wide, thin wings was among the most closely held of U.S. intelligence secrets in its early years--with the military claiming it was a weather reconnaissance ship and that the “U” stood for “utility”--the world learned the truth in 1960, when American pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile while on a mission 14 miles above the Soviet Union and captured alive.

Although Soviet officials had long known of the flights, they made no public protest while they were powerless to do anything about them. But Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev went into a public fury when Powers’ capture was revealed, using it to cancel a planned Paris summit meeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Powers was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but freed in a swap two years later for Soviet master spy Rudolf Abel. By that time, the once-secret plane he flew had become a symbol of Cold War espionage and East-West animosities.

To the 700 or so onlookers Friday morning, however, the plane seemed to be a symbol only of aeronautical wonder, long after its mission and its era had faded into history.

Lt. Gen. Tom Griffith, commander of the 12th Air Force, has been flying faster than sound for nearly 30 years, but said his first hop in a U-2 last week was something to remember.

“We were up over Oakland and could see the bottom of California,” Griffith remarked. “You can actually see the curvature of the earth.”

When asked how high he flew the craft, the General squinted and paused. “I think all I can tell you is we were above 60,000 feet.” He chuckled.

“Well above.”

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