Black Cat Squadron

The Black Cat Squadron (<a href="/facts/Traditional_Chinese_characters/bBFLkuz7">Chinese</a>: 黑貓中隊; <a href="/facts/Pinyin/pUwjfMXg">pinyin</a>: Hēimāo Zhōngduì), formally the 35th Squadron, was a <a href="/facts/Squadron_(aviation)/T9fKSuHj">squadron</a> of the <a href="/facts/Republic_of_China_Air_Force/DDt8xupX">Republic of China Air Force</a> that flew the <a href="/facts/Lockheed_U-2/teouQIET">U-2</a> surveillance plane out of <a href="/facts/Taoyuan_Air_Base/PPnV08tR">Taoyuan Air Base</a> in northern Taiwan, from 1961 to 1974. 26 ROCAF pilots successfully completed U-2 training in the US and flew 220 operational missions, with about half over the <a href="/facts/People%27s_Republic_of_China/lTjIXY5p">People's Republic of China</a>.
When the squadron was formed in 1961, Colonel Lu Xiliang (盧錫良) became its first commander and would become its longest-serving squadron commander. Lu was born in <a href="/facts/Shanghai/nYyuBo2S">Shanghai</a> on December 27, 1923, and completed his training in the US.
During the squadron's 14 years of existence, five U-2s were shot down by PRC air defenses (using <a href="/facts/S-75_Dvina/juuLfWNB">S-75 Dvina</a> missiles), with three pilots killed and two captured. Another pilot was killed while performing an operational mission off the Chinese coast, while seven U-2s were lost during training missions, killing six pilots.
A total of 19 U-2s were assigned to the Black Cat Squadron, over fourteen years, although the squadron usually had only two U-2s assigned to it at any one time; sometimes there was just one aircraft.
The intelligence gathered by the Black Cat Squadron, which included evidence of a military build-up on the Sino-Soviet border, may have contributed to the U.S. opening to China during the <a href="/facts/Richard_Nixon/HS8uXAoC">Nixon</a> administration by revealing the escalating tensions between the two communist nations. Shortly after <a href="/facts/1972_Nixon_visit_to_China/kGmpLxoo">Nixon's visit</a> to <a href="/facts/Beijing/Bg4puFBv">Beijing</a>, all reconnaissance flights over the People's Republic ceased, and the Black Cat Squadron was officially disbanded in the spring of 1974.

Black Cat Squadron open-in-new

Black Cat Squadron