NODULE X7 OSWALD IN MINSK AND THE U2 DUMP: JANUARY ...

climb out. So intent I had been on one solution I had forgotten the other.
Reaching up, not far, because I had been thrown upward as well as
forward, with only the seat belt holding me down, I unlocked and released
the canopy. It sailed into space. The plane was still spinning. I glanced at
the altimeter. It had passed 34,000 feet and was unwinding very fast.
Again I thought of the destruct switches but decided to release my seat
belt first, before activating the unit. Seventy seconds is not a very long
time. Immediately the centrifugal force threw me halfway out of the
aircraft.
An intact destructor unit was recovered from the aircraft. At the show trial of Francis
Gary Powers, an aeronautics expert testified that "it was impossible to establish the lag
of the explosion since no timing mechanism was found in the wreckage." The CIA
reported:
1. Frank Powers aircraft was equipped with a destructor unit made by
Beckman and Whitley, Inc. Model Number G-175-10. Procedure for
activating the device was a two step function. The pilot had to activate the
system by throwing one switch, then commence the timing sequence by
throwing a second. A 2 ½ pound charge of cyclonite would be ignited 60
seconds after the second switch was thrown. (In a statement before
Congress, Powers indicated that the timing mechanism was set for a 70
second delay.)
2. The purpose of the destruction unit was to destroy the camera in the
equipment bay. Because of the equipment bay's location underneath the
cockpit, potential serious injury could occur to the pilot should the device
fire while he was in the aircraft; hence the two step activation procedure
was established to minimize accidental ignition.
3. The Russians, in displaying the U-2 wreckage, showed the destructor
unit made by Beckman. Their inference was that it was a remote control
destructor unit, and this point was noted in the translation of the transcript
of Power's trial published by Translation World Publishers of Chicago in
October 1960.
Powers feared that the 70 seconds before the plane exploded was nonexistent and that
he would be blown to bits along with it. Francis Gary Powers was taken prisoner by the
Russians who found a poison pin on his person that he was to use to commit suicide.
OSWALD WATCHED BY KGB
Norman Mailer reported that the KGB watched OSWALD on May 1, 1960, and on May
2, 1960. The next reports cited by Norman Mailer were dated July 2, 1960, and July 3,
1960. Nothing even remotely suspicious was uncovered.