How the U-2 Became a Museum Object – Local Identities and Museum Collections at the Norwegian Aviation Museum in Bodø

In May 1960, a U-2 spyplane was shot down over Sverdlovsk in the USSR. Pilot Francis Gary Powers was taken prisoner and put on a show trial in Moscow. When Powers pointed at Bodø as his intended destination, he put the town on the map as a Cold War hotspot. The U-2 entered the world stage as a spectacular and mythic Cold War aircraft. Although the plane never arrived in Bodø in 1960 and never visited the town again, it became inextricably linked to Bodø and a reference point for the city’s contemporary identity. Acquiring an actual U-2 aircraft became important for the founders of the Norwegian Aviation Museum when the museum opened in 1994. This chapter will discuss the role of the U-2 in shaping Bodø’s identity as a Cold War hotspot and thus highlight how local memories shape museum acquisition policies.