Ride along on a Lockheed U-2 spyplane

http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/u2.html ^

[navysealdad]

Ride along on a Lockheed U-2 spyplane and check out the amazing view cruising at 70,000ft as the sky above turns black.

[Verbosus]

Ping for home viewing

[NCC-1701]

I want to go for a ride like that. Man, that would be sweet on so many levels.

[snippy_about_it]

very cool, thanks.

[GoldwaterChick]

Big ping for later.

[davisfh]

Excellent! Thanks for posting.

There was an Air America unit at my SE Asia base in 1965. They had one (perhaps two) U-2s. Not noted in this presentation is the fact that the outrigger wheels drop off as the aircraft lifts. The "chase vehicles" carry a couple of guys who are pretty good runners. They jump out of the chase vehicle as the aircraft's speed decreases to the point of "no lift," quickly run out and grab the wingtips and re-insert the outrigger wheels.

I also note that this U-2 is a two-seater. I'd never seen one of those before and believe that this model was probably intended for training purposes.

[IYAS9YAS]

Can't watch it all, but the opening with the ride in the chase car brought back memories. I used to watch the chase cars and the U-2 (TR-1 when I was in) all the time at Osan AB. I was even scheduled to ride in a chase car for the launch and recovery one day. Bummer was, the weather had the base socked in with fog. No go for the launch. Damn.

By the time I left Korea ('91) they were using the new Ford Mustangs. IIRC, prior to the Mustangs, they used late 60s/early 70s El Caminos with the 396 in them.

[bigbob]

Incredible! Thanks for posting, this was better than most flight videos. Not bad for 1950’s technology either!

[stylecouncilor]

AWESOME!!!

[billhilly]

I watched the U-2 take off and land as well as tracked it on radar during a brief TDY stay on Incirlik Air Base in Turkey in 1957. It was flying daily missions over the Soviet Union in those days as it was when Francis Gary Powers was shot down in it a couple of years later.

[MarkL]

As I recall being told by an uncle who was an aeronautical engineer, the U2 is not just incredibly difficult to land, but also to fly at altitude. The plane has a very narrow performance envelope at those altitudes. The air is so thin that it's incredibly easy for the wings to stall if airspeed drops, but if you go much faster than that, the stresses on the wings can rip them right off.

It's also incredible to remember that this is a reconnaissance aircraft - It's amazing to realize that it can take perfectly legible photos at 70,000 feet (more than 13 miles!)

Mark

[davisfh]

You must be at least as old as I am. The radar that you were tracking the bird on wouldn’t have been the air traffic control type, would it?

[billhilly]

One of the strengths of the U2 was it’s ability to soar in bird like fashion at quite low speeds for hours on end, thus conserving fuel. It also had an almost vertical climb to it’s cruising altitude. From 0 to 70,000 feet took place in 10 miles of horizontal travel.

[papasmurf]

Amazing.

I really liked the approach and landing. Such a steep angle on approach, and yet such a nice, short flare, down to 76 Kts, and still flyable, and always within 5 KTS of stalling, at any airspeed! (kinda like the early Rockwell Commanders-LOL)

That pilot made it look like child’s play.

[envisio]

BKMRK

[billhilly]

It was Air Force radar. I was in Aircraft Control and Warning.

As to age, I returned from an eighteen month tour of duty in the middle east (Libya and Turkey) fifty one years ago this past February.

[scoobysnak71]

WOW! That was VERY awesome. Thanks!

[Clay Moore]

I think that is the ER2 version with 2 seats. It was the trainer version.

[VOA]

“I also note that this U-2 is a two-seater. I’d never seen one of
those before and believe that this model was probably intended for
training purposes.”

Sounds conceptually similar to the single two-seater Lockheed A-12
(a forerunner of the SR-71 Blackbird).
It was a trainer model.

If you make it to Los Angeles, you can see it on static display
at the California Science Center (at the southeast edge of the USC
campus, IIRC).

Just make sure you do it during daylight hours. The USC neighborhood
isn’t as nasty as it was a decade ago, but better to play it safe!

Oh, and if you have kids along (of any age), The Natural History Museum
on/adjacent to the USC campus is worth a view.
I think it probably is where “A Night At The Museum” and a number
of commercials have been filmed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12

[davisfh]

We don’t often make it as far west as LA but there is a pretty good display (includes an A-12/SR-71) in the Battleship Alabama park at Mobile. If you ever make it that far east, drop in.