Lockheed U-2 Aircraft

Currently reading a book about the SR71, not one of the Brian Shul one's but enjoyable nonetheless. SR-71 Revealed: The Inside Story.

Amazing reading about the plane and the way it compares to the U2. Going to have to find some stuff on the U2 and other jets next :)

I do love the Speed Check story. So far there's been a couple of good stories within the book I'm reading, interesting to see they did tests with US interceptors to see if they could shoot the SR71 down. Initially they tested by getting the SR71 to fly in a pre planned straight line at Mach 3.2 75k feet (iirc) and the jets were able to intercept. Next time around the SR71 pilots flew faster and higher than had been agreed whilst performing a banked turn - the jets never got close. From that point onwards the military were far less worried about ever losing one!

Was amazed to find out it used a camera that looked up at the stars to work out it's position for navigation.
 
HEADRAT said:
So U2 was 1950s, SR71 was 1960s, makes you wonder what "Skunkworks" kit is flying around out their now!
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Maybe there's some exotic planes out there we don't know about but the problem is both of those planes were replaced by spy satellites, which are a bit boring really
 
If anybody is interested in current cutting edge developments then check out SABRE from Reaction Engines. Still a long way off but it will take a plane from a standard runway all the way to orbit and back. They've already done the testing to prove the concept for the pre-cooling part of the engine which is key to it working and BAE has just bought a 20% stake in the business so the ball should really be rolling on it now.

There is also the EmDrive which NASA is currently testing. Its still unconfirmed if it actually works as it appears to but the recent news from NASA doesn't rule anything out yet. Very interesting stuff.
 
Airmen push down on the wing of a U-2 after its landing at RAF Fairford:

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:D
 
There's this SR-71 Blackbird stooging around Cuba on a top-secret mission, at FL500+ and Mach 2+.... when they get a call requesting them to change heading "because of traffic at your altitude".
Traffic at THEIR altitude ??
Anyway, they comply, and shortly, yes, there's an Air France Concorde out of Caracas (Air France flew there in the early days) slowly sailing across their flight path.

Just imagine... two guys in bonedomes and full pressure suits, in a cramped cockpit, watching something like a hundred people in shirt sleeves or summer dresses, sipping their champagne and maybe just starting on their smoked salmon hors d'oeuvres, flying at their altitude and nearly their speed...."
 
Going to look out for some decent background wallpaper of the U2

Loving that final approach one Cosimo posted on P1.
 
DJMK4 said:
Going to look out for some decent background wallpaper of the U2

Loving that final approach one Cosimo posted on P1.
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Full size (4058 x 2071) version of that one here.

:)

That was at Beale Air Force Base, California and more take-off/landing footage from the base:

 
^^^ Awesome vid Cosimo, love the takeoff of that thing. Such a short acceleration time before lift-off it's almost unbelievable.

You really are the man for posting incredible stuff (bows down to you)

Falling more and more in love with the U-2 every page
 
What I find particularly mental is that these things were launched and landed on carriers!

 
adam cool dude said:
Didn't even knew these still flew. How come these still fly compared to the SR-71?
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SR-71 was maintenance heavy. It was a pretty complicated aircraft and worse than that, used a lot of unique and as such, expensive parts. Engines, fuel, tyres and so on. As well as being 85% Russian titanium *bought through shell companies set up by the CIA*

U2 is technically a much simpler aircraft. It's a modified F104 Starfighter fuselage with a gliders wings. The advanced part is the avionics and sensor gear.

MookJong said:
Also the F117 Stealth fighter is over 30 years old now!
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And retired. Soon to be destroyed and buried rather than retired to museums. Too much secret gear still on/in them. :(

Shame would love to have a F-117a next to the SR-71 and the U2 in the American Air Museum at Duxford.

xibinim said:
GD delivers, love threads like this. Not heard that SR-71 story before, great read :D
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It's a Brian Shul story. As is this one, which I think is now my favourite SR-71 tale.

As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question I’m most often asked is “How fast would that SR-71 fly?” I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I attend. It’s an interesting question, given the aircraft’s proclivity for speed, but there really isn’t one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little more speed if you wanted it to. It was common to see 35 miles a minute. Because we flew a programmed Mach number on most missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run out to any limits of temperature or speed. Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own individual “high” speed that he saw at some point on some mission. I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max power was in order. Let’s just say that the plane truly loved speed and effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadn’t previously seen.

So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, “What was the slowest you ever flew in the Blackbird?” This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story that I had never shared before, and relayed the following.

I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England, with my back-seater, Walt Watson; we were returning from a mission over Europe and the Iron Curtain when we received a radio transmission from home base. As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 flypast. The air cadet commander there was a former Blackbird pilot, and thought it would be a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low approach. No problem, we were happy to do it. After a quick aerial refueling over the North Sea, we proceeded to find the small airfield.

Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment in the back seat, and began to vector me toward the field. Descending to subsonic speeds, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in a slight haze. Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were close and that I should be able to see the field, but I saw nothing. Nothing but trees as far as I could see in the haze. We got a little lower, and I pulled the throttles back from the 325 knots we were at. With the gear up, anything under 275 was just uncomfortable. Walt said we were practically over the field—yet, there was nothing in my windscreen. I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver in hopes of picking up anything that looked like a field.

Meanwhile, below, the cadet commander had taken the cadets up on the catwalk of the tower in order to get a prime view of the flypast. It was a quiet, still day with no wind and partial gray overcast. Walter continued to give me indications that the field should be below us, but in the overcast and haze, I couldn’t see it. The longer we continued to peer out the window and circle, the slower we got. With our power back, the awaiting cadets heard nothing. I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me I better cross-check the gauges. As I noticed the airspeed indicator slide below 160 knots, my heart stopped and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed two throttles full forward. At this point, we weren’t really flying, but were falling in a slight bank. Just at the moment that both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame (and what a joyous feeling that was), the aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the tower. Shattering the still quiet of that morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their face as the plane leveled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer than expected, maintaining what could only be described as some sort of ultimate knife-edge pass.

Quickly reaching the field boundary, we proceeded back to Mildenhall without incident. We didn’t say a word for those next 14 minutes. After landing, our commander greeted us, and we were both certain he was reaching for our wings. Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 flypast he had ever seen, especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could only be described as breathtaking. He said that some of the cadet’s hats were blown off and the sight of the planform of the plane in full afterburner dropping right in front of them was unbelievable. Walt and I both understood the concept of “breathtaking” very well that morning, and sheepishly replied that they were just excited to see our low approach.

As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight suits, we just sat there—we hadn’t spoken a word since “the pass.” Finally, Walter looked at me and said, “One hundred fifty-six knots. What did you see?” Trying to find my voice, I stammered, “One hundred fifty-two.” We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt said, “Don’t ever do that to me again!” And I never did.

A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officer’s Club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 flypast that he had seen one day. Of course, by now the story included kids falling off the tower and screaming as the heat of the jet singed their eyebrows. Noticing our HABU patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, he asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred. Walt just shook his head and said, “It was probably just a routine low approach; they’re pretty impressive in that plane.” Impressive indeed.

Little did I realize after relaying this experience to my audience that day that it would become one of the most popular and most requested stories. It’s ironic that people are interested in how slow the world’s fastest jet can fly. Regardless of your speed, however, it’s always a good idea to keep that cross-check up...and keep your Mach up, too.
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Brian is a legend. Only SR-71 pilot to fly three missions in three days in the jet. All over Lybia too. Not the friendliest skies at the time.
 
Lowe said:
What I find particularly mental is that these things were launched and landed on carriers!

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That is pretty impressive.

It's been long known that Navy boys aren't sane. ;) The US Navy even did feasibility trials with a C-130 Hercules on a carrier. Didn't have an arrestor hook or steam catapult capability. Even the U2 was modified with a hook.
 
I had a toy catapult launch U2 as a teenager, got it from Sandown model show one year, it was quite literally epic, stupid fast (I think the packaging stated 80kmh) and would pull one massive loop and come straight back at the launch point at about a maximum altitude of four feet causing adrenaline rush galore as we all tried to avoid getting hit, sadly I lost it one day much to my and my friends disappointment.
 
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