Lockheed U-2 Aircraft

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders-Roe_SR.177

Found this video a few month ago, I didn't realise in the late 1950's, the British lost out due to Lockheed giving bribes to Germany, so that they would choose the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter over the superior British Saunders-Roe SR 177.
I read the U-2 was based on parts of the F-104 Starfighter.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_bribery_scandals
In 1976, it was publicly revealed that Lockheed had paid $22 million in bribes to foreign officials in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft including the F-104 Starfighter, the so-called "Deal of the Century".
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In my teens I was with the Air Cadets and had the opportunity twice to go to RAF Akrotiri where the US had a couple stationed. In the 2nd year I got invited with a small group to see them up close, they are amazing feats of engineering, despite the weight they are essentially gliding in and they have to stall the aircraft for the landing.

The training and conditioning the pilots have to go through each time they take them up is impressive. They showed us the food/paste in a tube which they insert into the console which'll heat it up and their helmet has a valve that they can insert it into to then chow down on.

They also had zero respect for an 18 year old who had parade the next morning at 7am and insisted he take 3 extra vodka jellies back to his barracks to tide him over....how I didn't break a leg in those storm drains I'll never know.
 
To be honest you're probably already dead.

What you saw was a large black weather balloon. And those people in `that` hangar and block at 'Tiri were... fire extinguisher maintenance people. Yes. Fire extinguishers. Quite definitely not friendly Yanks who would sneak you in for a look around and a chat with a bottle of bourbon.

Fire balloons and weather extinguishers.
 
It is a beautiful plane so Fug ugly but it works so well (cant land on its own), to me it looks like a glider on the outer limits of space.
But it is amazing Granted.
 
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harry5522 said:
have known of these for quite a long time now really are magnificent aircraft.


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Absolutely marvelous, the Earth is so beautiful. To be up there and looking down at that must be sensational. Just wow....

DXP55 said:
You are talking about Gary Powers - the USA thought Russia didn't have a missile that could go that high and yes they shot it down.

U2 was redundant for flights over Russia then.
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Thanks for this, I just looked it up, never knew about it! great read.
 
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I think the English Electric Canberra deserves a mention here.

That was hitting 70,000ft in the 1950's.

The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation jet-powered medium bomber manufactured in large numbers through the 1950s. The Canberra could fly at a higher altitude than any other bomber through the 1950s and set a world altitude record of 70,310 ft (21,430 m) in 1957. Due to its ability to evade the early jet interceptors and its significant performance advancement over contemporary piston-engined bombers, the Canberra was a popular export product and served with air forces of many nations.

The Canberra was the victorious aircraft flown in The Last Great Air Race from London to Christchurch in 1953, piloted by Flight Lieutenant Roland (Monty) Burton, which touched down at Christchurch 41 minutes ahead of its closest rival – after 23hr 51min in the air; to this day the record has never been broken.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Canberra
 
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As mentioned, U2's were based at Alconbury along with A10 Warthogs so a regular sight arounf our neck of the woods.

What my lack of google fu failed to find was the (local) news report about a private contractors tractor knocking the wing off a U2 !

I think they went bust !!
 
lafemmefatale said:
To be honest you're probably already dead.

What you saw was a large black weather balloon. And those people in `that` hangar and block at 'Tiri were... fire extinguisher maintenance people. Yes. Fire extinguishers. Quite definitely not friendly Yanks who would sneak you in for a look around and a chat with a bottle of bourbon.

Fire balloons and weather extinguishers.
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Agreed, swamp gasses expanding after a weather experiment required putting out with an extinguisher. Simplest explanations and all. Anyone who says differently must be a ruski.
 
Harlequin said:
Nasa still flies 3 Canberra`s ;)
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Interesting, I did n't know that. It was, and still is, an incredible aircraft.

British crews also used to fly the U2 in the cold war over Russia, was all kept very quiet, reason being if they got shot down then the Americans would n't get the blame upsetting the already pretty poor relations between the two.
 
Here's another aircraft that never fails to amaze me, in terms of its height and speed capabilities - the 1964-on MiG-25.

Some snippets:

On 31 August 1977, "Ye-266M" again flown by Fedotov, set the recognized absolute altitude record for a jet aircraft under its own power. He reached 37,650 metres (123,520 ft) at Podmoskovnoye, USSR in zoom climb.
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For pure speed, with no payload, test pilot Mikhail M. Komarov averaged 2,981.5 km/h (Mach 2.8) over a 500 km closed circuit on 5 October 1967. On the same day, Fedotov reached an altitude of 29,977 metres (98,350 ft) with a 1,000 kilogram payload. The MiG eventually became the first aircraft to go higher than 35,000 metres (115,000 ft)
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On 25 July 1973, Fedotov reached 35,230m with 1,000 kg payload, and 36,240 m (118,898 feet) with no load (an absolute world record)
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Ostapenko reached 25,000 m (82,000ft) in 3 min 12.6 sec and 30,000 m (98,000ft) in 4 min 3.86 sec
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Although sufficient thrust was available to reach Mach 3.2, a limit of Mach 2.83 had to be imposed as the turbines tended to overspeed and overheat at higher speeds
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A true hot rod of the skies :D
 
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