U-2 spy plane keeps on soaring (photos)
by ZDNet Author | February 22, 2012 11:10am PST | Image 1 of 22
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The U.S. has been flying the U-2 spy plane since the mid-1950s, and the slim, long-winged aircraft seems not so much aging as ageless. It first gained notoriety 50-plus years ago in the thick of the Cold War when the Soviet Union downed the U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers, and has continued much more recently to turn in reconnaissance and surveillance flights over war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. Defense Department once had retirement for the U-2 penciled in for last year, with unmanned Global Hawk drones taking over the high-flying mission, but that didn't happen. In fact, the draft of the Pentagon's 2013 budget, unveiled this month, gives the U-2 (also known as the Dragon Lady) a longer lease on life.
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Up there with B-52, KC-135, C-130, UH-1 as 50s/60s aircraft that refuse to die or obsolesce
No mention of the 5-6 crew. A friend of mine (alas, dead now), then working for BC Telephone Co, recalls being flown by the RCMP from the Kootenays to Dawson Creek to work on a communication device; it happened to be in an aeroplane; he was sworn to secrecy on the way. When he arrived, he was taken to a far corner of the airport where a 'futuristic' jet was sitting; worked on a piece of equipment for about two hours. two crew members in unfamiliar black pressure suits watched him all the time' there were others around. it wasn't till a few years later & the Gary Powers incident that he knew what he'd seen.
The SR71 Blackbird is officially retired.
I am pleased to see the US Air Force take this excellent decision for rational reasons. It is a shame the SR-71 Blackbird has been mothballed and the British military have similarly relegated the Hawker Harrier jump jet & the Vulcan bomber to museum displays. All very capable and without current replacements.
The one I will miss is the Australian Air Force decision to 'retire' the F-111 fleet. THe squadron unoffivial motto became 'You give us a window, we'll put a bomb through it' and that was no hollow boast!
The real oddity is the B-2 bomber which despite being hailed as a modern technological breakthrough was an evolution of the Nazi special weapons Horten IX, captured in operation paperclip. I think the lesson there is evolution of design and when it ain't broken, don't fix it!
The one I will miss is the Australian Air Force decision to 'retire' the F-111 fleet. THe squadron unoffivial motto became 'You give us a window, we'll put a bomb through it' and that was no hollow boast!
The real oddity is the B-2 bomber which despite being hailed as a modern technological breakthrough was an evolution of the Nazi special weapons Horten IX, captured in operation paperclip. I think the lesson there is evolution of design and when it ain't broken, don't fix it!
they will bring this bird out of mothballs just near the time of it'd disclass. so it won't be, then mothball it again, they do not want anyone to know it's true speed, which is a hell of a lot more they they say it can go
They have already declassified many if not all (re: -RADAR absorbent skin) of the secrets of the Blackbird. I am an aircraft maintenance technician, and the airline I worked for sent me to GE for engine training, in Cincinnati, back in 2002. After the week long course, I drove up to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, not wanting to pass up an opportunity to see this great museum. I couldn't believe my eyes and my luck when I saw all the banners..."SR-71 Week!" They had a news conference in their theater and anyone could ask any questions about the amazing aircraft from a panel of engineers, pilots, avionics techs, and designers. Top speed: MACH 3.2 to 3.3. If you wanted to push it to 3.4, "you were a test pilot" according to the captain who was questioned. It had to perform at those speeds in order to accomplish the mission-- any slower than 3.2 and it would burn more fuel, and thus will not reach the destination without refueling. Optimum efficiency was at top speed. They would mostly monitor the Engine Inlet Temperature (EIT) because the limit is 460 deg. C. That is how hot, from friction, the inlet gets. I know a whole lot more. Any questions?
Sweet. I DROS'ed from (Ossan Air force base) South Korea in may '77All the GI's and their families waiting in the terminal were asked to step away from the windows. We were made to stand at the back of the room. We could see as a U2 raced down the runway. I loved it, but being the car nut I am I was fascinated to see it being paced by a '69 Chevy SS396 El Camino in blue Air force colors, with full markings. I wondered about the secrecy, as the plane took off in full daylight right next to a civilian town!
Global Hawk? Would you buy a car you can only drive a few days a week? Read the GH Operational Test & Evaluation report, which states "The RQ-4B Global Hawk Block 30 air vehicle fault detection and indication system ... is not effective for post-flight maintenance fault isolation. Air Force maintenance personnel are unable to evaluate the large number of presented fault codes to identify specific system failures." The recommended redesign was "Resolve deficiencies in air vehicle and ASIP integrated diagnostic and health monitoring systems" Not implemented. Effective TIme On Station was found to be 27% .
One other aircraft that should be made operational again is the Navy Grumman F-14B/D Tomcat. Better than the F/A - 18 Super Hornet in most performance categories, and to this day, the best fleet defender choice against any future potential adversary (Chinese Navy???)...
F-4 in that category also which still flies in several air forces now like Germany.
I remember those U-2/TR-2 along with the SR-71 at Edwards in the 1980's.
I remember those U-2/TR-2 along with the SR-71 at Edwards in the 1980's.
So quick questions: are the unmanned Global Hawk drones not reliable or too expensive to operate? What is the reason for keeping U2s in service longer?
Ohh never mind. It's explained in the caption of the 2nd picture.
"Issues of expense, complexity, and delays..."
Ohh never mind. It's explained in the caption of the 2nd picture.
"Issues of expense, complexity, and delays..." 
I watched the U-2 many times take off out of Eielson Air Force Base out side of Fairbanks, AK back in the early 70's. As soon as it took off it would maintain a steep angle of climb until it went out of site.
I worked on the flight-line side of the U2 hangar at Laughlin AFB in 1962. I don't think I've ever seen anything as pretty as these birds taking off.
The U2, TR1, and SR-71 are all legends, but one that didn't get mentioned here is the RF-4C. This aircraft, or "recce" as it was called, was the quintessential reconnaissance platform. It was an unarmed F4 that could fly faster that MACH 2.5, was equipped with forward, side-looking oblique, and vertical low and high altitude cameras, TEREC, AAD-5 IR, PAVE TAC, and many other systems that made it one awesome jet for getting the job done. It hit the deck at 500 knots, 500 feet off the ground and came back with it's mission on film. Ah, but it was a sweet bird. The aircraft's motto: Alone, Unarmed and Unafraid. The aircrews motto: We Kill 'em with film!
No-one seems to mention in these stories that the U-2 was already mothballed once, because, at that altitude, the stalling speed is so close to Mach 1 (and the SR-71 was supposed to replace it). Not an easy plane to fly. At one point, there were supposedly only two flyable planes left. I seem to recall that was in the mid-90s.
Also - a story I heard, and obviously can't confirm - the gliding range is such that, supposedly, a U-2 pilot called Great Lakes Naval Air Station from mid-Canada to report a flameout after overflying Russia. When asked if the pilot wished to declare an emergency, he said, "No, just tell my base in New Orleans that I'll be a little late."
When I was young in Taiwan, somebody said a plane crashed locally was a U2. "On the night of 3 August 1959, a U-2 on a training mission, out of Laughlin AFB, Texas, piloted by Maj. Mike Hua of ROC Air Force, made a successful unassisted nighttime emergency landing at Cortez, Colorado, that was later known as Miracle at Cortez, and Major Hua was later awarded the US Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross for saving the top secret aircraft." cited from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2_spy_plane. Mike Hua survived 10 reconnaissance missions to China and later became a general and AAE Distinguished Engineering Alumni at Purdue Univeristy.
Yes, we Chinese people were (unfortunately) very familiar with "Black Cat Squadron" from Taiwan.
LOL! I remember reading a tongue-in-cheek strip in the AFA magazine called (I think) There I was. I miss that last page section of the magazine.
Many years ago while stationed in Japan one of my assignments was to copy NPRK and Chicom ADef stations that were tracking U2 flights.
DOSLover, the F-111 was a neat aircraft stuffed with some electronic goodies.
But according to John Boyd, it had the flight characteristics that were so bad that he used it as the principal plane in his lecture visual aid that was dumbed down enough to where "Even a General can understand it."
But according to John Boyd, it had the flight characteristics that were so bad that he used it as the principal plane in his lecture visual aid that was dumbed down enough to where "Even a General can understand it."
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