OT - Ride in U2 spy plane

[soon 2 retire]

An old buddy emailed this to me. I thought it was really incredible. Enjoy

U-2 Dragon Ride

The link at the end will give you a ride!

You can see why the U-2 is considered the most difficult plane in the
world to fly. Each pilot has a co-pilot, who chases the plane on the runway in a
sports car. Most of the cars are either Pontiac GTOs or Chevrolet
Cameros - the Air Force buys American.

The chase cars talk the pilot down as he lands on bicycle-style landing gear.

In that spacesuit, the pilot in the plane simply cannot get a good view
of the runway.

Upon takeoff, the wings on this plane, which extend 103 feet from tip to
tip, literally flap.

To stabilize the wings on the runway, two pogo sticks on wheels prop up
the ends of the wings.

As the plane flies away, the pogo sticks drop off.

The plane climbs at an amazing rate of nearly 10,000 feet a minute.
Within about four minutes, I was at 40,000 feet, higher than any
commercial airplane. We kept going up to 13 miles above Earth's
surface.

You get an incredible sensation up there. As you look out the windows,
it feels like you're floating, it feels like you're not moving, but
you're actually going 500 mph.

The U-2 was built to go higher than any other aircraft. In fact today,
more than 50 years since it went into production, the U-2 flies higher
than any aircraft in the world with the exception of the space shuttle.

It is flying more missions and longer missions than ever before -
nearly 70 missions a month over Iraq and Afghanistan, an operational
tempo that is unequaled in history.

The pilots fly for 11 hours at a time, sometimes more than 11 hours up
there alone.

By flying so high, the U-2 has the capability of doing reconnaissance
over a country without actually violating its airspace.

It can look off to the side, peering 300 miles or more inside a country
without actually flying over it.

It can "see" in the dark and through clouds.

It can also "hear," intercepting conversations 14 miles below.

The U-2, an incredible piece of history and also a current piece of high
technology, is at the center of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Enjoy the ride!

Lockheed U-2

Take a ride in a spy plane, click the link below.
http://www.wimp.com/breathtakingfootage/


Bob in NE Indiana

[TedH]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing that.

[Old Savage]

Those things fly around here at times. They are loud and it is long not like the B2 or the Blackbird was because they are going straight up almost. Here is an irony - they fly within a few miles of the former home of the flat earth society.

[Sixgun]

Very neato! This internet is the best thing to come along since sliced bread -------Sixgun

[TedH]

What was the best thing before sliced bread came along?

[Old Savage]

Beer - liquid bread!

[Chas.]

What was the best thing before sliced bread came along? Pockets on a shirt.

[C. Cash]

Thanks for sharing that.

I like where the pilot try's to help this fella as he stammered to describe his feeling of seeing the view from up there, and he say's "I think the term your looking for is God Smacked." You could tell the guy riding along didn't know what to do with that one. But that must be what it is like...being God smacked upside the head to actually see that in person.

[Blaine]

When Gary Powers was shot down, there were still prop planes being used for commerical travel at Port Columbus Air Port

[Booger Bill]

When I was a lockheed guard at palmdale a test pilot landed in the U-2 ( or TR-2, a newer version.) It was a super clear night. He was happy and told me he had just seen the lights of san francisco and phonex at the same time! I also was there when gary powers was a test pilot in the late 1960s. One day he came out to the gate and was waiting for his wife. He spotted my harley and asked to sit on it. I said gary, I will trade you that harley for a ride in the U-2. He said naw, you wouldnt like it. It`s like sitting with your head in a gold fish bowl for a real long time. (He told me something like maybe 16 hours, but I forget.)
I used to open the flyway gate many times for landings and takeoffs and watch the chase cars. When they took off the wing pogo sticks would drop off and a crew would run them down. When they landed the chase car followed and probley advise the pilot how many feet he was from the ground, but really the pilots soon could tell without help. They usually could bring it to a walk before a wing would drop. The ground crew would then lift the wings level and reinsert the pogo sticks. They really looked like just a long leaf spring with a long peg on top and a small pair of wheels on the bottom.
General weir was probley the most active test pilot on the U-2s that I knew. We also had a few trainers where one pilot sat behind and higher. They really were a glider with a jet engine.

[kimwcook]

Pretty neat. I suspect that's a flight I'll never take.

[MrMurphy]

I've guarded one in a middle eastern country when it unexpectedly dropped out of the sky on us (news to us, not the field controllers). The chase car at the time was a Camaro. I was on the mobile patrol in the area, we had a couple guys on foot as well.

[gamekeeper]

The lucky passenger was James May from the BBC Top Gear programme, he has a pilots license but I bet that's the most unforgettable ride he will ever take. Wow!

[Borregos]

Thanks, that was 10 minutes well spent

[piller]

The lucky passenger was James May from the BBC Top Gear programme, he has a pilots license but I bet that's the most unforgettable ride he will ever take. Wow!

I really enjoyed "James May at the edge of space" where he rode in the U2. He gave as much information as he was allowed and you could gain a lot of insight from his commentary.

[JReed]

That is just cool.

[Lawyer Daggit]

What do you mean USAF buy American- the chase car was a Holden Monaro (marketed as a Pontiac).

Its dinkydy Australian mate.!

[soon 2 retire]

What do you mean USAF buy American- the chase car was a Holden Monaro (marketed as a Pontiac).

Its dinkydy Australian mate.!

Don't get your knickers in a bunch mate; merely forwarding something that's probably been in cyberspace for months. If nothing else I learned about Holden Monaro's and looked up the definition of dinkydy. I wonder if that word sent Hobie scrambling for a translation.

Bob in NE Indiana