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The veteran spyplane too valuable to replace
Satellites – and drones – were intended to replace it. But the 65-year-old Lockheed U-2 is still at the top of its game, flying missions in an environment no other aircraft can operate in. (www.bbc.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
The U2, SR71 and British Harrier. So advanced in the 1950’s, I can hardly believe they were able to develop such sophisticated aircraft without the advanced computers we have today. Hats off to the great aerospace engineers of that decade.
Hats off to Kelly Johnson and his team at Lockheed Skunk Works
Several years ago a friend of mine, who was an F-4 driver at the time, related the story about being somewhere over Kansas when another pilot reported his engine had flamed out and would not restart. He was requesting a straight in approach to Del Rio, TX. Since that was several hundred miles away, Frank asked him what he was flying. Of course, you should already know the answer, U-2.
August 1959, a Taiwanese pilot in the States for training on the U2 lost his engine & was able to glide to a landing in Cortez, CO....at night. He made it safely.
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/08/03/top-secret-u-2-plane-landed-in-cortez-54-years-ago/
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/08/03/top-secret-u-2-plane-landed-in-cortez-54-years-ago/
There is a story about a test flight on the first U2 where the pilot reported a vibration problem due to flutter, when he landed, Kelly Johnson went out on the ramp with a pair of tin snips and cut off some of the trailing edge and told him to go back up and try it. not sure if this is a true story but sounds like something Kelly would do, he and his crew were genius
Amazing to watch them takeoff from Palmdale Ca.
She's like the A10 of close air support roll, just to good at her job!
She's like the A10 of close air support roll, just to good at her job!