Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: HawkerMKII on October 10, 2010, 09:04:42 AM
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This is cool
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. Go to the lower
right corner of the screen and click the icon immediately to the left of the volume
control to bring up the full screen.
http://www.wimp.com/breathtakingfootage/
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(http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8500/smilieflagge13.gif) (http://img405.imageshack.us/i/smilieflagge13.gif/)
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Amazing!
I only saw it take off once, a NASA plane, seen from behind it seemed like an elevator going up...
Thanks for posting! :aok :aok
Mutley :salute
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When I was in the USAF, I had the privilege of working with several SR-71 Pilots and Back Seaters (RSOs). One Colonel I worked for, (Ed Payne) Flew the first operational mission over North Viet Nam with Pilot Jerry O'Malley in an SR-71. Along with other amazing tales, He told me that the suits they wore on their missions (Both SR-71s and U-2s Crews wore the same suit) were the same ones the NASA Astronauts wore (circa 1960s). The only difference between the SR and U-2 crews and the Astronauts was that the NASA guys had to carry their own portable oxygen pre-breathers to their ship where the USAF guys had a guy to carry theirs for them.
An SR-71 Joke: Do you know what the difference between a porcupine and a sled (SR-71) is?
The porcupine has it's salamanders on the outside.
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My previous post was modified. Salamanders wasn't what I typed, but I am sure you can figure it out. :rofl
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breath taking
thanks
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Wow. Simply amazing
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What's up
with the
spacing?
A very cool piece of technology indeed.
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that was awesome :salute
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You Yanks build some good stuff. James May from Topgear in the back seat if I'm not mistaken.
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SR-71 goes higher and faster then the U2
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cough ....they had bmw m3's in cyprus ......mind u that was in the early 90's .
I believe thay have also used subaru impreza's also ....regardless of the car used this must be one of the coolest jobs ever , ie going down a runway as fast as poss talking down a u2... :
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SR-71 goes higher and faster then the U2
Not anymore.
Great video, thanks for posting.
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mind = blown
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Know a guys who's father flew u2's he said that there is only a 7 knot difference between stall and operation speed at altitude. Little room for error.
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Yeah I saw it when someone posted it a few months ago on here, still an amazing video, that would be the ride of a life time and the men & woman that get paid to do it are among the luckiest people on Earth.
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great vid
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was that James May?
great vid :aok :salute
EDIT: yep, it is James May :lol
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Not anymore.
Great video, thanks for posting.
Not anymore you mean they new U2s are actually better not just new sensors i never knew that
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No Curry, I think he meant the SR-71s are retired, no longer flying. Plus the U2 is quite slow. I think I saw 104 knots indicated at 70,000 feet in the video. I wonder what that translates to in True Air Speed. Or maybe that was TAS?
Yes that footage never gets old. Lucky man, James May gets to fly in interesting aircraft and drive fabulous cars for a living. As he's a pilot. I wonder did he log that flight? I would have.
At one point he asks the pilot if he ever gets bored with the view. Personally I never get much above 10,000 feet and it's only the view that stops the flight from being boring. Even after eights hours in the cockpit.
The view from a U2 has to be even more amazing than any footage could ever represent it.