How America really flew the U-2 spy plane off aircraft carriers

[Music] landing a u2 spy plane on a conventional run-of-the-mill airstrip is often considered to be one of the most difficult jobs in aviation so you'd think that landing a u2 on the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier would be all but impossible but believe it or not you'd be wrong as any dragon lady pilot will tell you nothing about flying the u2 is normal because of the high altitudes the plane flies at and an only partially pressurized cabin pilots wear pressure suits that look an awful lot like the ones you'd see in early nasa space missions as you can imagine wearing a spacesuit in the cramped cockpit of an aircraft can make moving working and even seeing what you're doing a whole lot more challenging youtube pilot lieutenant colonel miko lavalli compared it to trying to fly the plane in a sleeping bag with a football helmet on your head and ski gloves on your hands and to make matters that much worse for pilots when landing the bottom section of the front canopy of the u2 has long been known to fog up on humid days with all this working against the pilot on board they actually have to rely on another raided pilot who chases the aircraft down the runway in a sports car to provide direction as it closes with the ground during landing and because the u2 doesn't have the tricycle landing gear you find in most aircraft today lavalier compares the ordeal to trying to land a 40 000 pound bicycle so it does sound crazy to try to operate this aircraft from carriers but during the cold war crazy was never really seen as a valid reason not to make something work and in fact the u2 has flown off of american flat tops on more than one occasion you see the u2's original fuel range of around 3 000 miles did give it the ability to cover a lot of ground but not enough to operate from american-based airstrips when keeping tabs on far-flung opponents in places like the soviet union so the u2 often operated from airstrips in foreign countries like cyprus france india and pakistan but the cia knew that this reliance on the goodwill of foreign partners was a strategic shortcoming so they started looking for alternatives as early as 1957 just two years after the aircraft entered service then in 1960 the need for an alternative to foreign airstrips became much more pressing when a u2 spy plane flown by cia pilot gary powers was shot down by a soviet high altitude surface-to-air missile the event marked the end of america's ability to defeat soviet defenses through altitude alone and it was also a huge setback for american foreign policy powers u2 had taken off from an airstrip in pakistan and in the aftermath of the incident relations between pakistan and the u.s soured considerably and further diplomatic and political fallout reverberated from dc to tokyo if finding an alternative to foreign airstrips seemed worthwhile before it had become essential after 1960. so let's skip ahead to 1963 which was a red letter year for the navy's aircraft carriers and for aviation firm lockheed in october of that year then lieutenant james flatley iii would make history successfully landing and taking off from the deck of the uss forestall multiple times in an absolutely massive c-130 we put up a video all about this crazy story last week and as luck would have it now retired admiral flatley really liked it so i was able to sit down with him for an interview that we'll have on sandbox news soon but little did the world know at the time that two months before flatly's history making landing on the forest all lockheed test pilot bob shoemaker would carve his own name into the record books albeit secretly with a takeoff earlier that year the cia approached lockheed's legendary engineer kelly johnson to see if he thought the u2 he designed could manage flight operations from an aircraft carrier despite how challenging the plane could be to operate johnson was confident the airframe could do the trick with a few light modifications so james a cunningham deputy to the assistant director of the office of special activities was put in charge of a joint team comprised of representatives from the cia the office of the chief of naval operations and of course lockheed who would provide a specialized sling for loading and unloading the u-2 on an aircraft carrier as well as a fuselage cart dubbed the lowboy for positioning the u2 on the deck of the ship armed with recommendations from cunningham's team a u2a was secretly loaded onto the flight deck of the uss kitty hawk on the night of august 1st in 1963 and by august 5th it was time for the cia and lockheed to put their spy plane to the test unlike the flight suits that were common on the kitty hawks flight deck lockheed test pilot bob shoemaker emerged from the depths of the ship wearing the u2 signature pressure suit looking more like he was preparing for a deep dive in a submarine than a history making flight once cleared for takeoff he throttled up and let the incredible lift provided by the spy plane's 103 foot wingspan do what it did best and in just 321 feet the youtube left the deck of the kitty hawk and proved that you could deploy it from an aircraft carrier after a brief flight schumacher made a number of practice approaches making sure he could manage the difficult aircraft as he closed with the moving vessel with the kitty hawk sailing at around 30 knots the u2 approached it at just 80 making its relative speed to the carrier just 50 knots as it approached the flight deck but even at such a low speed landing a dragon lady is no easy feat and the youtube bounced hard hitting one wing tip on the deck and forcing schumacher to try to get the plane back in the air he was just barely able to do so and ended up diverting to a lockheed runway in burbank some 100 miles away it wasn't a rousing success but there was enough promise in the concept to get the cia to buy into modifying a few u2s for another round and to send a few flight crews to monterey and pensacola naval air stations to become carrier certified this newly modified version of the u2 meant for carrier duty was dubbed the u2g and it saw a number of changes from the original design first heavier landing gear was added to withstand the force of carrier landings and care was taken to ensure the new system was rated for double the deceleration of the standard aircraft's brakes heavier pressure bulkheads were added around the landing gear to withstand the impact of the carrier's deck and lockheed took a resting hooks from their t2v seastar jet trainers and modified them to be mounted on the u2 before reinforcing the fuselage to better withstand the forces exerted on the airframe when the hook caught the carrier's cables the tail hook was then covered by an aerodynamic plastic fairing that was jettisoned upon approach to the carrier the u2g also added a mechanically operated fuel jettison system that would allow it to dump fuel in the event of an emergency or if it was approaching a carrier with too much on board to manage a safe landing perhaps most important of all mechanical spoilers were added about midway outboard on the trailing edge of each wing that could be activated via a switch near the aircraft's throttle when engaged just before landing the flaps would deploy and stall the u2 almost immediately allowing it to land practically on the spot and far more accurately on the carrier itself lightweight arresting cables that measured an inch in diameter replaced the standard one and a half to two inch cables you'd usually find on a flight deck just to give you a sense of how stressed this airframe was that change was made to reduce how much vibration the aircraft suffered as it rolled over the cables on landing on march 2nd schumacher was once again chosen to fly this newly renovated u-2 this time departing from a land-based airstrip with orders to land on the uss ranger off the california coast schumacher made a series of touch and go landings on the ranger until he felt as though conditions were right and made his final approach as he brought the u2 down on the aircraft carrier its new tail hook grabbed the cable just as it was intended but the rapid shift in momentum and weight pitched the tail upward driving the nose of the plane into the deck and breaking its pitot tube which is an instrument used to measure air the damage was minor and the team on board were able to repair the aircraft in just a few days soon thereafter schumacher and four more cia pilots all completed enough takeoffs and landings to be considered certified for these operations by the cia and just two months later a u2 was actually operating from the deck of an aircraft carrier discreetly monitoring french nuclear weapons tests in french polynesia the cia's crews completed two flights over three days and the mission was considered a success but it was also the last time a u2g would ever launch from a carrier in active operations by 1967 there was a new u2 in town that boasted a design that was 40 percent larger than its predecessor and all that added size came with a number of significant improvements the u2r offered quadruple the payload capacity of previous u2s and around twice the range so it really comes as little surprise that the cia was soon itching to find out how this new u2 would fare aboard an aircraft carrier this time they didn't just add an arresting hook but also modified the wings so that the outer six feet could fold up to make the aircraft more manageable on an aircraft carrier flight tests for this new u2 took place aboard the uss america and although they were successful the cia was having trouble finding the value in fielding a u-2 aboard an aircraft carrier it did eliminate the need for foreign airstrips but a carrier strike group wasn't exactly sneaky nor was it cheap and to make matters worse for the u2 satellites were beginning to seem like a better alternative for many reconnaissance missions but even that didn't spell the end for the u2 aboard aircraft carriers because just a few years later the navy decided to give it one more crack with the aim of fielding an advanced maritime surveillance platform the navy loaded their u2 with new sensors and equipment including a data link that could transmit radar data in near real time back to its carrier or even a land-based installation as long as it had line of sight advanced as this idea was it still wasn't advanced enough to outpace satellite technology and for the third time in a decade america had proven it could fly u2s off of its aircraft carriers but ultimately failed in finding a good reason to do it as a quick aside if you enjoyed this story i really recommend you read the full feature on sandbox news there's just so much here that i could not fit it all in one video and with that ends yet another edition of sandbox news i'm alex hollings make sure you swing by sandboxnews.com today and every day for all the latest news entertainment and motivation 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Channel: Sandboxx

Views: 390,508

Keywords: u2 spy plane, u-2 aircraft carrier, spy plane

Id: wmFgM7Ymv08

Length: 11min 47sec (707 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021