Lockheed U-2 (Part 1) | Simple plane - crazy technology

the sky a plane a pilot and a camera 20 kilometers above the ground where no guests are invited hello vader sky here and today we will meet the most famous ariel paparazzi whose history could be used for a whole season of x-files from the latest technology and insane engineering to conspiracy theories and spy games welcome to the harsh and exciting world of lockheed u2 reconnaissance has always been one of the most important tasks of military aviation since its inception in world war one the planes were observers first and only later they began to shoot and bomb world war ii took the eye from above service to a new level and with the onset of the cold war this work became critical the topic was especially popular in the usa the soviet union was an extremely powerful adversary closed and full of surprises the question what are they doing over there became extremely irrelevant and for a long time only aerial reconnaissance could answer it attempts to look began immediately after the end of the world war this work was undertaken by the special reconnaissance modifications of bombers at first there were various versions of the b-29 with cameras on board then they were replaced by the rb-36 modifications of the huge convair b-36 peacemaker strategic bombers capable of flying over great distances and rising so high that they were out of reach for air defense systems of that time the development of aviation did not bypass reconnaissance soon the piston rb-36 gave way to the jet rb-47 which were respectively reconnaissance modifications of the boeing b-47 strategy at bombers the heirs were inferior in altitude but significantly superior in speed they flew very actively and were not shy in popping their noses and cameras where they shouldn't however the concept of speed was not working perfectly while anti-aircraft artillery and piston aircraft posed no threat and the mig-15 could be avoided with new machines such as the mig-17 and mig-19 it was a bit more difficult the rb-47 was very difficult to shoot down but by no means impossible the service records began including the statistics of lost aircraft the experience with rb47 had led to two conclusions first the jet engine although it gave high speed was not a universal remedy it was being chased by jet fighters which were getting faster and faster secondly these planes were modifications of bombers large and heavy vehicles and this was not always good for them a new concept emerged a specialized reconnaissance aircraft the main advantage of which would be the flight altitude so high that it cannot be intercepted the search for options began in the mid-1950s the allies had two high-altitude aircraft at their disposal the english electric canberra and the american martin b-57 canberra which was by and large a local version of the first on its basis martin created the rb57 reconnaissance aircraft with a new wing and updated engines the plane was not bad but the development of soviet air defense would have exhausted its capabilities rather quickly and its service life was problematic fairchild proposed their own project their m195 was a single engine aircraft with a large wing and an air intake above the fuselage bell also got involved their x-16 was equipped with a swept wing and two integrated engines and then lockhead dropped in at the party it should be noted that initially the military didn't want to involve large companies they were already loaded with orders and the project had a very limited budget hardly interesting to them plus the size of these companies made it difficult to maintain secrecy fewer people fewer extra years however upon learning about the project lokshi decided to send their proposals after all and budget and personnel issues were resolved quite quickly the company's expenses will remain small and the project will be implemented in a separate skunk works division under the leadership of clarence kelly johnson a man quite famous in aviation industry while competitors tried to make their machines simpler and lighter johnson seemed to have taken this idea to the point of absurdity one engine a minimum of equipment volume and mass as well as the abandonment of any weapons only cameras the cl-282 concept was in fact a motorized glider it didn't even have a landing gear take off from a platform and landing on the belly the military did not particularly appreciate it and their looks were pulled more towards the rb57 nevertheless the cl282 seemed interesting to some of the specialists and they proposed the project to the main fans of peeping the cia but here there were other issues langley outsourced aerial reconnaissance to the air force they did not have their own capacities and the director at that time alan dulles did not want to create a new division at all in addition the air force itself opposed it from which it seemed the work was being taken away the result of long debates was the decision to implement the project under the management of both structures the air force was engaged in the operation and the cia took over the espionage part of the work equipment mission preparations data processing secrecy in the cia this work was carried out within the framework of their equitan project and the air force respectively worked in the framework of their project called oilstone in 1955 lockheed received a contract to build an aircraft with the subsequent delivery of 20 units by the end of 1956. the time frames back then were pretty narrow the plane was supposed to be able to fly at 70 000 ft roughly 21.3 kilometers an almost unreachable ceiling in the 1950s for comparison this is roughly twice the altitude of modern commercial aircraft flights the implementation took place under conditions of maximum secrecy the cia provided funding through secret channels and the supply of components went in roundabout ways sometimes it got to the point of being funny when cash tranches was sent to johnson directly at his home and equipment built to work at an altitude of 24 kilometers was ordered as part of projects for rocket planes at that time it was a fashionable topic so there was no suspicion of course they also had to play with the name of the plane in theory its index should have started with the letter r reconnaissance like other planes of this type but instead it received the letter u utility with such naming it found itself among the military versions of light piston aircraft such as the u1 and u3 and was formally considered just another auxiliary device and so in 1955 the unremarkable name lockheed u2 appeared and the whole program with the light hand of aviators and spies received the name dragon lady which the aircraft still bears so what are we dealing with the u2 is a monoplane with a straight wing and a large wingspan very large the span of the basic u2a already exceeded 24 meters or 80 feet and over time grew to 31 meters 104 feet for example the wingspan of a modern boeing 737-800 is slightly less than 36 meters and that for a minute is a 170 seat airliner the mechanization is simple pretty big flaps small spoilers and long ailerons plus two retractable air breakers on the fuselage closer to the tail the design was also simplified kelly johnson took as a starting point the prototype of the lockheed xf-104 the father of the future f-104 starfighter at first glance it seemed that a high-speed fighter is as far as possible from the high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft but the aviators decided that a well-developed and combat aircraft is already a good basis narrow fuselage cockpit in the front inside the fuselage one jet engine with air intakes on the sides unlike the f-104 the fuel tanks are in its wings and where the starfighter has tanks some of the equipment and the gun behind the cockpit now there is room for the main reconnaissance toolkit shooting equipment however there is not a lot of space there which became a problem for suppliers accustomed to the vastness and loads of bombers adapting equipment was a real battle for every pound and inch overheating was another problem at operating altitude the air is so rarified that it cannot cool the equipment so the compartment had to be sealed and pressurized along with the cockpit but the work was done the aircraft received several high-resolution cameras which made it possible to determine objects as small as a couple of meters from an altitude of more than 20 kilometers the u2 in its base is a single fleet aircraft the cockpit received both a flight control interface and reconnaissance tool controls despite the fact that the cockpit is pressurized in cruise flight the pressure corresponds to an altitude of about eight and a half kilometers or 28 thousand feet the pilots would not have survived eight hour missions in conditions like on the summit of mount everest so special flight suits were made for them their evolution is a whole story from modified flight suits through special pressure suits derived from the sr-71 project to the easily recognizable pumpkin suits used on the space shuttles those of course were simplified there is no need to fly into space but still have decent functionality complete sealing oxygen pumps in a helmet the ability to eat through a tube a toilet over time the u2 also got two seat variants a separate second cockpit is located behind the main one it occupies the instrument compartment and there is no space left for cameras there so the two seated u2s are limited mainly to educational purposes the instructor sits in the front and the trainee in the back the power plant is represented by one pratt whitney j57 none after burning turbo jet engine with a thrust of about 46 kilonewtons but as part of the upgrades the aircraft received more powerful pratt whitney j75 and then the general electric f-118 reaching the thrust of 81 kilonewtons one of the problems of the u2 power plant like a number of other spy planes with fuel conventional aviation kerosene is unstable at such altitudes and pressures and starts to evaporate and ignite at low temperatures therefore instead a special thermal stable jpts fuel was used the jpts was in short supply was delivered to foreign bases from the united states and in practice was three times more expensive than conventional fuel but there were no options it was only years later that a cheaper solution was developed the standard jp8 aviation fuel with a number of additives which bring it to the required performance the landing gear is one of the clearest examples of the radical struggle for mass of the u2 the aircraft received a bicycle configuration gear a front leg with a large two-wheel bogey equipped with brakes is located between the instrument compartment and the engine the rear gear provides steering but due to the lack of interior space it is made very compact a pair of small polyurethane wheels on a short leg that rotates only 6 degrees at the same time so that the wing doesn't touch the ground it was also equipped with a pair of light so called pogo wheels which are attached in special sockets and are held in place by the weight of the wing as the speed increases on the take-off run the wing rises and the struts simply fall off upon landing the wing lies down on the titanium skids integrated into the tips the personnel policy was also unusual the requirements were quite contradictory considering the spy specifics of the service it was desirable that the pilots had no official relationship with the us air force to be accepted into the team experienced military pilots would officially quit the service and then get a job as civilians receiving a salary in fact from the cia they couldn't even be called pilots formerly they were considered drivers at the same time before signing the documents and obtaining clearance the pilots in general did not really know what kind of work awaited them it was something like the work is interesting the money is good it will be fun the training was also not simple at all at first the youtubes were only single seated which meant that any flight could only be independent without an instructor the second is secrecy they couldn't fly overpopulated areas the planes would be immediately noticed therefore in the early stages test and training flights were conducted mainly at the facility called watertown in nevada away from prying ice an unremarkable military base known as area 51 just you the desert the sky and unidentified flying objects in fact most of the ufos reported by eyewitnesses in the 1950s in this area were the u2 aircraft while the military and intelligence services of course could not explain this without violating secrecy so the public was getting excited and the authorities were playing dumb just as we like the work was facilitated by the fact that there were not many people in fact a little over a thousand people ever flew on the u2 and at the beginning there were not many more of them than astronauts a private party [Music] the project was implemented in record time the first flight of the u2 prototype took place in august 1955 and it was an accidental flight the wing created such lift that during test runs along the runway at a speed of only about 70 knots the plane took off from the ground despite the many difficulties the tests were successful and flights were carried out within almost the entire territory of the united states in case of emergency landings sealed instructions were sent to airbase commanders describing what to do if they are suddenly visited by an unknown something the previously skeptical military were very impressed by the aircraft and they also ordered a batch of 31 u2s for their own needs however the success also had a price and it was mainly the pilots who paid it the u2 let's say is a very specific machine to fly on the one hand everything is cool takeoff is a real thrill just as the plane gets off the ground it soars into the sky like a jet fighter except the fighter quickly goes into horizontal flight and the u2 rises for so long as if it's not gaining altitude but is simply flying into space well you can enjoy the view from 20 kilometers the sky at this height is already almost black the horizon becomes slightly rounded and if you're lucky you can even observe the border of day and night on the surface of the earth beautiful and now the other side of the coin we can start with physical activity control was implemented using a system of cables and rods there were no boosters this simplified and lightened the design but made the pilot's work more difficult while the aircraft can be controlled without problems during cruise flight at low altitude stages in a dense atmosphere the sensitive ailerons become terribly tight the plane has a tendency to yaw a little pressure drops or wind and it starts to wiggle a cherry on the cake is turbulence which for such an aircraft is not harmless shaking anymore this is one of the reasons why the youtube pilots hate flying over high mountains sit and watch the flight maintaining the crew speed at about 410 knots approximately 760 kilometers per hour pilots of conventional aircraft have to maintain optimal flight speeds do not exceed the maximum and do not fly too slowly normal practice except when flying on the u2 especially on early versions the gap between the maximum and minimum was only a couple dozen kilometers per hour and the pilot had to be alert if you fall out of this gap you risk destroying the plane and yourself with it even with an autopilot this is not an easy task flying the dragon lady is called a dance with a dragon awesome beautiful and advanced but a dragon and the pilot performs this dance in a cramped cockpit in radio silence all alone for many hours in a spacesuit which of course is cool and expensive but is hardly included in the top of the most comfortable suits in the world taking pictures was also difficult unlike the large planes with a whole crew on board there was one man here and he did all the work himself and of course anything interesting below was not in the cozy fields next to your airbase but somewhere in the closed airspace in kazakhstan where in general no one invited the american the high flight altitude was good protection but the americans understanding of the capabilities of the soviet air defense forces was approximate and there was no 100 certainty that they would not succeed in their hunt in case the plane was shut down the pilot as expected carried with him a cyanide pill soon replaced by a silver dollar with a poisonous needle the workday could end with death in flight or even suicide somehow it sounds not very inspiring landing the u2 was also quite an adventure the aircraft adopted for high altitude flights has a cockpit with rather modest glazing that limits the view and this is after an 8 to 10 hour mission when the pilot is already having difficulty thinking moreover at a minimum height already above the runway the huge wing creates a ground effect the plane seems to lie on an air cushion that prevents it from touching down to solve these problems the aviators developed a special procedure a special car rides on the runway behind the landing plane from which the backup pilot yes like astronauts leads the plane from outside and advises on the flight parameters at the right moment when the aircraft is stable and maintains an altitude of two feet the pilot actually provokes a stall and the aircraft flops onto the landing gear the outcome of adventures with such loads was different including disorientation claustrophobia fatigue decompression sickness and so on up to the loss of consciousness and incidents some of which ended in the loss of machines and people on average according to various estimates during an 8 hour mission the pilot loses about 5 of his mass a pretty aggressive way to lose weight finally all the toil sleepless nights and risky trials led the aviators to the stage that everyone was looking forward to so much the dragon lady was ready for reconnaissance missions and whatever you say the story of the great paparazzi was truly adventurous we will talk about these adventures in the next video which will soon be released here on skyships like and subscribe to the channel so as not to miss the conclusion of the youtube story and if you want to watch the videos earlier get exclusives or just support the channel visit our patreon page fast flights and soft landings to you [Music] you

Channel: Skyships Eng

Views: 41,738

Rating: 4.9545197 out of 5

Keywords: lockheed, lockheed u-2, dragon lady, lockheed u-2 cockpit, lockheed u-2 history, dragon lady plane, u-2 dragon lady

Id: d_35ayx0aVo

Length: 20min 46sec (1246 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 09 2021