Ride along on a Lockheed U-2 spyplane

[Ron]

check out the amazing view cruising at 70,000ft as the sky above turns black

terribly cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PmYItnlY5M&feature=player_embedded

[vaskidmark]

Was that Bondo over some of the rivet lines?

That experience must be absolutely amazing, even encased in a suit and helmet.  I'm sure I'd embarass myself, the pilot and the USAF with a series of Whoo-Hoos if I ever got the chance to take that ride.

stay safe.

skidmark

[Perd Hapley]

Incredible. 

Funny how that guy keeps saying "I'm at a loss for words," but keeps babbling about how speechless he is.   

[Gewehr98]

Yes, there's Bondo or the Mil-Spec equivalent aplenty on U-2/TR-1 powered gliders, especially that 2-seat trainer variant.

It floored me to see it when I worked with that program at Beale AFB, too.

Neat to see they bought Pontiac GTOs to replace their Pursuit Mustangs as chase cars...

[Doggy Daddy]

Funny how that guy keeps saying "I'm at a loss for words," but keeps babbling about how speechless he is.

I thought he did pretty good, considering that I would have spent my time tearing up and babbling. 

DD

[S. Williamson]

I want to hate him, but I can't... 

That is literally a dream of mine. 

Wow.

[lee n. field]

Beautiful plane.  A powered sailplane.  I didn't know they still flew them.

[Boomhauer]

Beautiful plane.  A powered sailplane.  I didn't know they still flew them.

Yep, the U2 has gotten a new lease on life. They've even given them glass cockpits.


Oh, and the Russians have an aircraft that fufills a similar role. The M-17/M-55 Mystic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myasishchev_M-55

[BobR]

NASA also has a few of them for high altitude research.

I followed the NASA one through the frequencies one day at Moffett Field. He was at 10k feet in no time at all and was cleared above 60K (uncontrolled airspace) in 21 minutes. I would swear that by the time he got to the end of the 9k foot runway he was at 10k altitude. They would usually climb out at about a 60 degree climb, pretty impressive. He had a takeoff roll of *next to nothing*.

bob

[Perd Hapley]

He had a takeoff roll of *next to nothing*.

Explain for noobs, please? 


So if this plane is climbing to 13 miles up, how far out could it go, relative to the surface, and still come back home? 

[Gewehr98]

The unclassified service ceiling for the U-2/TR-1 is FL80.0, aka, 80,000 feet.

The air molecules are few and far between up there, and the difference between overspeed and stall speed at that altitude is only a few knots. That's yet another reason why U-2 pilots refer to the fragile, jet-powered glider as The Dragon Lady.

Lift is a precious commodity in such rarified atmospheres.  Even the SR-71 had to carefully stairstep up to its max altitude. 

You need something more along the lines of the NASA X-15 or newer Rutan SpaceShipOne to go exo-atmospheric, and then those are piggybacked on larger planes to be released around 50K feet.

[Perd Hapley]

I meant, how far "out" from the place it took off?  So if it took off from California, would it be flying over Siberia before it gets up to 70,000 ft?  Or still somewhere in the Pacific?

Obviously, it could double back a few times, but if it did fly in a straight line...

[jamz]

I wonder how that thing handles in a spin.

[BobR]

Here is a pretty neat article on the U2.

http://www.thewaycorp.com/tu/mgt/u2.htm

In it he talks about the climb, glide ratio and other things.

bob

[roo_ster]

Instead of mooning on about "I'm at a loss for words," I'd likely be doing the Beavis & Butthead "Heheheheheheheheh" as the reptile portion of my brain is tickled by the view.

[Gewehr98]

I wonder how that thing handles in a spin.

Not worth a crap.  It wouldn't handle the stresses.

When I said it's a powered glider, I wasn't kidding.

It has a mixed lineage, but there's F-104 Starfighter in the fuselage, as well as other borrowed components.

"Q-Bay" is the equipment bay right behind the cockpit.  When the upper and lower fuselage access panels are removed to install a reconnaissance package, you get a really good feel for how flimsy and minimalistic the jet's construction is. There are merely inches between the inside walls of the Q-Bay and the external skin of the plane. Evidence of weight-saving measures is prevalent anywhere you look, and not just the outboard wing pogos.

In my operational liasion with the boys at Beale, I had a friend who managed to safely eject from his Dragon Lady.  Per the post-crash investigation, it turned out that the tailpipe extension clamp bolts were substandard imported counterfeits, and let go during max thrust on takeoff.  The tailpipe extension separated, and under exhaust pressure balled up in the aft fuselage, creating an even greater overpressure condition as the engine was still spooled up.  The fuselage field service joint then failed under the stress, sending the aft fuselage and tail in a different direction than the front of the jet.  That left my buddy with a U-2 that ended abruptly just behind the wings, hanging nose down as the features on the ground got bigger and bigger in his windshield. 

The U-2's ejection seat was an afterthought, and a darned good one at that. 

   

[AJ Dual]

IIRC, you can purchase a ride to that altitude in Russia on a MiG-25 or 31, they have a smiliar service cieling around 72,000 feet, maybe higher.

Although that's understandable, as they were first designed as a response to the aborted Mach 3 XB-70 bomber project, and probably to SR-71 activity they were seeing on radar. 

I don't think they take you up to Mach3 though, as the maximum speed those MiG's are capable of, pretty much ends the service life of the engines, or requires a complete rebuild etc.

[roo_ster]

In my operational liasion with the boys at Beale, I had a friend who managed to safely eject from his Dragon Lady.  Per the post-crash investigation, it turned out that the tailpipe extension clamp bolts were substandard imported counterfeits, and let go during max thrust on takeoff. 

I sure hope someone got a swift kick in the jimmy for the counterfeiting.

[Gewehr98]

It sent a ripple throught the USAF maintenance world, because they were sourced through the standard GSA schedule.

There were various stand-downs at flying units as their inventory of fasteners were inspected.  I remember an article published in the Combat Edge discussing the ramifications. 

Kinda makes the cheap stamped Chinese replacement Chevy/Ford/Dodge fenders pale in comparison, doesn't it?   

[Thor]

I would imagine that the substance that appeared as "Bondo" was actually Mil-S-8802 sealing compound. That was commonly used in many of the aircraft that I worked on. I hated that stuff, but I also loved it. It works quite well when properly applied.

[CNYCacher]

The air molecules are few and far between up there, and the difference between overspeed and stall speed at that altitude is only a few knots.

What is overspeed?

[erictank]

What is overspeed?

Go too fast in an airplane, and Bad Things Happen - like, in extreme cases, the wings getting ripped off due to the stresses imposed on the airframe.  Even less-extreme cases cause damage to the structure of the aircraft - it's undergoing more stress than it's designed to handle.

Granted, it's only a computer program, but I always had fun overspeeding an SR-71 in my old 'Chuck Yeager's Flight Simulator' (what was that, an Apple IIe?  LONG time ago...).  I'd step it up to over 100,000 feet - I never had any problem taking it WELL above "rated service ceiling" - and pointing it straight down.  The wings generally came off before I hit 40K feet.  Quicker if I pulled back on the stick. 

[lee n. field]

Granted, it's only a computer program, but I always had fun overspeeding an SR-71 in my old 'Chuck Yeager's Flight Simulator'

Always wanted to do something like that.  Point it east and up a bit, floor it and see if I could reach LEO.

[Gewehr98]

There's about a 5-knot window between stall and overspeed in a U-2 at operational altitude.

Dragon Lady flyers call it "Coffin Corner".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffin_corner_(aviation)

[Fly320s]

Explain for noobs, please? 

Short takeoff distance because of the highly efficient wing and high thrust-to-weight ratio.  The long, thin wing (high aspect ratio) make for a good climbing and gliding airplane.  The plane can go from a standstill to airborn very quickly, probably in under 1,000 feet of takeoff roll.  For comparison, a Cessna 172 (4 person general aviation plane) will require about the same distance to takeoff.  My Airbus 320 may take 6,000 feet.

Stubby, swept wings are built for speed.

What is overspeed?

In this case, going too fast for the wing, not necessarily for the fueselage.  As altitude increases, air density decreases.  There are fewer air molecules up high for the wing to use to create lift.  To compensate for the loss of air density, the plane is flown faster through the air to achieve the same amount of lift.  The wing's shape determines how fast it can move through the air before reaching critical mach.  At some point, the wing is moving so fast through the air that the airflow over the wing is approaching  Mach 1 (critical mach) even though the aircraft itself is well below that speed.  Supersonic airflow over a wing does some strange things.  The U2 wing was not designed to go supersonic.

Also at high altitude, the stall speed increases because of the thin air.  A wing can only fly so slow before it stalls.  To stay above that minimum speed at high altitude, the plane must be flown faster to get ahold of enough of the air to create lift.  Eventually, you can get to a point where the minimum indicated airspeed to prevent stalling approaches the maximum indicated airspeed to prevent overspeed.  That can be a thin margin, less than 10 knots.  That is known as the coffin corner, because you're pushed into the corner of the performance envelope with little room to move.