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The U-2 was designed and built for surveillance missions in the thin atmosphere above 55,000 feet. An unusual single-engine aircraft with sailplane-like wings, it was the product of a team headed by Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson at Lockheed's "Skunk Works" in Burbank, California. The U-2 made its first flight in August 1955 and began operational service in 1956. Its employment was kept secret until May 1, 1960, when a civilian-piloted U-2 was downed on a non-USAF reconnaissance flight over Soviet territory.

USAF U-2s have been used for various missions. On October 14, 1962, Maj. Richard S. Heyser piloted a U-2 over Cuba to obtain the first photos of Soviet offensive missile sites. Maj. Rudolph Anderson, Jr. was killed on a similar mission eight days later when his U-2 was shot down. U-2s also have been used in mapping studies, atmospheric sampling and for collecting crop and land management photographic data for the Department of Energy.

The aircraft on display is the last U-2A built. During the 1960's it made 285 flights to gather data on high-altitude clear air-turbulence. In the 1970's it was used to flight-test reconnaissance systems. It was delivered to the Museum in May 1980, and is painted as a typical reconnaissance U-2.

SPECIFICATIONS
Span: 80 ft.
Length: 49 ft. 7 in.
Height: 13 ft.
Weight: 15,850 lbs. (17,270 lbs. with external fuel tanks)
Armament: None
Engine: Pratt & Whitney J57-P-37A of 11,000 lbs. thrust (J75-P-13 of 17,000 lbs. thrust for later models)

PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: 494 mph.
Cruising speed: 460 mph.
Range: 2,220 miles (over 3,000 miles for later models)
Service Ceiling: Above 55,000 ft. (above 70,000 ft. for later models)

Courtesy Of The Air Force Museum

 

 

The Lockheed U-2C

 

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Wingspan	24.4 m (80 ft.)
Length	15.2 m (50 ft.)
Height	4.6 m (15 ft.)
Weight	5,929 kg (13,071 lb.) empty

Still shrouded in secrecy over 35 years after its creation, the Lockheed U-2 was originally designed as a strategic reconnaissance aircraft, playing a crucial role during the tense years of the Cold War. Built at the famous 'Skunk Works" by Lockheed under the direction of Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, the U-2 was truly one of the most successful intelligence- gathering aircraft ever produced.

In 1953, on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Air Force issued a request for a single-seat, long-range, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft to monitor the military activities of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries in Eastern Europe. By this time, breakthroughs in film and camera technologies made possible the creation of an aircraft that could take high resolution photographs of strategic sites from extreme altitudes where it would be invulnerable to interception.

In November 1954, Lockheed presented an unsolicited proposal that was accepted by the CIA with President Dwight Eisenhower's approval. Operating under a very strict schedule, the Skunk Works produced the new U-2 just eight months later. Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier flew the single-seat U-2 on its maiden flight on August 6, 1955. With its narrow chord and sailplane-like wing, the lightly loaded U-2 refused to land until LeVier's fifth attempt brought it back to Earth. The U-2 was subjected to an accelerated test program which revealed a number of problems that were quickly overcome, particularly that of engine flameouts at high altitude. This was solved by the development of new low-volatility fuel for the single Pratt and Whitney J57 turbojet.

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The U-2 was not developed for the USAF, but for the CIA. The talented and fantastic Kelly Johnson, Lockheed's "avant-garde" engineer developed the project in eight months: it consisted of building an aircraft capable of flying above 70,000 feet (21,350 meters) with a minimum range of 6,000 kilometers, of very light weight, but capable of carrying state of the art cameras with more than 1,600 meters of film.

CIA pilot training began in the spring of 1956 and by the summer the first models of the jet, the U-2A, became operational. On July 4,1956, a U-2A completed the first over flight of the Soviet Union. Sophisticated electronic and camera equipment was housed in the nose and in a large fuselage bay. Large fuel tanks enabled the aircraft to fly for six hours over almost 4,600 kilometers (3,000 miles) at altitudes in excess of 60,000 feet. Operational U-2As flew routinely from bases in Pakistan and Turkey to Norway, overlying vast stretches of the Soviet Union. These flights gathered much important data and particularly revealed that the so-called 'missile gap" in the Soviet's favor was a myth, thus altering the delicate strategic balance. For four years the CIA operated these flights with U-2As and improved U-2Bs until May 1,1960, when Francis Gary Powers was shot down by a Soviet SA-2 missile over Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg), thus sparking an embarrassing diplomatic incident for the United States and halting these flights.

Flights over the People's Republic of China, however, continued unabated from bases in Taiwan, as did flights over Cuba from U.S. bases. On August 29, 1962, a U-2 confirmed the presence of Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missiles on that island nation, which led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. U-2s were also in demand to gather information over Vietnam after July 1964, operating continually until the fall of Saigon in 1975. Since then, U-2s have observed the developing situations in the Middle East and other political hot spots.

The U-2's remarkable high-altitude abilities have also made it a valuable tool for scientific research. NASA has operated two of these aircraft in its High Altitude Missions Branch, where the U-2 has proved to be useful in stratospheric sampling, particularly in gathering volcanic dust after the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, and has been involved in assessments of natural disasters and water and land use.

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The U-2 B camera has a 36-inch focal length and can resolve features as small as .75 meters (2.5 feet) from an altitude of 19.5 kilometers (65,000 feet).

Numerous versions of the U-2 have been produced, each one providing important improvements in performance and mission capability, including two-seat models and models that can be operated from aircraft carriers. The most significant change came with the development of the U-2R, a redesign that lengthened both the fuselage and wingspan, allowing for much improved handling and electronics and sensor payload.

The U-2R retained the general configuration of earlier versions, with its unique bicycle-type landing gear and the powerful Pratt and Whitney J75-P-13B engine of the U-2C. In 1979, after a break in production of 12 years, the TR-1A version of the U-2R was ordered by the U.S. Air Force to provide reconnaissance capability for high-altitude stand-off surveillance of Eastern Europe. A new generation of cameras and sensors that can peer 300 miles away from the aircraft made this possible. NASA has also acquired the earth resources version of the TR-1A, known as the ER-2, for service with the U-2Cs of the High Altitude Missions Branch.

On August 30, 1982, the National Air and Space Museum acquired its Lockheed U-2C from the U.S. Air Force. This particular aircraft, Article 347, Serial Number 56-6680, was the seventh U-2 built. It was delivered on February 9,1956, and was first employed operationally on July 4. It originally flew as a U-2A model and was subsequently upgraded as a U-2C when refitted with the J75-P-13B engine, which required a significant enlargement of the airframe engine inlets. At one point it was temporarily fitted with an in-flight refueling probe and designated as a U-2F.

When flown by the CIA, the aircraft remained unpainted except for its three-digit production number and was operated from bases at Lakenheath, England: Wiesbaden and Giebelstade, Germany: Akrotiri, Cyprus: and Edwards Air Force Base, California. The aircraft was apparently lent to the Air Force in 1969 and flown over Vietnam. In 1974 the CIA transferred ownership of #347 to the Air Force, which operated it until 1978. The paint scheme now on the aircraft was used by the Air Force during operations from British bases in the Middle East. The airplane remained with the Air Force until its transfer to the Museum in 1982.

National Air and Space Museum

 

The Dragon Lady

Flying The U-2

 

 

Background Notes

 

Groom Lake / Nellis

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A Lockheed TR1A-U. It should be noted that this machine bears no identification at all. NASA

Groom Dry Lake, with its US Air Force base, is within what has become popularly known as "Area 51". This is a large area of government land about 95 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada. It adjoins the Nevada Test Site and the Nellis Air Force Range. The name "Area 51" supposedly came from a designation appearing on an old map of the Nevada Test Site. The lake bed centre is at 115°47'30"W and 37°16'30"N.

Development programs for the U-2, A-12, SR-71 and F-117 aircraft were all carried out here under tight secrecy. Indeed, the Groom Dry Lake facility was initially built in the early 1950s for development of the U-2.

Restricted public access meant that the first image of Groom Lake seen by Americans was one taken by a Russian satellite.

However, Groom's existence had been revealed as far back as 3 May, 1956, when NACA (now NASA) published photographs of the U-2, describing it as "a weather research aircraft which has been flying from Watertown Strip in southern Nevada" (Watertown being the formal name given the Groom Lake base).

The land was finally officially withdrawn from public use in June 1958. At that time it was identified as "Area 51" (all neighboring areas were similarly numbered) with that label being officially dropped in the late 1970s.

With development of the high-performance Lockheed A-12 from 1959, the restricted airspace around Groom was extended. The word was put out that the facility was now used for radar testing; partially true, as a radar test facility had been built to test the A-12's radar profile.

By the mid-1970s, the USAF's 6513rd Test Squadron was operating Soviet combat aircraft out of the lakebed strip. The Red Flag exercises, out of nearby Nellis AFB, used a good part of the area. Soviet radars and SAMs dotted the hills and Aggressor Squadron F-5s imitated Soviet fighters. Red Flag crews referred to Groom as "Red Square". As later, more exotic projects developed - Have Blue, Tacit Blue, and the F-117 and B-2 - the title became "Dreamland".

The immense secrecy and visible security around the "Area 51" complex - which in fact consists of several distinct facilities - has attracted aviation enthusiasts, as well as UFO and conspiracy buffs, some of whom speak of "back engineering of alien technology" in depths below "Area 51", as if secret aircraft development, Red Flag exercises and live firing were not enough of a security and safety reason to keep curious folk at a distance.

Notable as a source of "Area 51" data and gossip has been the now defunct "Groom Lake Desert Rat", once electronically published from the small town of Rachel, Nev. Its content managed to walk a narrow line between being a sensible social watchdog, while at the same time appealing to the UFO/conspiracy audience. It therefore continues to circulate on the Net, apparently at no fixed address, but not hard to find if searched for by name.

 

New Life For The Dragon Lady

The U-2's New Cockpit

 

The Lockheed U-2

 

 

The Lockheed U-2R / TR-1 In Flight

The U-2, nicknamed Dragon Lady, is a single-seat, single-engine, high-altitude Surveillance aircraft flown by the United States Air Force. It provides continuous day and night, high-altitude (70,000 ft, 21,000 m plus), all-weather surveillance of an area in direct support of U.S. and allied ground and air forces. It also provides critical intelligence to decision-makers through all phases of conflict, including peacetime indications and warnings, crises, operations other than war, and major theater war. The aircraft also are used for electronic sensor research and development, satellite calibration, and satellite data validation.

A classified budget document approved by the Pentagon on December 23, 2005, calls for the termination of the U-2 program by 2011, with some planes being retired as early as 2007. The U-2 would likely be supplanted by the Northrop Grumman's high-altitude Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle.

 

 

Details

The U-2, whose development name at Lockheed was the CL-282 Aquatone, needed an official name. It could not be named with letters such as B for bomber and F for fighter because its purpose was not for any of those specific designations. Also, since the project was under high secrecy, it could not be called a reconnaissance plane. Finally, the Air Force decided to call it a utility plane. Since the designations U-1 (de Havilland Canada "Otter") and U-3 (Cessna 310) had already been chosen, the designation given to the plane was U-2. Initially, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson adapted the F-104 Starfighter, replacing the low aspect ratio blade wings with extremely large glider type wings as a starting point.

High aspect ratio wings give the U-2 glider-like characteristics and make the aircraft extremely challenging to fly, not only due to its unusual landing characteristics, but also because of the extreme altitudes it can reach. When flying the U-2A and U-2C models (no longer in service) the maximum speed (critical mach) and the minimum speed (stall speed) approach the same number, presenting a narrow window of safe airspeed the plane must maintain. In these models over 90% of a typical mission is flown within five knots of stall speed.

The difficulty experienced by the pilots flying the U-2 led to it being called the "Dragonlady" because the aircraft was extremely unforgiving with respect to pilot ineptitude or incompetence.

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Because of its high-altitude mission, the pilot must wear the equivalent of a space suit. The suit delivers the pilot's oxygen supply and emergency protection in case cabin pressure is lost at altitude (the cabin provides pressure equivalent to approximately 29,000 feet). To prevent hypoxia and decrease the chance of decompression sickness, pilots don an S1034 full pressure suit (manufactured by the David Clark Company) and begin breathing 100 percent oxygen one hour prior to launch; while moving from the building to the aircraft they breathe from a portable liquid oxygen supply.

The U-2 Ejection Seat

The U-2 is considered one of the most challenging aircraft in the military inventory to fly and requires a high degree of airmanship from its pilots. Its large wingspan and resulting glider-like characteristics make the U-2 highly sensitive to crosswinds. This sensitivity, and the aircraft's tendency to float over the runway, makes the U-2 notoriously difficult to land. Typically, a second U-2 pilot, designated as the mission's backup pilot and referred to as the "mobile," waits in a high-performance chase car at the end of the runway as the aircraft makes it landing approach. As the U-2 passes, the chase car follows it at high speed, with the mobile calling out the aircraft's altitude via radio to the pilot. When the aircraft's main landing gear is within approximately two feet of the runway surface the pilot deploys spoilers located on the top of the wings to reduce lift (spoiling the lift and increasing the stall speed by 2 knots). Retractable stall strips on the wings' leading edges that are deployed prior to entering the landing phase help to produce equal stalling effects. This is done to minimize wing drop, assisting in aircraft control particularly during strong cross winds.

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Another distinguishing characteristic of the U-2 is its landing gear. Instead of the typical tricycle configuration consisting of a nose wheel and two sets of main wheels under each wing, the U-2 uses a bicycle configuration consisting of one set of main wheels located just behind the cockpit and one set of rear wheels located behind the engine. To maintain balance and allow the aircraft to taxi, two sets of auxiliary wheels called "pogos" are installed under each wing by ground crew. The pogos fall out of sockets in the wing onto the runway surface when the aircraft takes off. The ground crew collects the pogos and re-installs them after the aircraft lands. U-2 ground crews, in a spirit of playfulness, often perpetuate the idea that the pogos are installed from the back of a pick-up truck that drives alongside the aircraft while it is moving at high speed down the runway. In fact, the pogos are installed after the aircraft has come to a full stop and the wings have settled onto the ground. Skids made of titanium strips are located on the bottom of each wing tip to protect the wing. Once the pogos are installed, the aircraft taxis under its own power back to its parking location.

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U-2 Sensor Payload

The aircraft carries a variety of sensors. The U-2 is capable of simultaneously collecting signals and imagery intelligence. Imagery intelligence sensors include either wet film photo, electro-optic or radar imagery. It can use both line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight data links.

U-2 Sensor Capabilities
Sensor	Type	Range
SYERS	electro-optical	120 km
ASARS	imaging radar	180 km
SENIOR GLASS SENIOR RUBY SENIOR SPEAR	COMINT/ELINT	280 km

 

 

 

 

The aircraft completed an upgrade to the General Electric F118-101 engine in 1998, primarily to increase maintainability by replacing the aging Pratt & Whitney J75 engine that had first been developed in the 1950s. Significant side benefits of the newer GE engine were better fuel economy, reduced weight and increased power. To increase longevity the GE engine was de-rated to roughly match the output from the PW engine. Other upgrades to the sensors and the addition of the Global Positioning System increased collection capability and provided superimposed geo-coordinates directly on collected images.

 

History

 

The U-2 project was initiated in the early 1950s by the CIA which desperately wanted accurate information on the Soviet Union. Over flights of the Soviet Union with modified bombers started around 1951, but they were vulnerable to antiaircraft fire and fighters, and a number of border flights were shot down. It was thought a high altitude aircraft such as the U-2 would be hard to detect and impossible to shoot down. Lockheed Corporation was given the assignment with an unlimited budget and a short time frame. Its Skunk Works, headed by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson performed remarkably, and the first flight occurred in August 1955. Kodak also developed new cameras, which worked well. It made its first over-flight of the Soviet Union in June 1956.

The aircraft came to public attention during the U-2 Crisis when pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Soviet territory on May 1, 1960. On October 14, 1962, it was a U-2 from the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing that photographed the Soviet military installing nuclear warhead missiles in Cuba, precipitating the Cuban missile crisis. However, later in the Cuban missile crisis, another U-2 was shot down, killing the pilot, Major Rudolph Anderson. Major Anderson was posthumously awarded the first Air Force Cross. The development by the Soviets of SAMs that could reach the U-2 — the type that shot down Powers and Anderson — prompted the development of a very fast, very high flying reconnaissance plane, the CIA's A-11 Blackbird (later the A-12 Oxcart, and then the USAF SR-71).

The U-2 provides daily peacetime indications and warning intelligence collection from its current operating locations around the world. When requested from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U-2 also has provided photography supporting their disaster relief efforts. U-2s also provided critical intelligence data during all phases of Operations Desert Storm and Allied Force.

However, most imagery intelligence used by the US military now comes from reconnaissance satellites. The first Corona surveillance satellite took more photographs of the Soviet Union than the total from all 24 of the U-2 missions over the country.

 

No Rest For A Cold Warrior

10 Things You Didn't Know About The U-2

 

Losses

The U-2 had a very high loss rate initially. Of about 86 airframes produced, 40 were destroyed or severely damaged in crashes through 2001, and at least four were shot down, over the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China. Some airframes were rebuilt from parts of crashed aircraft. Transitioning into the aircraft was hazardous; the U.S. Air Force lost 9 aircraft in 1½ years when they started operating the U-2 in 1957. (Ref. 1)

On January 26, 2003 a U-2 crashed near Osan Air Base in South Korea injuring three Koreans on the ground, destroying the aircraft and causing extensive damage. The pilot ejected and suffered only minor injuries. A subsequent investigation blamed an engine failure coupled with deteriorating weather conditions. .

On June 21, 2005 at 22:30 UT a U-2 crashed while returning from a mission supporting to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.  The pilot, who was serving with the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing based at Al Dhafra Air Base near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, was killed. Air Force investigations conclude the aircraft crashed while approaching the base for a night landing after mechanical failure deprived the pilot of hydraulic power, primary instrument displays, and interior lighting. This compounded a misperception by the pilot that a total engine failure had occurred, which actually was not the case. The resulting disorientation kept the aircraft in a powered descent until impact.

 

U-2 Flight History

 

U-2 Variants

The U-2R, first flown in 1967, is significantly larger and more capable than the original aircraft. A tactical reconnaissance version, the TR-1A, first flew in August 1981. A distinguishing feature of these aircraft is the addition of a large instrumentation "superpod" under each wing. Designed for standoff tactical reconnaissance in Europe, the TR-1A was structurally identical to the U-2R. The 17th Reconnaissance Wing, Royal Air Force Station Alconbury, England used operational TR-1As from 1983 until 1991. The last U-2 and TR-1 aircraft were delivered to the Air Force in October 1989. In 1992 all TR-1s and U-2s (all U-2Rs) were designated U-2Rs. The two-seat trainer variant of the TR-1, the TR-1B, was re-designated as the TU-2R. After upgrading with the F-118-101 engine, the former U-2Rs were designated the U-2S Senior Year.

A derivative of the U-2 known as the ER-2 (Earth Resources -2) is used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for high altitude civilian research including Earth resources, celestial observations, atmospheric chemistry and dynamics, and oceanic processes.

• U-2A — The first production model of the U-2 spy plane; J57-P-37A engine.

• WU-2A — Weather, atmospheric research aircraft.

• U-2B — Improved production version; J57-P-31 engine.

• U-2C — Improved production version; J75-P-13 engine.

• U-2CT — Two-seat training version.

• U-2D — Two-seat high-altitude research aircraft.

• U-2EPX — Proposed maritime surveillance version for the U.S. Navy.

• U-2R (TR-1) — larger wing and fuselage, J75-P-13B engine; "superpod" instrument pods under wings

• U-2S — R with F118-GE-101 engine.

 

Variant Specifications

 

USAF U-2S Sets World Record for Altitude with Payload

A U-2S flown by the 9th Wing, Beale AFB (Calif.), flew a successful flight targeting a new world record, (weight class C-1H, Group III, Medium airplanes 12,000 - 16,000 kg/26,455 - 35,274 pounds) on Saturday, 12 December. The record was for maximum achieved altitude with a 2,000-kilogram (4,410 pound) payload. The previous record was flown in 1979 by a Czechoslovakian Yak-40K, with an altitude of 28,458 feet. The U-2S flew to an altitude of 66,800 feet. This new record, 2.3 times higher than the previous, sets a standard which should stand for many years and portrays the real strength of this aircraft: the capability to carry large payloads to altitude routinely.

 

The Amazing Service Life of the U-2

A recently published study undertaken by Lockheed Martin under contract to the U.S. Air Force was performed on current operational aircraft in the fleet. The airplanes were outfitted with strain guages and accelerometers, among other instruments, to measure the flight environment and the airframes response to it.

According to Scott Mangrum, chief of the U-2 Airframe Branch at Warner-Robbins Air Force Base in Georgia, calculations based upon the data return from an exhaustive flight test series indicate that the U-2S has a fatigue life of 75,000 hours. Why so surprisingly high for an airplane that is seemingly so delicately built? Mangrum credits the benign flight environment in which the U-2 fleet spends so much of its time. At the high altitudes at which the airplane routinely flies, stress on the airframe from turbulence and gusts is virtually nonexistent. While the airplane does experience some harsher flight environments at lower altitudes, it spends relatively little time there, and the data indicate that at current average usage of roughly 500 hours per year, the U-2 is good for around 150 years of service.

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The first U-2 fuselage takes shape on the shop floor.	A U-2 aircraft in NASA markings as part of the cover story during the Francis Gary Powers incident.	U-2 in flight over an unnamed air base.

 

Bomb Damage Assessment
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November 1, 1956. Almaza Airbase, Cairo: Before.	November 1, 1956. Almaza Airbase, Cairo: After.

 

Bases

Operating Locations

Air Force U-2s have been used for various missions, with primary operations originating out of Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, CA, Beale Air Force Base, CA, and Alconbury, UK. Beale AFB serves as the U-2's Home station. Besides a full compliment of flightline support, Beale AFB provides full back-shop support functions as well as the capability to access depot facilities. Training and operational missions are flown from Beale AFB. It normally supports 12-16 aircraft on-station. All ACC special purpose U-2 aircraft deploy all over the world. These bases have flight-line support capabilities, but are limited in back-shop support.

Active Locations

• Air Force Plant 42 - Palmdale, CA,

• Beale Air Force Base, CA

• Osan Air Base, South Korea

• RAF Alconbury, UK

• RAF Akrotiri Air Base, Cyprus

   

  Inactive Locations

   

• Area 51, Groom Lake, NV

• Taif Air Base, Saudi Arabia

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U-2s are based at the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, Beale Air Force Base, California, and support national and tactical collection requirements from three operational detachments located around the world. U-2 pilots are trained at Beale AFB initially using the U-2ST, the two-seat trainer version of the aircraft. In 2005, there were 29 active Air Force aircraft and 5 two-seaters. The two civilian ER-2's are based at the Dryden Flight Research Center.

 

The U-2 And Francis Gary Powers

The U-2 And The Cuban Missile Crisis

 

U-2 Photo Gallery