U-2 Pilots Wanted – Sign Up Now!
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A U-2 Dragon Lady pilot with the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron drives a high-performance chase car on the runway to catch a U-2 performing a low-flight touch and go at Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, March 15. While driving the chase cars, U-2 pilots aid the pilot flying the Dragon Lady by radioing altitude and runway alignments during take-offs and landings. (Senior Airman Gracie Lee/Air Force)
U-2 pilots and chase cars are going to Saudi Arabia.
You can still be a U-2 pilot, too, if you want to. USAF is looking for young pilots who want to fly spy planes. Sign up now. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/10/05/dont-wait-six-years-apply-to-be-a-u-2-spy-pilot-out-the-gate/
My question is: why was the Blackbird abandoned? Because it was too slow at Mach 3, satellite imaging and detection were improving by leaps and bounds, and the cost at $200,000/hr to run that beautiful bird was a budget-eater.
Things have changed.
From 2017: the replacement for the SR-71 Blackbird is supposed to make its debut in 2020 as the SR-72. https://www.businessinsider.com/the-sr-71-blackbirds-ultra-secret-successor-may-soon-hit-the-skies-2017-9
It has to be able to go as fast as MACH 5.2 and possibly MACH 6 – hypersonic speed.. The SR-71 could move at MACH 3 and avoid missiles. This one has to go faster. The SR-72 is not yet in production, but the Skunk Works is workin’ on it.
This is a 1962 test flight video of the A-12, later known as SR-71: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/history/blackbird.html
They can fly over my house any time they want to. I’ll leave the light on for them.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Air Force, Blue Skies, Historical
WAR STORY ALERT: On my end of tour rotation flight home from England in 62′, our C-118 was diverted from McGuire to Dover because the flight carrying downed U-2 pilot Gary Powers was right behind us. They wanted him to land at McGuire and the reception committee without delay. I still had not figured that one out. The AF had the SR71 on display for the 65′ William Tell at Tyndall AFB so this is an old aircraft.
The SR-71 and its predecessor, the A-12 (oxcart) began their development back in the early 60’s as replacements for the U-2, which the Russians demonstrated they could shoot down. When I was assigned to the Group S-2 section in 1971-1972, I read the classified CIA monograph on the history of these aircraft and the U-2. All of them were tested/developed at Groom Lake (Area 51). The A-12/SR-71’s were operated clandestinely for about eight years before the Air Force issued their cover story for the aircraft because too many of them had been photographed. An SR-71 was flown to Edwards AFB, painted with USAF markings and shown at a press event as the Air Force’s new high altitude/high speed interceptor, the YF-12A. The only thing truthful in the story was the use of the A and the 12 in the aircraft’s fake designation.
My Grand Uncle was on that flight with Powers. He escorted Abel to Potsdam and brought back Powers.
His name was Fred Wilkinson, he was the warden of the Atlanta prison where Abel was locked up and they became friends. He became the Assistant Director of the Bureau of Prisons and supervised the closing of Alcatraz in 63.
His book, “The Realities of Crime and Punishment” is available on Amazon.
As a current BOP member [retire end of September!] I salute your Grand Uncle Fred Wilkinson !
We got back a shrink [Hawk-Sawyer] and another doctor as deputy mfic of the BOP.
No LEADERS, just managers…..
Put them damn cars in a crate and load it with a forked lift. Or buy you a speedy set of wheels outside the gate of the base. Never seen a military base yet that didn’t have a buy here pay here car lot right there.
Iffen I was to want to be an Air Daled Wing Wiper, give me the keys to an A-10 Wart Hawg. Lubs me an airplane built around a big gun. Get to smash things up close and personal.
Handled, transported and helped interpret film cartridges and prints that were taken by the U-2 and the SR-71 back in ’74. I could put wings on my vest…if I had a vest. At Mach 5+ how long would it take for the ’72 to fly over your house? Could they see the light?
Museum of Aviation at Robins has an SR 71 on display. That puppy looks fast just sitting still.
I figure they’d see the light about 2 seconds ahead of getting here and send me a surveillance photo as an acknowledgement of my support of spy planes for the US.
I remember seeing a photo of an Air Force blue Pontiac convertible used as a chase car. It was a 1963 Catalina or Bonneville. With a 389 or 421 it was more than capable of accelerating to 100 mph while the plane hovered above it.
They use the Tesla Model S now. The Tesla is new to the scene according to theDrive, but a few older articles showed Dodge Chargers and what looked like a White Camaro ZL1 performing ground chase duty.
https://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/13085/watch-this-tesla-model-s-help-a-lockheed-martin-u-2-take-off?iid=sr-link1
There’s also recent news that some of the Chargers were just shipped to RAF Middenhall ‘for some reason’.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29585/wait-the-usaf-is-spending-hundreds-of-thousands-airlifting-two-dodge-chargers-to-the-uk
They had convertible Camaros when we were down in Italy supporting Kosovo…got to go over there on a visit since we were supporting them. I thought they were trying to catch the wing from dipping.
The SR-71 was built without the conceptualization available from computers that are in use today.
Like the Saturn V, it was built using old math, slide rules and engineer logic that helped solved the problems inherent in both of those platforms.
And they are both indicative of the genius of the engineers of those days.
I have mixed emotions of Wernher Von Braun as he used slave labor to build many of the V-2 rockets that Hitler launched on London. One can only hope that there has been some payback from the souls that he helped to murder…
Kelly Johnson, not much bad ever said about that man… A true genius with a feeling that he followed to immortality of aircraft design.
North American Aviation was the home of the YB-49 the original Flying Wing that was built in the opening years of the Cold War and was designed by Jack Northrup.
North American Aviation also designed and built the P-51 Mustang. That plane was the bane of the Luftwaffe and known as one of the finest fighter jets of WWII.
The P-38 Lightning was also designed by Kelly Johnson and built by Lockheed and saw tons of service throughout all Theatres of WWII.
True geniuses all and we all owe them a great debt of gratitude as we live in a free world that came about by their sweat and toil through countless hours of design and building those airframes.
Salute !!!
Don’t know how true it was but read an article that stated the old Goonie Bird was one of the last successful planes designed before design teams of engineers were used. They’ve beeb flying since ’36.
The Gooney Bird
Great book by William C. Anderson about an AC-47 crew in Vietnam … read it as a high school student in Bangkok ca 1969-70.
All I remember is that it had a mini-gun … and incident of the mermaid in the Hawaiian hotel aquarium bar.
When I was at Sembach Air Base we had an NCO in the barracks who had been a gunner on an AC-47. He said the guns were auto-fired (weren’t computerized back then… dunno how they did it) — but sometimes they’d switch them to manual … just for fun.
I watched Spooky work out from the second story railing of my hooch in Vung Tau AAF in 1971. Invoked a whole new meaning of FIREPOWER. Beautiful sight in the early evening while sipping a cool one.
“You can still be a U-2 pilot, too, if you want to. USAF is looking for young pilots who want to fly spy planes. Sign up now.”
Don’t do it!
When I was active duty, one time I went to a recce conference and one of the participants was a U-2 pilot. An interesting and VERY droll gentleman.
He told us that he used to get so bored flying up at WHOTHEHELLKNOWSHOWHIGH feet that he used to make little sculptures out of the food paste they ate. Claimed that his squadron actually displayed them!
Important mission. Not so exciting.
The story I like most about the SR-71 is how the CIA formed dummy companies to buy titanium from the Russians, to use in building the SR-71’s, to overfly, the Russians. That never gets old.
It was really nice of the Ruskies to sell us the titanium needed to make the aircraft. Fortunately, they weren’t smart enough to figure out where it was going. Without titanium, the leading edges of all the airframe surfaces could not withstand the extreme heat from the air friction of mach three air speeds.
The CIA has a nice display of A-12 at its Headquarters. Very subtle cement wall with two stars stuck to its outside. On the inside, a time line of the first to last flights, and the pilots that supported it. If they aren’t sitting side by side you probably can’t tell the difference: A-12 one pilot, SR-71 Pilot and Recon Officer.
There is also a dual control two seat SR-71 that was used solely to train pilots. One of my civilian flight instructors was an SR-71 pilot. He retired as an LTC and his last assignment was flying SR’s out of Beale AFB. He said the flights were brutal because they were in the air so long. Imagine ten to twelve hours or more strapped into that seat. They flew all the way from Beale to overfly certain unnamed countries on the other side of the globe and then back to Beale with no stops.
I guess I missed the part in the Air Force link where they said they are going to Saudi. Everything that I read says they are basing at RAF Middenhall.
I hope the U-2 is going to SA. I bet they will be able to keep a real close eye on the gulf, Iran, and Yemen.
There is a very cool Podcast put out currently by Skunkworks called “Inside Skunkworks”. Check it out – very interesting stuff. They are just in season two so there are not a whole lot to catch up on – but very worth it. It is amazing how quickly they got some of those ultra-high tech planes together.
The newest episode came out today, as a matter of fact.
https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/who-we-are/business-areas/aeronautics/skunkworks/insideskunkworks.html
We used to have two U-2/ER-2 here at NASA Ames Research Center … for scientific work. They were all transferred down to Dryden/Edwards AFB in 1997.
I still remembering them taking off!! I think it’s the loudest aircraft in the inventory.
And the wings have detachable wheels that fall off at rotation. The U-2 lands like a bicycle, forward and aft fuselage wheels; when it stops, a wing will touch the ground.
You have never heard a loud jet until you watch an SR-71 low altitude fly-by and then watch & hear a full power, after-burner climb-out. Most powerful jet engine I have ever heard; it will vibrate windows for many blocks.
So the Air Force gets “chase planes.”
Why didn’t I get a “chase jumper” in the 7th SF Group?
“Uh, roger LT B, we have you at 800 feet with 35 foot per minute rate of descent.. Have you jettisoned your ruck yet?”
“Uh, negative chase jumper. I’m still trying to untie my leg strap on my M-16A1, over.”
“Roger, LT B, we have you at 500 feet. You may want to get the red ball safety pin pulled at this point,
over.”
“Understand chase jumper. Safety pin out, trying to find my reserve canopy quick ejection strap end — oh wait — here it is.”
“Chase jumper to 1LT B, do you have the DZ in sight?”
“I haven’t seen a G-D thing since I stepped out of the Combat Talon.” Leg strap is free on my M-16, Red Ball safety is pulled, what the fuck is the apparent wind, over.”
“Roger 1LT B, we have the surface wind at 274 degrees at 5 knots gusting seven, altimeter setting two niner decimal niner five, over.”
“Right Chase Jumper. Red Ball pulled, 60mm mortar 20 feet below we. What was that surface wind again?”
“Uh, 1LT B, we show you at 27 feet, descending at 18 feet per second, so … well … by the time you receive this transmission, welcome to planet earth. If you need further assistance, please contact medical evacuation at 121.5 or 243 on UHF. Have a nice day.”