That's very intriguing.

Finally someone who has some sense and facts, thanks. TEB into the J-58s was AWESOME times !

@SoKo Early in its career, the start cart was the only way to spool up the engines and get them started--thus "start cart". If you do a search--there are many pictures of the beast. Heavy--it even had a provision to drive it when in use--but often was broken, and to line the driveshaft with the engine--one had to resort to "people power"--the more available--the better. At least two or three minimum and then it would quickly work up a sweat. Now--later in the SR-71's career it was equipped with normal air starters--that used a blow of high pressure air to spin the engines to speed--and believe me--this was a much needed improvement. But did miss hearing those header equipped--all sorts of speed equipment on both versions--and how loaded the engines got when doing their work.

As an Aussie owner of a 1970 big block El Camino SS, that is an amazing story. Thank you!

I was involved at RAF Alconbury when the first Mustang SSPs were arriving to replace the El Camino chase cars. In a ride-along, the pilot driving the Mustang lost control briefly - had to hit 130 mph to catch the U-2.

Just what I was thinking.

The u-2 is twice as loud as the vulcan. Hear them in person and you'll never hear again.

Having just heard this at Westover ARB I approve of the relation. Thing shook the neighborhood for about 5 minutes.

Hey Geoffrey, I've heard of the u2 but have never read anything about it. I'm going to now that I saw this video. I'm familiar with the sr71 because I used it everyday in black ops 1. Lol. So I've read about that jet. Amazing jet. But how in the world can it land with only two wheels that are in line with each other directly in the center of the plane? I don't understand that. One of the wings has to scrape the ground doesn't it? I did see that it has like a temporary wheel on each wing for take offs that fall off after take off but what about landing? Is it because of weight that it doesn't have more landing gear? Sorry if these are stupid questions. I've watched 3 videos so far on the u2 and they haven't said why it has only the two wheels for landing. Also it must be a pretty light weight plane to just have that tiny wheel in the back? And what about landing on a windy day? I can't imagine how they would keep it level and the wings not come down and scrape. Thanks.

@@egroegartfart I am eavesdropping on your conversation and wanted to let you know that I have a book called, SPYPLANE The U-2 History Declassified by Norman Polmar. It is very interesting. I was at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus on TDY from March to July 1976 while in the U.S.A.F. stationed in the U.K. I maintained the secure communications for the mission until I left. I am many years older now, but I can still see and hear them take off nearly every day. The plane crashed later that year and killed the pilot and several civilians working at the hanger. U.S. caught hell about that.

same i always see gundam mechs taking off where i live

Wow Cool but I live not close to an airbase so I don’t see planes that much

and you can tell cause they are fucking loud and gone

I swear dude. That's all Beale ever fucking does. Is launch U-2s all day. Plane after plane after plane.

Yeah i live in meryville and there is a lot of them in there.

In more ways than evident - the U-2 missions are all pre-programmed such that all plane controls and sensor system (there are many of them on-board operating together) are automated once the pilot gets the plane to the initial point. So the UAVs (eg Global hawk) "just" had to add reliable take-off and landing....

never explainedd what the chase cars purpose was, or how the plane eventually lands and doesnt strike the wings on the ground

@@TheKeivan324102334 In the chase car is usually another U2 pilot, the U2 is very hard to land, its landing gear is more like a bicycle and needs to be balanced on. The suit the pilots have to wear and the position they sit in make it kinda impossible for the pilot to see the runway when close to the ground so the person in the chase car calls out the altitude.

@@Darkknight512 Correct! And the last few feet of altitude are critical, since the U-2 tends to be a glider when that close to the ground. When the aircraft is about one foot off the ground, the pilot often has to pull back on the stick and "crash" the aircraft, although I expect that word is never used by the pilots! If done too high, things tend to get "bent".

I was fortunate to get a ride in the chase car (El Camino), the pilot driving the car was amazing, keeping close formation, calling out the altitude and with some snow on the runway, managing the slipping & sliding at around 100 miles an hour!

Live from Dublin 2007 is better.

They were trying to make the plane as light as possible, wing gear and the mechanisms that would allow it to fold would weigh a lot.

B52 has the same thing

If it ain't broke, don't fix it

Never touch a running system ;)

@@JoshKosh08 in the case of the B-52 there are much more capable airframe but Boeing has pockets and we aren't at war with a country that can shoot them down so

Yes, I saw several U2s in Palmdale, CA. However, pilots on spy missions should watch out for MiG 31s with combat ceilings of 80,000 feet.

Just ask Putin..

FYI the "Chinese No Fly Zone" is actually the temporary military drill zone. By International Law is a country's right to draw out a temporary no fly zone for military training purposes, and it would be against international practices for US to send a spy plane into the no fly zone.

我

Can they just shut up

@@ernstthalmann1262 No.

This time im here because of China's balloons

Well it is. At high altitude it's probably only going 70-90KIAS.

And other prototype aircrafts.

This video is from Beale AFB, Northern CA and from the UK.

KML SINGH same

Wait what what video

Which vid must of forgot

Saw one land at Wright-Patterson AFB. Very loud.

I haven't seen a U-2 in person yet, but I know they're awesome and very loud

Before I watched this vid I never even heard of a chase vehicle for aircraft...when I saw the BMW or whatever it was I thought it was some random maniac on an adjacent road to the runway, just getting his kicks lol

What to say about Blackbird then?

Nearly as good as the English Electric lightning the only plane to catch and intercept it

That procedure is a called a hand-launch. It is still done occasionally, but is an alternate, not standard procedure.

@@kirkmooneyham When I was with the 4080th SRW that was the only way they would launch. They use to launch with the pogo's in and they would fall off when the aircraft lifted off. The story goes that when the unit was stationed at Laughlin AFB TX on one flight one of the pogo's got stuck and fell off the U-2 and hit a building. S after that they would remove then before takeoff. It sure is a sweet aircraft. These new one's are on steroids.

Yes. You can see the wheels get ejected shortly before the aircraft becomes airborne.

you should see them land

The plane is very difficult to land and it doesn't have landing gear on the wings. So the chase car, which is also driven by a U2 pilot acts as a spotter for the pilot of the plane so he can keep the plane level for a safe landing.

@@michaelsmalley9755 Thank you so much for explaining that. Makes sense...

The balance on landing is maintained like a bicycle maintains its balance! Also like a bicycle, that doesn't work that way taking off from a dead stop (!), hence the need for the pogos' The pilot in the chase car talks the U-2 pilot down the last 10 feet: as the wingspan exceeds the fuselage length, this "glider often needs to be forced down to about 1 foot off the runway and then "crashed" to get it to stop flying. The ground effect often try to hold the plane off the runway.

​@@pjcsmoThank you for the clear explanation. I got the answer to my question completely 🌹👏👏

Something the engineers figured out as to not waste a 50 million dollar plane.

Gravity. when the wings start to lift, its not too early any more!

When it lands the lift produced keeps the wings up from hitting the ground, as it slows down to the point where no more lift is produced one side of the wing falls to the ground, the reason nothing gets damaged is because there are titanium skid plates mounted on the wingtips. The plane stops on the runway and a crew on a different vehicle mount the temporary wheels, called pogos back on so it can taxi back without possibly inducing damage. Chase car is for guidance, the U-2 has low visibility so it needs another U2 pilot guiding it down over the radio.

@@MaximumEarthworks That's very informative. Thanks very much!

so why don't the wings hit the ground as it comes to a stop? Sometimes they do. On the end of each wing is a replaceable "skid" so that the wing is not damaged

Max is correct about the titanium skids and the crew who arrives and installs the pogos for taxiing. One evening when I was along with the chase car pilot the U-2 pilot decided to taxi all the way back to the hangar without stopping. Sort of like riding your bicycle really slowly. I don't know how often they do that - the pilot driving the Mustang SSP that night said "now he's just showing off". The U-2 did not stop and drop a wing tip that night until parked in front of the hangar.

The pilots full space suit as well as the long nose often configured on the plane contribute to the visibility challenge. .@@MaximumEarthworks

Yes, for lightness

yes. they're known as pogos and fall of once the plane can balance

Very similar to a bicycle. A bicycle would just fall down at speed unless it had a huge momentum shift

The wing tips are made from special materials designed to scrap the ground. Also when they land the wings and the whole aircraft are incredibly light being empty of fuel. When it comes to a stop it simply leans to one side

Luiz Almeida a U2 take off/landing is very tricky, they are there to make sure everything goes according to plan

The U2 is a very unusual design aircraft and lacks the normal controls pilots use for landing and has only two center wheels like a bicycle, not the tricycle arrangement most airplanes use. So the chase car calls out to the pilot when he is low enough to the runway to cut the engines and drop to the ground.

yes: they are pinned in place while taxiing, but just before the take off roll starts the ground crew pulls the pins and the pogos fall away as the wings lift.

Igor that’s exactly what happens

The wings create enough lift that it will, when its too slow, just dip on one side, but it would be too slow by that point to cause damage.

Though sometimes the wings to dip, so the wings are intentionally designed to not get damaged from it.

@@literallya442ndclonetroope5, there is a skid plate under each wing tip to lessen the damage. It gets scraped up and must eventually be replaced, but they last a long time.

yes

Of course, this was like the iron man suit back in the 50s

I think one of the wings actually drags on the runway. This is as close as I can get you from what I have... ukposts.info/have/v-deo/gX1efJ6JkIZzpYU.html

Gung Ho Vids Ah, there you go. Thanks!

T hi s is what I was thinking a glider with jet power

Glider landing too! That's why the chase car pilot has to talk the U-2 pilot down, even requiring sometimes forcing it to land from one foot - higher would break something...

Exactly.

The primary reason is that, due to the ground effect from the long wings, the aircraft doesn't want to land. The pilot has to spoil the lift. If that was done at too great a height, it would damage the landing gear. So, the chase (mobile) pilot in the car tells the flying pilot how far off the ground they are so the pilot knows when to spoil the lift. Other than that, mostly the mobile does a constant visual inspection during takeoff and landing, to increase safety.

Yup! It’s a Wowdi 😬

nothing

The pilot gets out with an oxygen mask. They break both wings off, Break the plane in half and push it into the U-2 compound

Utapao 73-74

Good question. The video conveniently left the interesting part out.

When it comes to a stop, one wing's titanium skid plate gently hits the ground. The pickup with the pogos that were collected after take off pulls up and several strong airmen balance the plane and re-install the pogos. Pretty basic!

The SR-71 is no longer in service.

Are they accurate to the foot? Once you reach 2' or whatever it is you basically stall the plane and it just drops which is why the other pilot in the chase car calls altitudes? Might also be it's easier to have the pilot focus on landing on a bicycle landing gear with callouts in his ear instead of watching gauges.

@@BlackHawkBallistic *"Are they accurate to the foot? "* Modern radioaltimeters can have the airplane call "5 feet" to the pilot. Once you are a couple of feet off the ground, you'll set any airplane down by the visual cues. I've never flown a U-2, but unless it has severely restricted visibility that's how it could also be done with the type. The single centerline gear won't have a play in this, as gliders also have a single central gear (incidentally, the open-class Flugtechnik & Leichtbau "ETA" glider has the same 31-m wingspan as the U-2) and their pilots land visually every day without external help. I suspect that the issue with the U-2 might be visibility.

Sensor systems

You know a bike right . If a bike stops it will fall over same with the u2

@@royalteluis623 ok. But you are saying that when it stops it falls down; I'm wondering how it does not (as it does Not, otherwise it couldn't go on, and it'd be damaged too)

glObserver when it is close to stopping they send a special truck to tow it to its hangar where they will install take off wheels on it to keep it from falling

Sam Harris “perfectly balance . As everything should be”

@@samharris8737 if you mean that fuel shifting let it distribute equally its weight, ok; no doubt that cannot let it stay in balance when it's stopped.

The speedometer hit 130 mph when I was riding in the Mustang SSP, the car that replaced the El Camino at most U-2 operating locations. Since the pilot had not used this car before he momentarily lost control and spun out when making the turn unto the runway so had to go faster than normally. The quick acceleration is required however to quickly match the aircraft speed as it comes overhead.

Correct: the production aircraft built through the late 1980s were originally designated TR-1: However, not long after going into service all of the TR-1s were re-designated U-2R (now U-2S). By that time all (or nearly all) of the original smaller U-2 aircraft had been retired, most apparently in museums.

As I understood it from an Air Force Col who we later hired, the objective of the new much larger TR-1 aircraft was to separate it from the U-2's image as a "spy plane", as Tactical Reconnaissance sounded better. But soon everyone was referring to it as "that new spy plane", so the Air Force decided to re-ID the planes as the U-2R. This was later changed to U-2S with the re-engining program.

they used an Elcamino

M N you must be dumb... planes land like that. there still moving when they land. then they stop when they get near the end of the runway. Learn your facts dumbo

@@yamato4169 or you could interpret the question right, they land and when the plane slows, the wing drags on the runway, the tips are reinforced

Nah that Audi’s got it plus if they needed more they’d just get an RS5, RS6, RS8 or the mighty R8 Audi 💪🤘

Actually this plane has only one seat and this is only for pilot. To take off and landing a co pilot cooperate with pilot riding on car.

The is a very unusual design aircraft and lacks the normal controls pilots use for landing and has only two center wheels like a bicycle, not the tricycle arrangement most airplanes use. So the chase car calls out to the pilot when he is low enough to the runway to cut the engines and drop to the ground.

its supposed to happen lol, they are called pogos