February 28, 2004
Dragon Ladies
U-2's were in the news when I was a little boy, when Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union. So I find it amazing and delightful that those odd and beautiful planes are still defending Freedom's Wall. Here are some pictures, taken at an "undisclosed location" in Southwest Asia.
Posted by John Weidner at February 28, 2004 08:37 PM | TrackBackWe have a U2 variant in front of our air and space museum in Balboa park. The local story I read when the implacement was unveiled was full of the good news that the US Air Force would now be able to rely entirely on satellites and the then brand new SR71. Then reality came knocking.
Turns out there were things the new equipment couldn't handle, and so the U2 was brought back on line. Those, that is, that could be brought back on line.
BTW. The first picture I ever saw of something that looked like an SR71 was the cover illustration for a 1965 Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact. The story dealt with an A12 pilot bumped back in time to 1918, where he flew his wonder plane against the Boche. The story's theme was how technology could be too advanced to be worth anything. The plane in question was based on a concept version of what would later be the SR71. This never built variant was to have missiles and mini guns for shooting down Soviet bombers. An interceptor.
As I recall, the story and cover illustration were published months before the pentagon revealed the existence of the SR71, and were based on publicly available information to be found in the aviation press of the time.
Posted by: Alan Kellogg at February 28, 2004 10:38 PMWow. I remember that story very well. I may even still have it. The German planes didn't have enough heat or metal for his missles to lock-on. Finally he just flew close and literally blew them away...
There's a good book on the SR-71:
Astonishingly difficult thing to fly. Top-notch pilots needed a year of training to transition.
I've heard that the U-2 is brutal to fly at low altitude. It has no or few hydraulics and is operated by muscle-power. But at high altitude it floats along like a dream.
Posted by: John Weidner at February 29, 2004 10:05 AMAkshully I think that that Analog was a '71 or '72 edition. A friend of mine turned me on to it, my first ever modern scifi story, ruined me. ;) (modern = not verne, wells, etc.)
Only beef I'd ever heard about flying the U2 was that at altitude the difference between stall and cruise was 2-3 knots or thereabouts, fly the numbers, or else.
Posted by: JSAllison at March 1, 2004 02:25 PM
