Amazing U2 Spy Plane Footage

[tjmac49]

Inferno2SS: Awesome! Thanks for the link.

[mmongi7]

crazy

[moto-camaro]

that's absolutely incredible, thanks for posting that. if watching the video is this awesome, i can't even fathom what actually being up there would be like.

[hypurone]

There are also the training episodes leading up to the flight"







Aand the one that I might consider selling something to ride in:

[Nightspore68]

Awesoem video! Thanks for posting.

[ron10]

fantastic.thanks for sharing.

[CamaroSpike23]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Is that a Monaro/GTO acting as the chase car?

GTO. used to be a 4th gen camaro. and believe it or not, when the plane would land, they would drive one up under the wings of the plane and talk the pilot down. notice during the video when the U2 is taxiing out how it has the red wing tip landing gear. then right before takeoff, you can see the right wing outrigger pop off. then when the plane actually touches down, it only has the front and rear main landing gear.

"The large wingspan and resulting glider-like characteristics of the U-2 make it highly sensitive to crosswinds which, together with its tendency to float over the runway, makes the U-2 notoriously difficult to land. This results in a required chase car (usually a "souped-up" performance model including a Ford Mustang SSP, a Chevrolet Camaro B4C, and most recently a Pontiac GTO) and assistant who "talks" the pilot down by calling off the declining height of the aircraft in feet as it decreases air speed in order to overcome the cushion of air provided by the high-lift wings in ground effect. Instead of the typical tricycle landing gear, consisting of a nose wheel and two sets of main wheels, one under each wing, the U-2 uses a bicycle configuration, with the forward set of main wheels located just behind the cockpit and the rear set of main wheels located behind the engine, coupled to the rudder in order to provide taxi steering.

To maintain balance while taxiing for takeoff, the ground crew installs two auxiliary wheels, called "pogos". These fit in sockets under each wing at about mid-span, and fall onto the runway as the aircraft takes off. To protect the wings during landing, each wingtip has a titanium skid. After the plane comes to a halt, the ground crew re-installs the pogos. The first pogo goes on the "light" or "up wing" while the other crew members use their weight to pull down the light side. Then two of the crew push up the heavy wing, allowing a third crew member to install a pogo on the other side."