Military secrets of the Cold War.

[dennishoddy]

Watching a show about the U2 spy plane. Came on line in 1956.

During the show, they interviewed one of the pilots. The plane had a 7mph zone to fly in, just below Mach I.
Below that, the plane would stall, above that, the plane would come apart at cruising speed.
Pilots had a map on their knees, and flew for 10 hours at 70K altitude. No radar, no GPS.

Pilots said it was the most difficult plane to fly in the world in its day.
The Russians finally designed a missle to take it down, but it stayed in use during the Vietnam war if I remember right.

3 pilots died during development.

Then came the SR-71 BlackBird....What an amazing piece of flying machine. Skin temps exceeded 1000 degrees f from the speed.

 

[WTJ]

Watched the previous one on the SeaMaster, Sea Dart, and Ekranoplan. There is some little known history and great footage. I think it will be a great show.

 

[dennishoddy]

Dang! the show just said the U2 is still in service today!

 

[HiredHand]

If you haven't seen James May's ride along in a U2, its pretty amazing.

 

[WTJ]

Dang! the show just said the U2 is still in service today!

Yeah, around 30 left are TR-1s redesignated as U-2S after upgrades. Probably remain in service for 10 more years.

Maybe I should have watched that episode...

 

[okie98]

Both TR-1s and SR-71s were operating during the 80s. Both are very impressive birds!

 

[AKguy1985]

I've seen that show. Pretty interesting

 

[KBC]

The U2 will probably be around for much longer. Most aircraft in the AF inventory are being utilized 2 to 3 times the intended life expectancy of the aircraft. As our maintenance capabilities increase so do the lives of these expensive to replace aircraft.

 

[Okie4570]

There's a SR-71 hanging in the Cosmosphere Museum in Hutchison, KS. My 7th grade geography teachers son was a Blackbird pilot in the early 80's and flew out of Alaska, incredible plane. Here's a pic I took with some cool info about it.

 

[Mos Eisley]

What about the X-15? At 4,510 mph with a ceiling of 354,000 feet it is the fastest and highest-flying piloted aircraft in history.

The North American X-15 was produced to explore the limits of sub-orbital supersonic flight. Three were produced. They flew a total of 199 times.

The North American X-15 first took to the sky on June 8, 1959. The last flight took place on Oct. 24, 1968. A 200th flight was never made, even after several attempts. They were all canceled due to either technical problems or the weather.

Of the 199 flights a total of thirteen exceeded an altitude of 50 miles. The U.S. designates a pilot who has exceeded that altitude as an astronaut.

The North American X-15 was flown by Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. He was among the twelve pilots who flew the aircraft.