Lets Not Forget The Poor Old U-2

[Wyandot Jim]

Hey Guys,
After posting about " The Sled" SR-71. I thought it was fair to mention the poor old U-2. After 50 years it is still out there doing it's job.
So how about a story the had affect on my Son while he was flying the Mighty E-2C Hawkeye from the USS Harry S Truman.
This took place in 2000-2001 which was the Harry's maiden cruise. At the time the U-2 was flying over Iraq taking it's 8"x10" glossies. Well for it to be able to fly on it's mission it had to call the Navy for a little help. The Navy's job was to keep those nasty missiles from blowing it into little pieces..
So this is where Son and the rest of Air Wing 3 come to the rescue. Before the U-2 would fly over Iraq and the no fly zone the Harry would launch a Strike Group. This consisted of the E-2 (first to go and last to recover) for command and control of the Group. EA-6s to take out the radar and missile sites if they launched or lit up. Then the pointy nose guys F-18s incase a bad guy is flying around. Also the tanker guys to pump a little gas to those that may need a top off.
I didn't know if you guys were aware of this or not. I was not until informed by Son. Even though the Sled was expensive to fly due to tanker and other support it could do it on it's own. Both are remarkable aircraft for sure.
Son was on this mission. A Iraqi wanted to be famous by taking out a U-2. Well he and a few others got to meet Allah and the 72 Virginiaians :wink:

The Maiden deployment of Harry S Truman began on 28 November 2000 with Carrier Air Wing 3 (CVW-3) embarked. After transiting the Suez Canal, the air wing flew 869 combat sorties in support of Operation Southern Watch (OSW), including a strike on Iraqi integrated air defense system sites on 16 February 2001, in a sanctioned response to Iraqi surface-to-air missile fire against United Nations Security Council coalition forces. Combat operations ended on 27 April and the ship returned to the U.S. on 23 May 2001. She then entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., for her first Planned Incremental Availability (PIA) on 5 September.

 

[Merle1948]

Hey Guys,
After posting about " The Sled" SR-71. I thought it was fair to mention the poor old U-2. After 50 years it is still out there doing it's job.
So how about a story the had affect on my Son while he was flying the Mighty E-2C Hawkeye from the USS Harry S Truman.
This took place in 2000-2001 which was the Harry's maiden cruise. At the time the U-2 was flying over Iraq taking it's 8"x10" glossies. Well for it to be able to fly on it's mission it had to call the Navy for a little help. The Navy's job was to keep those nasty missiles from blowing it into little pieces..
So this is where Son and the rest of Air Wing 3 come to the rescue. Before the U-2 would fly over Iraq and the no fly zone the Harry would launch a Strike Group. This consisted of the E-2 (first to go and last to recover) for command and control of the Group. EA-6s to take out the radar and missile sites if they launched or lit up. Then the pointy nose guys F-18s incase a bad guy is flying around. Also the tanker guys to pump a little gas to those that may need a top off.
I didn't know if you guys were aware of this or not. I was not until informed by Son. Even though the Sled was expensive to fly due to tanker and other support it could do it on it's own. Both are remarkable aircraft for sure.
Son was on this mission. A Iraqi wanted to be famous by taking out a U-2. Well he and a few others got to meet Allah and the 72 Virginiaians :wink:

The Maiden deployment of Harry S Truman began on 28 November 2000 with Carrier Air Wing 3 (CVW-3) embarked. After transiting the Suez Canal, the air wing flew 869 combat sorties in support of Operation Southern Watch (OSW), including a strike on Iraqi integrated air defense system sites on 16 February 2001, in a sanctioned response to Iraqi surface-to-air missile fire against United Nations Security Council coalition forces. Combat operations ended on 27 April and the ship returned to the U.S. on 23 May 2001. She then entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., for her first Planned Incremental Availability (PIA) on 5 September.

Nice! :mrgreen:

 

[Cooperhawk]

You gotta be really proud of that boy there Jim.

 

[GunnyGene]

Weaponry (including things like the U-2 and SR) advances fairly quickly. Case in point, the recent deployment of a shipboard laser, and plans to mount them on aircraft as well as satellite and mobile ground based. Tactics (offensive and defensive) will be changing as a result. Missile systems of all kinds will become backups or area/indirect fire weapons. China just tested a new MIRV ICBM. So what? If you can take out the mirvs with a laser who cares?

 

[Bull Barrel]

Jim, our sons may have run into each other aboard the Truman as my son worked on avionics aboard her for two tours.

I have a close friend who was a mechanic on the U-2 and SR during his stint in the AF. Both remarkable planes.

And as they used to say on the Truman (and possibly other botes), "Warheads for Foreheads".

 

[RugerHound]

Jim - You have a true patriot for a son! Bless his heart and Mrs. Rugerhound & I wish him the best of everything!

The U2 is indeed a wonderful aircraft. Not sexy like the screamers, but it's a hell of a design to have lasted all these years! I really was not aware they were still in service. I was in the USAF in 1970 - 74 time frame and they were still a much talked about aircraft at the time.

Thanks for the reminder!

 

[Colonialgirl]

What's the old story about the U-2's were one of the Coast of Florida by several hundred miles radio'd that they had suffered an engine failure; The ground controller asked for a position fix so he could dispatch rescue. The response was that ALL they needed was a vector to the nearest airbase and an open runway and they would be landing it there.
Guess it had one heckuva a glide path.

 

[Bullseye57]

Flying off the coast of California in the early 1980's, we heard a 'declared emergency' call come over the VHF radio, a NASA U-2 out of Ames Research Center had a flame out 500 miles out and needed a cleared path and direct approach into Moffett Field. The U-2 aircraft landed without incident a short time later. He never mentioned his flight level in the radio cal, just the DME. U-2's have no side wheels under the wings, only two main fuselage landing gear, fore and aft. Chase trucks often ran beside the aircraft down the runway, as it landed, to reach-out and catch the aircraft before it ran out of forward speed and set down on the wing skids. They also had to scramble down the runway to pick up the small auxillary wheels when they dropped out of the wing sockets during take-off. A U-2 often would climb out at an incredible angle, the aircraft would reach up to several thousand feet, before crossing the end of the runway.

R,
Bullseye

 

[Critch]

I got to see several U-2 take-offs and landings in California when I was stationed there in the mid-70s. It's a neat airplane, essentially a glider with a large jet engine. I always thought the neatest job in the USAF was the guys who rode in the chase trucks and put the wing wheels in as the plane glided above the runway.

I only got see one SR-71 takeoff, but it was impressive....

 

[Whaler]

I was part of the ground crew for the U2s from 1962 thru 1965. Lots of travel, weird hours but fun.

 

[m657]

The glory and marvels of large aircraft remains in my memory also.

I'll never forget an overflight at low altitude, of the even-then obsolete B-36 one fine day circa 1957, when one flew up the Boise River Canyon over the Lucky Peak dam site under construction.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

My Dad was the fire control gunner on B-36s, and B-29s. Flew over North Korea in 29s. When he returned stateside he was assigned to 36s out of Travis AFB, CA. As a 9 year old kid I got to climb through both of them. He was also a ball turret gunner on B-17s in WWII.
Notice you very seldom see the guns on a 36 reason being they were in retractable turrets :wink: One hell of an airplane. Might have flown longer if it would have had turbo props like the Russkie's Bear. If the Allison T-56 turbo-prop had been available at the time. Six turning and four burning

The cargo version XC-99 also was going to be an airline Model 37
Delivered to the Air Force on November 23, 1949, the XC-99 was retired in 1957. Following its retirement, the XC-99 was on public display at Kelly Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas until 1993. Initially, because it could not be put in private hands, it was donated to the organization of Disabled American Veterans.
I first saw it in 1968.

 

[HerrMesser]

I first saw the XC-99 in 1959 setting along side of the highway. Was disappointed that the Air Force Museum decided not to restore it.

Rad

 

[Mike Armstrong]

And don't forget the even older (and poorer) B-45 Tornado, our update of the WWII German Arado 234B jet spy plane. They flew the first really long range overflights of Soviet ICBM sites in the Cold War, from Norway to Germany. Not much of a bomber but did the trick as photo recon job in a nasty neighborhood while the U-2 was being cooked up in the Skunk Works. A big secret at the time.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

I first saw the XC-99 in 1959 setting along side of the highway. Was disappointed that the Air Force Museum decided not to restore it.

Rad

The story I got from one of the Disabled Vets was that a large crack was found in a spar and that is why it stayed at Kelly.??
I could see it since it was pointed out to me


The XC-99 is being disassembled and shipped to Wright Patterson Air Force Base for restoration. The upper fuselage of the XC-99 has arrived at the Museum of the Air Force. It will all be there soon. No schedule for the re-assembly has been announced.


Major fuselage sections are now here. Looks like they removed all the flooring and sliced the fuselage both vertically and longitudinally, so each section looks like a short jet blast deflector like they have installed on the parking areas for the B-52s at SAC bases. The insides of the pieces look to me like all plumbing, wiring, control cables and insulation have been removed. I guess the good news here is that every inch of the plane will be protected from corrosion when all is said and done.

Looks pretty sad. I due believe they have their work cut out for them.

 

[Jeepnik]

Guys, you may love the Blackbird, adore the Dragon Lady (U-2 for you younger folks), and yes, the ole B-36 was impressive. But, when it comes to older aircraft I have two favorites one prop driven the other a jet.

The prop job is the P-40. What you say, it was almost obsolete when it went into service. It was slow, couldn't climb all that fast and didn't have the best turning numbers.

All that is true. But also remember, when the US, and every other allied nation needed a plane NOW, not in a few years, the P-40 was there.

Curtiss Basically took the old P-36 and stuck an inline engine in it. There were other changes of course, and even more as it matured. But, it served all the way thru WWII and beyond with some smaller air forces.

It was "THE" only aircraft that served all of the allied nations during that way. And heck some darned Brits had one heck of an artistic bent when they put those sharks teeth on them.

The jet harkens back to my youth. Try as I might, I couldn't get away from the Phantom for my entire enlistment. Big, ugly, dirty, loud, leaky, and prone to utility hydraulic failures it just, to me anyway, says "I'm here, and if you are a friend I'll protect you. If you are a foe, I will kill you!".

And darned if a few Airedales with an artistic bent didn't paint sharks teeth on some of them too.

 

[WendyZXZ]

Very nice aircraft threads Jim!

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Yep there have been plenty from all nations with teeth. Unfortunately most have been pulled. But now only one in the USAF as it really should be. A tradition is well a tradition :wink: Of course the A-10 is the Bad Boy to put it on.

The 23d Fighter Group was established in World War II as the 23d Pursuit Group of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Redesignated the 23d Fighter Group before its activation, the group was formed in China on 4 July 1942, as a component of the China Air Task Force and received a small cadre of volunteer personnel from the simultaneously disbanded 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) – the "Flying Tigers" of the Chinese Air Force.

To carry on the traditions and commemorate the history of the AVG, aircraft of the USAF 23d Fighter Group carry the same "Shark Teeth" nose art of the AVG's Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, along with the "FT" (Flying Tiger) tail code. The 23d Fighter Group's aircraft are the only United States Air Force aircraft currently authorized to carry this distinctive and historical aircraft marking.

But looked the best on the P-40C Tomahawk.

Steve Richie's F-4 from the Collins Foundation when flown with the 555 T.F.S. He got his first and last MiG in this one. The original went to the bone yard

 

[pyth0n]

U-2/TR-1 Dragon Lady.

 

[bogus bill]

Back in the 1960`s when I was a Lockheed guard Gary Powers walked out to my gate. I think it was the first time I seen him. His wife was suppose to come and pick him up and he had to wait for her. I had my harley dresser sitting nearby and he asked me could he sit on it. I said Gary, I will trade you the harley for a ride in the U-2 and we talked for awhile. He said you wouldn't like it, its like sitting with your head in a goldfish bowl for 12 or 16 hours! Another time a AF pilot came down on a nice clear night and told me he had just seen the lights of San Francisco and Phoenix at the same time!
I am not quite sure what all the differences are but U-2 is generally what most people call both the U-2 and the TR-2. I know the majority of the ones we kept at Lockheed was TR-2`s.
A few were trainers that had piggy back cockpits for two. Gary Powers left us and flew helicopters for a Los Angeles TV station. He and a reporter were coming back from a forest fire and he ran out of fuel. They both got killed. Later they found that the fuel gauge was faulty and read more fuel than was in the tanks. I liked Gary. He was a real low key nice quiet guy. He took a lot of static for not killing himself and not blowing up the plane when shot down. He said he couldnt reach the handle to blow the U-2 up when he was getting out and I damn sure dont blame him for not biting the poison capsule. I wouldn't either.

 

[HerrMesser]

I would like get an up close look at the XC-99 if they get it on display before I die.

Rad

 

[Rick Courtright]

Gary Powers left us and flew helicopters for a Los Angeles TV station. He and a reporter were coming back from a forest fire and he ran out of fuel. They both got killed.

Hi,

I remember that day, Bill, and it was a sad one. It just never seemed right that the guy who was shot down by the Soviets, survived, and finally returned home would go out like that. Certainly was bad karma.

Rick C

 

[bogus bill]

What little I knew about Gary Powers, I have the impression that he got a lot of raw deals in life. First our country pretty much abandoned him when he was shot down. I have heard it was really his father that kept pushing every button and political person to where he finally was traded out. Many thought he should have taken the poison pill. Yeah, right! He was criticized
for being unable to blow the U2 up as he bailed out. How many of us have ever tried something like that in a split second of panic? I am not sure it was ever done in history. Then his wife divorced him while he was sitting in a Russian prison. (He had remarried by the time I seen him). Then he got killed due to a mechanical mistake. That`s just the very little I knew of his life.

 

[jussbad]

I'm fortunate enough to see the U2 fly regularly as I'm only about 6 miles from Beale AFB. This is where the U2 is stationed. Also see the T38 Trainers flying so the pilots can keep the hours...I shoot at the public range on the base also. And, a good friend and early Ruger Collector worked many years on the U2. Very Awesome Aircraft that still is so far advanced for it's age. Great story Jim - you are definitely blessed with such a fine family and lifestyle. Merry Christmas.

 

[jimbo1096]

Saw the U-2 at Upper Heyford in England, 1961-62, climbing out on take-off was cool to watch. SR-71 is still one of my favorites, an amazing aircraft that could do almost anything that didn't require guns. When I was growing up I had models of the F4U Corsair and the B-58 Hustler hanging by string over my bed. Used to go to sleep at night watching them slowly turn in the air currents.
While stationed at NAS North island, we would watch Viet Nam era F4 phantoms being tested after retrofit or being mothballed. I was a blackshoe with VC-3 and we had two P-2s and 2 C-130s that I was occasionally privileged to fly in.