[Land-speed] Fwd: Ride in a U-2 spy plane

[Bryan Savage]

Thanks Wes.

I was in the USAF in 1957-1960 in Germany. On our base was the First Air
Weather Squadron. We didn't know what it was, but knew it had to be a spy
plane for a number of reasons.

The engine had a very strange sound, it sounded like someone was feeding
1/8 inch round bar stock into the compressor at about 10 MPH. My guess is
the noise came from the compressor blades, caused by their aggressive pitch.
It would roll about 50 yards and the outriggers would fall off, then it 
would
ease up to about 75 ft, open the throttle, accelerate for 5,000 feet and 
then
pull up into a 70 or 80 degree climb till out of sight.

They were hard to land because they did not want to stop flying. We 
paced one
(and caught hell for it) while it was landing. Touch down at 30 MPH on the
Duce and a half spedo.  We would go for days or weeks with no U-2 and then
one would appear. With those super floppy wings they must have been very
interesting to fly. Of course, the ones I saw were all single seat.

Thanks again Wes, you sure brought back some interesting old memory's,

Bryan


Wester Potter wrote:
> Hope you can open this link.  This is our friend James May in a U-2 at  
> 70,000 feet.
>
> Wes