Lockheed U-2 Flight - 70,000ft (2 Seat TU-2 Trainer)

Originally posted by LSWONEMaybe this time you wont come up with wimpy excuses like I had my legs removed.

Ummm how did you know I have bad legs

[[[...looking for the spy cam in the office)))

Bloody hell! Excellent video. For UK viewers, it's not often May says much worth hearing, but his comments on the steps? Superb. I'm still grinning...and I wish we could all take a flight up there

reply to post by getreadyalready


True, lol it was such a hypothetical (and impossible by the means and fuel capacity on the U2) situation is was attributing the speed of the U2 to that of orbital speed re-entry.

Thanks for the clear up.

I believe an RAF pilot once took a standard Lightning fighter up to 88,000 feet "for fun".

You really don't want to have a pressurization failure above 61,000 feet, otherwise it's ebullism time.

reply to post by zorgon


Pure awesome!

I saw this the other day on Disclose.tv. Simply an awesome video. I never knew U2s could go up that high, I wonder if they could go up higher?

PS isnt that plane like 50 years old?

No, the average age of U-2S aircraft is 25.2 years old, and they have been significantly upgraded in that time. The original U-2 variants did date back to the 1950s, yes.

It couldn't make it to space, it does not have enough power to do so. But if it hypothetically did its' engines would not work, as there is no air for the jet engine to breath. But it would be able to eventually come back down due to orbital decay, although it would burn up in the atmosphere, as it is not adequately shielded for re-entry.

To attain orbit, an orbital velocity is required, which is on the order of Mach 25. Slower than this, and the object will fall back to earth rather quickly (The U-2S flies slower than normal airliners... under Mach 0.8). Put it this way, orbit is essentially where an object is going so fast that it falls with the curvature of the Earth. The Space Shuttle orbits at over Mach 25, and it cannot slow down due to the energy required, and it reenters the atmosphere at over Mach 25 - which is why it gets very hot.

Space is the point at which there is no atmosphere, there is STILL gravity. Suborbital vehicles like Space Ship 1 only reenter at speeds lower than the speed of sound, as they do not aim to achieve orbit. This is why they have no problems with heating - there is none. Furthermore the atmosphere doesn't end suddenly, it just slowly gets less dense till it's pretty much non-existant at 300,000 feet. The U-2S flies at a maximum of 80,000 feet although it is very thin - above these altitudes the engine wouldn't work, and the wings would make very little lift.

It cannot go any higher than it already does because the wings cannot make enough lift - it would probably just "mush". If you pull back on the stick and the plane will likely barely rise, rise a few feet, run out of airspeed then go back to its original altitude. You could increase the airflow over the wings by flying faster, but the engine is already at full power at cruise, and it was not designed to go very fast. Simply put - the U-2S doesn't come close to getting into space.

[edit on 26/8/2009 by C0bzz]

Reminds me of the Movie "The Right Stuff" when Chuck Yeager took the NF-104 Starfighter to the edge of the atmosphere.



Chuck Yeager in the NF-104 Flight

Originally posted by azzllin
To add during the flight the pilot tells him the difference between lift and stall is only a matter of a couple of knots air speed.
[edit on 10/8/2009 by azzllin]

The difference between flying safely, and breaking apart in flight in a U-2 is something like 20 knots.

Interesting note, when they land they have to have two chase vehicles drive down the runway with them. One carries another pilot to tell him how high over the runway he is (he has very little side and downward visibility because of the helmet and windows), the other carries a crew with what they call "Pogo" wheels. When the aircraft stops, it tips down onto one wingtip and sits there. The crew tips it level and clips the wheels to the wings so that it can taxi back in.

When they go to take-off the crew goes out with them and unclips the wheels. Once the aircraft reaches about 50-100 knots forward speed on the runway, the wings lift off, and the wheels go bouncing down the runway and are recovered. The aircraft is usually airborne within the first 1000-1500 feet of runway (usually they use less than 1/3rd of a 10,000 foot long runway). One of the hardest parts of flight is take-off. They have to almost immediately start flying the wings, and the angle between a successful take-off (they go up steep and fast) and a stall is 5-7 degrees or so. Too high, they stall, and they might be too low to eject safely. They don't fly the wings right when they're airborne, but before the plane lifts off, then they scrape a tip and can ground loop and crash.

Great vid! I'm not too far from an AFB that houses U-2s....I've never seen one in flight nor have I seen one of their UAV's

search this Lockheed X-22A DarkStar secret

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[edit on 11-9-2009 by Gemwolf]

the new lockhead is even cooler

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[edit on 11-9-2009 by Gemwolf]

Originally posted by starwarp2000
Reminds me of the Movie "The Right Stuff" when Chuck Yeager took the NF-104 Starfighter to the edge of the atmosphere.

I asked him about that when I met him, and he said it was complete BS, at least as portrayed.

Interesting factoid - at that altitude, a U-2 has roughly a 10-15 knot operating window between stall speed and maximum speed.

reply to post by Retseh



as referred to in the video its called` coffin corner` by pilots

en.wikipedia.org...(aviation)

reply to post by Harlequin


Yes - turns must have been VERY carefully executed.

The U2 never was much of a dogfighter

Originally posted by Retseh

Originally posted by starwarp2000
Reminds me of the Movie "The Right Stuff" when Chuck Yeager took the NF-104 Starfighter to the edge of the atmosphere.

I asked him about that when I met him, and he said it was complete BS, at least as portrayed.

Interesting factoid - at that altitude, a U-2 has roughly a 10-15 knot operating window between stall speed and maximum speed.

Really? Very interesting.
Trust Hollywood to make a movie about it.

Thank you for that information ZAPHOD.

I absolutely love this video its so pure. Its stuning to see such images on a video so imagine beeing there... like that humble person who apreciated so much that flight im glad it was such a person like him who was there.

It amazes me how they have been able to fly that high for 50 years now with a reaction engine, so imagine how high they are going now with classified works of art. I can only dream of...... for now

reply to post by zorgon


regarding the U2 and Britain's great james may's flight
just amazing. did you see all the pre flight training he
did before being passed fit to fly?

that part in the pressure chamber where the bottle of water
boils is scary.dont no if i could handle the pressure chamber part.
that was one COOL pilot!

Originally posted by watchZEITGEISTnow
"gob smacked!"

hey zorgon - it got to 70000 feet - how much higher could it go? If it went into "space" by mistake, could it come back? That really was an amazing video - thank you

There is absolutely no way a U-2 is going to reach escape velocity