U2 AIRCRAFT MOVIE

The notch in the Q-tip handle has used to pull rudder pedals back to their normal position after pilots had moved them forward for greater comfort when flying long missions.Ĭlick here to return to the U-2 Overview. The condensation problem was later solved by windshield electrical heating and small defogging fans, though the Q-tip could also be used to clean the windshield if oil vapor leaked into the defogging system. Lockheed U-2S Dragon Lady XP11-The Lockheed U-2S is the latest in a long line of U-2 models and has the most advanced cockpit of any U-2. Pilots could not reach the windshield wearing bulky pressure suits, and this convenient homemade device, a wooden stick with a cloth pad, allowed them to wipe the window in flight. In 1954-55, the Central Intelligence Agency and Lockheed Corporation jointly developed a high-altitude single-engine reconnaissance aircraft called the CL-282, more famously known as the U-2.

Carrier operations were limited, however, because of the expense and slowness of deploying ships to areas from which information was urgently needed.Ĭondensation on the U-2's windshield was an early problem. The first U-2 carrier landing occurred on March 2, 1964, aboard the USS Ranger. 5, 1963, from the USS Kitty Hawk, off San Diego, Calif. The first U-2 takeoff from a carrier took place on Aug. Air Force (USAF) to evolve the U-2 Dragon. Some later U-2s had folding wings to take up less storage room on the ship. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works has obtained at contract award valued at 50 million from the U.S. To withstand rough carrier landings, Project Whale Tale U-2s were given stronger landing gear, and also wing spoilers to overcome the U-2's tendency to glide instead of landing on the carrier deck. The small black plate on the shaft shows that this hook was used in five landings, and could be used up to 20 times. In 1956 the U-2 completed a flight from West Germany over the Soviet Union, capturing unprecedented information and giving the United States a look behind the. The hooks would snag cables strung across aircraft carrier decks and 'capture' aircraft, bringing them to a quick stop. Project Whale Tale fitted a few U-2s with arresting hooks like the one on display here.

Navy, therefore, studied the idea of launching U-2s from aircraft carriers. Space technically does not begin until the Karman line at 330,000 feet, so this is definitely no spaceship, no matter what the designation says.In the 1960s, U-2s could not reach certain remote targets because political difficulties prevented basing the aircraft in some foreign nations. Eugene Buster Edens and Walter Ray, also Agency pilots, lost their. Grace, and Howard Carey each died in the crash of his U-2 aircraft during test flights in 1956.

That’s about 20,000 feet higher than commercial airliners. Each time they climbed into the cockpit, they headed to the very edge of the technical horizona place of unknown yet palpable danger. After a steep ascent, NCC1701A leveled out at 400-knot air speed at an altitude of 60,000 feet. The image - snapped from 70,000 feet by a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft - proved conclusively that the Soviet Union was installing medium-range ballistic. This aircraft was specially equipped for reconnaissance and diversionary flight over the territory of the Soviet Union.

U2 AIRCRAFT MOVIE

Kirk at the end of the movie Star Trek IV, after the events of Star Trek III resulted in the destruction of the original NCC-1701.Īlthough U-2 spy planes are capable of long, nearly starship-level voyages, this NCC1701A is sticking close to home, flying a trapezoidal pattern over northern California. In Star Trek canon, NCC-1701A, or the Enterprise-A, was a Constitution-class starship built at the San Francisco Fleet Shipyards (Beale Air Force Base is just 2.5 hours northeast of San Francisco) in 2286. The unusual signal was emanating from aircraft 80-1093, a number that signifies the aircraft is a U-2 spy plane, and the flight number was NCC1701A. At the height of the cold war, as critics of the Eisenhower administration complained about the growing missile gap, the United. Galaxy-class starship USS Enterprise-A, AKA NCC-1701A.

U2 aircraft