U-2: How the Spy Plane No One Wanted Got Built
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- My companion blog post to this video is live on The Vintage Space at Medium: amyshirateitel...
Also, I'm Canadian and I grew up bilingual English/French. This is how I pronounce "reconnaissance." Deal with it!
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Music: Brittle Rille by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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Dress: Vixen by Micheline Pitt. Not sponsored or anything, I just love her and her company values and want to shout out an incredible brand! #dontshopfastfashion
The U2 took a lot of photos, but it still hasn’t found what it’s looking for.
LOL :)
I see what you did there :)
Though you found smiles, we the aged approve.
Dad joke, 🙄.
That's cause the streets have no name.
90 seconds into a 30 minute video
"This will be part 1"
Yesssssssss
Can't wait to see the remaining parts of the series!! Enjoyed it.
That was my same reaction, exactly.
GO AMY!
Thanks for the great video. My dad flew USAF cargo in the 1960s. Sometimes he'd have a mission to Turkey or Pakistan with U2 gear and a "Mister X" passenger. Everyone took it for granted that Mr X was a U2 pilot. Sleeping quarters on base were 4 per room. USAF guys had to stay together. Mr X always had a room to himself in case he talked in his sleep.
[edit for clarity]
Love the format of these "deep dives", this is proper high quality content stuff. Just as good (if not better than) Curios Droid, Simon Whistler, Mustard and such, also it shares with them "origial content" not just another compilation of clips thats one seen before with a (more or less robotic) voice-over on.
Looking forward to the next episode!
I love it when quality stuff appears on UA-cam. People power.
Simon Whistler is just a mouthpiece. He does none of the
investigation, he just reads the script. Scott Manley is pretty
good, but no one is as good as Amy.
I also love these LONG videos! Thanks, Amy.
steve
@@steveskouson9620 Mark Felton is also pretty good for WWII stuff. He's an actual PhD historian I believe
@@GumaroRVillamil, you are correct! I DO follow Mark's stuff.
But, he isn't as easy on the eye as Amy. Smart, AND beautiful.
(Amy, sorry! At my age, "smart" is more appealing. BARELY.)
And, you do both!
steve
Greg's Automobiles and Airplanes, while more focused on piston-engined aircraft than rockets, is of a similar quality.
Another great deep-dive, Amy. At 37 minutes, I can’t imagine how much effort this takes to deliver with the quality you bring. Thank you! I love your passion for your topics and totally appreciate your work. Nicely done, AST. ✌️❤️🚀
I remember sitting on a wing of a U-2 as it was being towed on the flight line. Apparently the fuel distribution (tanks in the wings) was out of balance which caused the plane to tilt in the direction of the opposite wing.
File under: what did you do during the Cold War, daddy?
"Ballast my dear, ballast"
There's a great book called "Skunk Works" by Ben Rich. He worked on a bunch of planes like the U-2, SR-71, and the F-117. If you like spy planes you'd love that book. I've done a lot of reading since quarentine started, this is hands down one of the best books I've ever read.
One of the best aviation books written. Certainly one of my favorites. I liked how Ben Rich pointed out that, today, an engineer might be lucky to work on one, maybe two planes in a career. That Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works team developed and saw dozens - many of which are iconic - makes for a truly remarkable story. We may never see anything like it again.
Very good book
It's a beast. Well worth a read. Working with titanium; my Dad said it was really challenging back in the 1950s-1960s.
Just ordered a copy of Brian Shuls book “the Untouchables” not new but a fairly good price.
"Skunk Works" is a fantastic read. Very much worth the time and $$. If you liked Amy's presentation, you will love the book too.
Damn, stall speed and Vne difference of 6 knots?? That's insane.
What's even more insane is that at the altitudes U-2s fly, that's the difference between stall speed and Mach 1.
@@johndemeritt3460 no it isn't. cruising at altitude it was flying 470 knots, or mach 0.71. at that altitude the extreme cold redduces the speed of sound to 575 knots.
@@wyattroncin941, my apologies for getting the information wrong. I had read somewhere -- and can't remember the source -- that one of the problems with the U-2 was that it operated at the transonic range for its altitude. But I suspect that my memory betrays me and that you are entirely correct. I will gladly yield to your knowledge on this point.
If you know where I can go to upgrade my memory, I'd appreciate the information . . . even if I probably couldn't afford the upgrade. It's the installation costs, you know.
What's that we were talking about? I can't seem to remember . . . .
And why only the best of the best flew this plane and the SR-71. A very small number of pilots ever flew these planes.
@@johndemeritt3460 yeah I was just sceptical that they'd operate so close to mach 1 in an aircraft that could be broken up by a light gust at a bad angle.
With how much drag increases as airspeed enters the transonic range, I doubted that an aircraft as fragile as the U2 would have been operating so close to the edge. It also only had one engine instead of the base aircraft's 2, and the very long perpendicular wings would have generated a ridiculous amount of drag in the transonic.
A quick google to check my skepticism later and we're both better informed about the U2.
I can only imagine the hard work that went into putting this together. Thanks Amy.
This an interesting story if you consider that the P-38 was also used as a photo recon plane. With the U2, SR71 those are 3 aircraft designed under or by Kelly Johnson.
And all 3 were designed with basically slide rules and pencils. Genius stuff.
The amazing Kelly Johnson. 🤘🏻
P-80 & T-33, later the F-104 Starfighter... all great aircraft !
Have known about the U2 and F104 for many, many years. Not once did I connect them together, and now when I know that- wow. It's almost obvious. Thanks for the info! Very interesting story, and look forward to more.
No idea why I never noticed this came out a year ago! Thanks for the awesome content Amy!
I love how you get into the technical weeds of these programs!
Always great videos, thanks!
It's amazing how fragile the U2 was and how much the pilot had to do to keep it from falling out of the sky.
The U2 was extremely important for us to see what the USSR was up to and helped prevent larger war (larger than Korea, Vietnam, etc.) from occurring.
This video series is going to be awesome. Can't wait for the A12/SR-71 episode!
Excellent. We have amazing pieces of history that are being forgotten.
"...A-12 Oxcart."
*Elon Musk's baby has entered the chat*
Amy's video is like a TV episode, just she is the only one super excited about and enjoys the long arduous 30~40 mins of it. But we still love Amy. Thank you, Amy.
Excellent video Amy! Looking forward to the rest of the series. For anyone interested “Skunk Works” by Ben Rich and Leo Janos details the building of the U2 to the F-117 from an engineers perspective. It’s a great read and I love the historical context that Amy adds to the story!
That is a classic .
Interestingly, a variant of the Canberra, the WB-57, is still in use today, as a high-altitude visual tracking platform for spacecraft reentering Earth's atmosphere.
Really ? Cool . I thought it was to study the weather
Yep, flew for the first starship high altitude hop, but unfortunately was down for maintenance the next day, when the hop actually took place.
@@stanbrow But they did have a couple of T-38's in the area, I'm sure those got some great footage too. They might get the WB-57 up for SN9, let's see.
@@KD5NJR They study things that need studying. Four of them available at the moment.
I can't wait to hear your take on the SR-71. I feel like your experience as a historian will bring a unique perspective compared to the rest of the UA-cam space - many of which essentially just parrot Wikipedia. I also look forward to seeing what awesome dress you'll be rocking (to be fair, I also look forward to Brian Shillito aka Curious Droid's videos in part because of his shirts)!
I thought I was the only one who knew his name,
without looking it up. (Isn't it Paul? I just looked,
his name IS Paul.)
steve
@@steveskouson9620 You're right. You're totally right. I know exactly why I got it wrong, too. Thinking about the SR-71 always puts former sled driver-turned-photographer Brian Shul in my head. Shul goes "sh" like Shillito, and that's just enough to put a dent in my brainpan.
Many apologies to PAUL Shillito, if you ever happen to see this.
@@jaysonl, in no way was I trying to bust your chops.
Oh, there IS a guy named Brian Shillito. Google knows ALL!
I need to watch that hour-long Brian Shul video! I've seen
a couple parts of it, something about doing a fly-by at a
public airport, and others. The ground speed video comes
to mind.
steve
@@steveskouson9620 Rest assured; I didn't take it that way at all. I'm just embarrassed at getting the dude's name wrong. And, yeah, any of the Brian Shul videos out there are well worth watching... there's a somewhat infamous story that made its way around the Internet back in its pre-cloud glory days called "L.A. Speed Check".... That's Brian's story.
I love this channel. I've learned more watching these videos than I ever did at school! Keep up the fantastic work Amy. I absolutely love that dress too.
All amazing stuff. Thanks for this vid Amy. Don't know if you know but some Royal Air force pilots were trained on the U2. And the British military seriously considered operating the U2. And also prior to the U2 RAF pilots flew USAF RB45 Tornado aircraft in RAF markings on overflights over Soviet territory , even getting close to Moscow. It was code named Operation Ju-jitsu.
British U-2 flights are in the next episode!
@@AmyShiraTeitel AWESOME. Many thanks for the reply.
The amount of information contained in your videos are simply jaw dropping.
Rewatching your piece this evening. Was watching takeoffs and landing of a U2S on CobraEmergency's channel today and remembered you discussing the design of the airframe.
Amy's content is always so good! I love this history content and the presentation style so much.
The U-2 has a very high lift wing. Watching one take off was a thrill I really enjoyed. It had a very short takeoff run. Quite the opposite of a C-5 - which hardly looks like it it is moving, and then is seemingly inexplicitly in the air.
I know little bits of this story because of my interest in JFK, but it's great to have the full story laid out and Amy does a great job telling these stories. Excellent work Amy!
.
Never realised how light the U-2 was. Great stuff, thanks
Amy, the amount of facts that you draw on is simply amazing. Like others I can’t wait until you do an episode about the SR-71.
I live in Northern CA near Beale AFB. I was just watching a U-2 up in the sky a few hours ago. (Amazing sound, very slow airspeed.) Thank you for this fascinating background.
I love your videos in general, but especially your deep dives. Keep it up!
Also, that's a fantastic dress!
Lately you have been killing these videos!! ✌🇨🇦💚💚💚
I’m fascinated with Cold War spycraft, especially the equipment used by both sides. Thank you for exploring this subject with us, Amy.
Amy. I love your posts. Thank you very much. I also work at Lockheed Martin.
Brava! This is as good as your best space nerd vids. You touch on several interesting behind-the-scenes cold war players here. I genuinely appreciate the incredible amount of work you obviously put into this.
almost space nerds
@@jeffk464 XD
Spy planes rock and so do you Ms. Amy.
WOW WOW WOW. This is seriously impressive work. Narration is not as easy as it may look or sound. The video is a bit over 36 minutes. I swear I thought I was here for at least 2 hours. Jam packed with pertinent yet riveting information delivered excellently. You are really really good. I've always enjoyed your video's.....but this is great work.
Nice video! Lots of depth. Looking forward to further parts
I was reconnaissance aircrew in the Air Force. I remember them talking about how reconnaissance always had trouble getting the funding it needed. Air Force leadership is mostly fighter and bomber pilots who, shockingly, want to spend their money of fighters and bombers. And as far as sending budgets to Congress, it's always easier to sell people on the super-sexy fighter planes than it is a weird, slow plane that you need a science lesson to understand what it does.
Love how much information you give in a half hour video. I never fail to learn something.
Boy, this lady is sharp! Really knows her field!
Came for the good story, stayed for the way you say 'reconnaissance'
I had a close encounter (kinda) with the U2 at the Air Force Marathon a few years back. They flew in over the starting coral pretty low and slow, then, as much as the U2 could do a zoom climb, they zoom climbed away. It was amazing. That particular race always starts with a flyover, but that one was something special.
Also, I LOVE the cold war, so I'm really excited for this series.
The U-2 actually has a very impressive rate of climb. In the late 80s, one of NASA's U-2s was used to set climb-to-altitude records, reaching 73,000 feet in just 12 minutes 13 seconds (with a 150 foot take off roll). Even though this was record setting, it was implied that operational U-2s did this routinely during missions.
@@zoopercoolguy I learned something today. Thanks
You're AWESOME Amy!! You are the girl I wish I had known when I was 8 and 9 years old watching Apollo go to the moon while I was building the plastic Apollo models and the many PAPER lunar modules from our local Gulf gas stations (I bet an original of one of THOSE is worth some money now!!). I LOVE you and your channel SPACE GIRL!!!!!
(P.S. I was an air traffic controller at Bakersfield's Meadows Field in the late 90s. At that time, there was still a building on the southwest corner of the airfield that was used as a paper products warehouse, but that had been used in the late 50s and 60s as a collection warehouse for U-2 components brought up from Burbank, that would be loaded onto C-124 transports in the middle of the night and flown over to Lockheed Plant 42 at Lancaster, CA [on the edge of Edwards AFB], for final assembly! The remnants of the Cold War are all among us!!!)
Thank you for bringing me along in all things that interest you. Those items interest me as well. Keep up the hard work.
You did a really great job. You do great research and presentation. I hope you keep creating content.
Cool vintage aerospace story, cant wait for the following stories in the series.
Wow....How could this be any better. EXCELLENT 👌
Well done Amy! I used to work with the U2 program in 1995....and they are still going strong. Was promoted to Captain under the wing of a U2!
Fascinating. Thank you. (Love the dress too.)
Wonderful video, Amy! There's not a lot of good material on YT with this kind of depth. Bravo!
There are very few channels that I am sure to like before I watch the video. You are within the top five that I am confidant to do such. Thanks for the content.
Great detailed history of this program. Amy, good job expanding what is typically a sentence or two in most stories of th U-2 and bring the messy business of actual government programs to light.
The level of research details is stunning. Excellent video!
Your books are so good, I'm reading breaking the chains of gravity and fighting for space right now, alternating between the two of them
A suggestion. Perhaps after the A-12/Oxcart/SR-71 episode, maybe extend the series on into the KH-11, Rhyolite, and the rumored Aurora programs. Then perhaps duplicate the series with the Russian equivalent programs.
I think you'd need someone with access to the equivalent Russian documentation - that might be problematic.
@@T_Mo271 in Soviet Russia, documents access YOU!
yeah that's what we need. videos about rumours.
Maybe add the "Moby Dick" project using high altitude balloons for airborne recon, and the follow on projects like Skyhook?
@@rogerrabbit80
Definitely the “alien” spy balloons
A UA-cam playlist made for video series like these would be very helpful for those visiting your channel and wanting to view this content more conveniently.
You do a great job Amy, this has been most interesting as are all your well researched articles. Keep up the good work. Thank you from Pete in Australia.
Great video, and so nice to hear terms like "coffin corner" or "wet wing" instead of "Dragon Lady" over and over, as in other videos (Once would be OK). Suggestion- since you are covering multiple reconnaissance aircraft, perhaps you could give a nod to the RC135 series. RC135 variants (and their hard working crews!) have been doing SIGINT missions for almost 40 years. Oh yes, pronounce "reconnaissance" however you want!
Thank you for the education, it was most enjoyable!
Brilliant video. So informative, well researched and put together so well. The BBC or someone should give you a TV series to go through space exploration history. 10/10
there is nothing better than seeing a super knowledgeable lady promoting aviation.
This is such a cool topic and a surprise. I didn’t expect this to be a part of your deep dive on spy satellites but I’m so glad you’re doing some videos on these awesome aircraft and their stories. You always get all the cool, interesting details and your research is always impressive, I’ve read a lot about space and aviation in general but any time you make a video I feel like I learn something I didn’t know before.
Keep it up Amy! You are the best channel on UA-cam!!!!
I don't know how difficult it is to do these, but if possible please continue.
Most enjoyable and I'm learning stuff! Thank you so much!
Simply marvellous
"Reconnaissance." Yeah, her Canada is showing.
I would like to hear her say mayonnaise.
Making light of her pronouncing a French word correctly. Yeah, your American is showing.
I thought that was from the her pronunciation of "out" for example. Derived from Scottish immigrants to Canada. Quite nice really.
Anything to avoid needing to go for a shit during the flight. That would bring anyone down to earth
@@bazonka1 entirely agree
I'm looking forward to this series a lot!
I really enjoy this series on the history of US intelligence flights. If possible , it would be interesting to see a video about the Martin Mercator reconnaissance missions.
Excellent video! I had the pleasure of watching the U-2 in action at Beale AFB in the late '90s, and it was quite a sight to see. Quite a unique airplane, and still in use today AFIK.
I loved this video. Very fascinating! As a young engineer I was more interested in the technical achievements. As a veteran engineer, I am increasingly interested in the political / human challenges to get something like this off the ground which you covered :D
Well said !
I look forward to the Corona Program portion of the series. My Father was deeply involved in the program with the Airforce and launch control officer on a lot of the Thor launches out of Vandenberg. I literally grew up within the program there at Vandenberg and later in Sunnyvale while Dad worked at the Blue Cube there. Enjoy your posts. Keep them coming.
The shape of the Corona ... interesting how the shape of the bucket matches with some blunt body / nuclear weapon shapes
It’s funny, the last two U2’s (now the TU2) that are operational that I know of are NASA’s and fly out of Ames Research Center at Moffett Federal Airfield. Out of all the times I’ve seen it deploy and recover, I’ve never seen the skids used on the wingtips. There were always two pickup trucks with guys in the back that chased the aircraft on landing. When the aircraft slowed down enough, they would attach the pogo wheels underneath and the aircraft would taxi normally from there to the hangar. Very good work on the research. Also on a side note, the project pilots were issued Bulova Accutron Astronaut watches. As compared to the Omega Speedmaster watches that were issued to the manned space mission astronauts.
Super-excellent. Thanks!
Great video Amy! If you can find it (and it's difficult these days), there's a wonderful documentary on Kelly Johnson called "Kelly's Way," produced in 1992. I got my VHS copy at the Edwards AFB museum store.
Your pronunciation of reconnaissance is charming.
Love the subjec of early aerial reconnaissance. This is cool
Don't forget the Dragon lady is still flying.
I wonder how many thought their baby will still be flying by their grandchildren (or great grandchildren) well into the 21st century.
@@wrightmf Add the B-52 to that comment! Insanely good taxpayer value.
C130, another lockheed product on the other hand is still in production since the 1950's.
Martin, Fairchild, Bell: "Look at these cool things you asked us for! Can we have some money?"
Lockheed: "What's up fellas? Forget to invite us, did ya?"
Great video, as always! Your detail in investigating this era and gift as a storyteller is amazing. Thanks for what you do!
David Clark (Worcester, MA... the same locale of Robert Goddard) also made/makes the orange LES/ACES suits. Until just a couple years ago, my buddy was still doing high altitude flights in the WB-57 Canberra out of Ellington... plenty of FL600 selfies, sometimes with the feeding tube in thru the helmet as you described.
Great video. Thanks for sharing!
To add more info. The Canberra PR-3 was an RAF aircraft. Before the RB-57Ds long wings, the USAF modified B-57A or RB-57As considerably modified and lightened for overflights in Europe and the Far East. I have heard that the engines were also tweaked for more power. The project was named Heart Throb. Another RB-57A had a special large cameras for side looking photography to take photos while outside the border. The FICON project had specially modified RF-84Ks carried under a modified RB-36 bomb bay for overflights. Project Genetrix had balloons with a camera pack overflying the Soviet Union. But I guess you'll mention the last one in the Project Corona video as the recovery aircraft and crews came from the former. Perhaps you'll mention the RB-57Fs. Thank you.
Throw in the Lockheed Sunburn.
Wonder is there wasn’t a RB-58 concept ?
Love that Canberra. There was a rocket engine available for record flights
This business about the very tight flight parameters that kept one just 6 knots away from disaster for hours on end is great stuff! First I’ve heard of it. Thanks for the research.
BYW, His first name was not “Ike.” When people spoke of him informally, “Ike” was used. I have never heard anyone, until now, refer to him as: “Ike Eisenhower.“
Very nice 80% new info of this plane and you got 1 more member.
UA-cam might be struggling but I'm here!
UA-cam is struggling??
@@ttrestle it was when she posted it.
@@seldoon_nemar
What are you talking about? Non of us know.
@@ttrestle UA-cam had a global outage of its video servers, meaning the site would respond, but videos would not play. This persisted for about 2 hours. UA-cam has been tight lipped about it, but reports are claiming a DDOS attack.
@@mikecowen6507
Got it. Thanks for explaining.
Thanks for the bit of trivia in the description. To be honest, I was thrown off by your pronunciation given how you have such an accent-neutral speaking voice. Never thought of reconnaissance as rhyming with Renaissance but it makes perfect sense given your background. Kudos for the great channel!
A beautiful aircraft to this day! Miss seeing her every day at Beale. Thank you for the video!
Great video Amy. Keep em coming. A more extensive series on the x-15 would be nice. Interestingly, I'm struggling to find many good books on the spaceplane. Surely after First Man put the X-15 into the public consciousness there must be serious demand for text media too
AST , going into the x-15 , please talk about what Bell wanted to do after the X-2 . One million feet ?
Excellent, informative video. Thank you for your knowledge and your ability to communicate. It’s always a pleasure to watch your videos.
The music makes me want to play KSP again. Thank you, always great videos from you!
haaard same bro. Just reinstalled too lmao
@@TrumpeterOnFire same here 🤣
I love the research you do to make these episodes. Details are imortant. Thank you.
What a memorable dinner guest Kelly Johnson would have made, but would he have told you anything who knows. Excellent presentation as always.
The Canberra was developed as a specialized Hight altitude recon type becoming the PR MK 9 for the RAF. Used operationally till the 2000's. Less complex that WB-57 conversions and performing just as well.
I'm not sure what I love more; your depth of your research, or that dress! 👗
Great Job Amy... Fantastic information. Well reseached and flawless presentation. I LOVE the KSP ambiance music...
Awesome video Amy!
Really good Amy.
Working on a 'Replicating' machine so every man, in the world, can have their own Amy. Hands-up for the first order.
SO MUCH INFORMATION. I have so many questions about so many parts. This story is also full of so many famous names... many of whom were working totally out of the public eye at this point.