LOCKHEED U-2: ESPIÃO PROFUNDO (Série V & A)- VÍDEO 160

Video from the channel ARTE DA GUERRA about Lockheed U-2, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 13:52. Language: Portuguese. Video type: Documentary.

This is the first episode of a Portuguese-language series pitting the Lockheed U-2 spy plane against the Soviet S-75 Dvina missile, built to shoot it down. Using graphics and models, the presenter explains how the U-2 was conceived and what flying it demanded.

In the 1950s, in the depths of the Cold War, the United States needed to know how many weapons the Soviet Union had and where they were built. For reconnaissance it used the Martin RB-57D, because it believed Soviet radars could only detect effectively up to 65,000 feet; that assumption turned out to be wrong. Between 1954 and 1955, Lockheed proposed an aircraft able to operate above 72,000 feet, designed by Kelly Johnson at the Skunk Works.

The idea was an engine-powered glider: very long wings to stay aloft in the thin air of the stratosphere, with everything non-essential stripped out to make room for the cameras. The video explains the "coffin corner", the narrow margin between stall speed and critical Mach, which made it almost impossible to hold level flight without an autopilot. It also covers several of the aircraft's solutions. It used a special fuel from Shell. It carried a yaw string on the nose to balance fuel between the wings and a mirror to spot condensation trails. The engine was first the J57 and later the J75. Finally, the episode describes the chase car during landings, the auxiliary wheels that drop off at take-off, and the titanium skids at the wingtips. The pilot breathed pure oxygen for one or two hours before each mission and lost about 2 kg per flight.