The Most Difficult Military Airplane to Land

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Chapters:
0:00 The 70-year old airplane that refuses to land
1:55 The challenges of landing the U-2 spy plane (why the U-2 has bicycle wheels)
3:21 Why the U-2 pilots are trained in driving a chase car
4:04 How does the chase car drive estimate the distance of the U-2 from the ground?
4:59 Why the U-2 pilots have to stall the aircraft in order to land it
6:03 What is the job of the Mobile Officer during U-2 operations?
7:39 What does the 3-finger signal mean for U-2 pilots?
9:38 The U-2 pilots would boil to death without their space suit
10:45 The four layers of the U-2 pilots' $250,000 suit
11:28 How U-2 pilots eat and drink in flight
11:48 Why U-2 pilots wear metal spurs on their boots
12:26 How the U-2 pilots reduce the chances of decompression sickness
13:59 How the U-2 pilots pee while in flight (Urine Collection Device or UCD)
14:47 The U-2's Optical Bar Camera and historic U-2 missions
15:58 The decommissioning of the U-2's Optical Bar Camera
18:03 The "Coffin Corner" for U-2 pilots
19:20 The value of the U-2 airplanes during Operation Desert Storm
19:54 Who are the "Dragon Keepers"?

#NotWhatYouThink #NWYT #longs

Music:
Where the Air Is Thin - Jay Varton
Virginia Highway - Tigerblood Jewel
Blue Texas - Rockin' For Decades
Universal Solution - Robert Ruth
Flightmode - Chris Shards
Inbound - Brendon Moeller
Linda Low - Lucention
No Stone Unturned - Brendon Moeller
Extra Fries - The Fly Guy Five
Mortal Blow - Dream Cave
Thyone - Ben Elson
Enter The Night 1 - Fredrik Ekstrom
Break Down - Phoenix Tail
Keep an Eye - Frank Jonsson

Footage:
Select images/videos from Getty Images
Shutterstock
National Archives
US Department of Defense

Note: "The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

[NotWhatYouThink]

Play War Thunder for FREE on PC, Playstation and Xbox.
Click the link to download the game and get your exclusive bonus now:

[dukeofgibbon]

Dragon Lady: flies like a lady but then you have to wrestle a dragon to the ground.

[arithex]

I know I've seen a few documentaries on the U-2 before .. but this 20m video is, without doubt, the most in-depth I've seen. Amazing work, NWYT.

[computerbiscuit]

One of the best experiences I had when I was in the USAF was going on a chase ride with a U2 pilot.

[suzukirider]

There are other aircraft with crappy visibility during landing, but the U2 needs a chase car because it's also incredibly fragile. The engineers made it as lightweight as possible, sacrificing all rubostness, and then Kelly Johnson reviewed the design and made it 20% lighter yet. And incredibly expensive. Priceless nowadays - the production capability to build new ones has been discontinued half a century ago.

[kot]

10:43 The guy lost has pp during combat mission and now have to wear a prosthetic. What a hero! 😭😭😭

[alegonx]

The photos from 14:30 and 15:14 are not from a U2 but from a unarmed fighter jet flying really low and fast to evade the cuban air defenses, you can clearly see this becuase the pictures are taken at a angle and not from on top, pictures from a U2 in the cold war were good enought for trained analyst to understand but they were not clear enought to present to common people as proof of the presence of soviet misiles in cuba.

[dangercovey]

My uncle flew the U2 out of Beale in the early 80s, we got to visit the base, I was about 11. He took us out on the runway in a chase car when a U2 was landing, I swear they drove El Caminos at that time. I got to sit in the inactive U2 simulator, which I found rather roomy at 11 :) There was a U2 that had declared an emergency for low fuel, but they made it hold to let a SR-71 land first and get under cover before the USSR satellites were overhead. As proud as I was of my uncle, those SR-71 pilots were like gods with their Mach 3+ patches.

[greenscorpeon]

6:27 dude hat sponsored segment is something else.
"One of the first qualifications is to wear the space suit for a long time to find out if you have claustrophobia"
But if such claustrophobic torture is not your style
"You could just play Warthunder instead"

[tomstaunton]

The film is no joke, I've been importing Kodak Aerocolor IV areal surveillance film and it is one of the sharpest emulsions I've ever shot. It has some quirks, it was engineered for images "without the sky in the frame", so for pictorial work it has noticeable halations, but my medium format scans are easily crossing the 400MP mark. I have put 6x7 Aerocolor IV against cameras such as the (50, 000 USD) Hasselblad H6D platform and it absolutely smokes it in both dynamic range and sharpness.
I'm not sure how decommissioned the optical bar camera really is within the armed forces of the world. While Kodak does not sell this film to consumers, they still make it in enormous quantities for relatively cheap, indicating the presence of a primary market.

[billyyank]

Kelley Johnson and Gary Francis Powers walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Not U 2!"

[armando_az]

1:28 what the heck, it landed on a aircraft carrier.

[MarcusWolfWanders]

I will always love the U-2 Dragon Lady. It's one of my top favorite military aircraft. The short list includes, in no particular order, the Warthog, the Dragon Lady, the "Blackbird", and the Raptor.

[lamps]

My father helped land these in the Air Force in the 1960's. They were using the Chevy El Camino as the chase cars at the base he was at in Texas.

[Gunbudder]

my great grandpa was one of the first people contracted to develop the film recorded by a U2. from what he said, the military hired hollywood film developers (after doing background checks and all that). it meant he got to see everything that U2 photographed but of course he never could say what was in the pictures lol

[ericjohannsen]

I once flew right seat on a Civil Air Patrol flight into Beale AFB (Cessna 206). The tower controller apparently wasn't used to such slow aircraft. They cleared us to land then instructed us to expedite exit next taxiway... which was literally a mile down the runway at the midpoint. As we finally pulled off, we heard an instruction for the following aircraft to go around. I looked back and saw a U-2 soaring magestically skyward at an insanely steep angle.

[thomasmontoya]

Suuuch a cool plane. Glad you covered it. It's a shame the USAF wouldn't let you get up close and personal with one! Maybe next time...

[mrxmry]

the U2 is so hard to land because those long wings create a strong ground effect. combine that with the high engine thrust even at idle, and it just wants to float...

[APFS-DS]

1:52 until he says „not what you think”, new record???

[Jay_Legacy]

10:44 Bro didn’t explain the yellow tube…
14:01 Oh. Now he did…