46 Facts About Lockheed U-2

Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is an American single-jet engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency .

The Lockheed U-2 has been used for electronic sensor research, satellite calibration, scientific research, and communications purposes.

Lockheed U-2 asked Clarence "Kelly" Johnson to come up with such a design.

Lockheed U-2 was known for completing projects ahead of schedule, working in a separate division of the company, informally called the Skunk Works.

Lockheed U-2 was a sailplane enthusiast who believed that a sailplane was the type of high-altitude aircraft the panel was seeking.

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Lockheed U-2 had meanwhile become busy with other projects and had to be persuaded to accept the CL-282 contract after approval.

Lockheed U-2 agreed to deliver the first aircraft by July of that year and the last by November 1956.

Lockheed U-2 has used Jet Propellant Thermally Stable since the aircraft's development in the 1950s.

Similarly to sailplanes, the Lockheed U-2 had a yaw string on the canopy to detect slip or skid during the approach.

USAF has no requirement or schedule for a next-generation High-Altitude Long Endurance platform, but Lockheed U-2 sees a future need and wants something in development early.

Lockheed U-2 Martin revealed more specifications about the TR-X concept at a 15 March 2016 media day, confirming the aircraft would be unmanned and air refuelable.

The Lockheed U-2 was designed and manufactured for minimum airframe weight, which results in an aircraft with little margin for error.

The Lockheed U-2 is very sensitive to crosswinds, which, together with its tendency to float over the runway, makes the aircraft notoriously difficult to land.

The Lockheed U-2 is capable of simultaneously collecting signals, imagery intelligence and air samples.

One occurred during these test flights when a Lockheed U-2 suffered a flameout over Tennessee; the pilot calculated that he could reach New Mexico.

The Lockheed U-2 successfully landed after gliding for more than 300 miles, and its strange, glider-like appearance and the space-suited pilot startled the base commander and other witnesses.

Not all Lockheed U-2 incidents were so benign, with three fatal accidents in 1956 alone.

The Lockheed U-2 project received the list and drew up flight plans, and the committee provided a detailed rationale for each plan for the president to consider as he decided whether to approve it.

Knutson later said that "the Lockheed U-2 was really quite invisible to American radar, but Russian radar were a little different—better, you might say".

On 20 June 1956, a Lockheed U-2 flew over Poland and East Germany, with more flights on 2 July.

Lockheed U-2 subsequently identified it out of a book as a U-2, registered as a weather reconnaissance aircraft to the US Weather Service.

Lockheed U-2 continued to personally authorize each flight, closely examining maps and sometimes making changes to the flight plan.

The U-2's large wingspan slowed its descent during crashes, often leaving its remains salvageable; Lockheed was able to rebuild the wreckage from the incident into a flyable airframe, but that it could do so should have been evidence to the CIA that its cover story might not be viable after a crash in hostile territory.

British Lockheed U-2 overflights were made in December and February 1960.

Lockheed U-2 pilots were told, Knutson later said, if captured "to tell them everything that they knew", because they were told little about their missions other than targets on maps.

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The exercise was critical to continued CIA operation of the Lockheed U-2, since basing the aircraft in a foreign country was no longer an option.

The expansion of satellite intelligence partly compensated for the overflights' end but, because Lockheed U-2 photographs remained superior to satellite imagery, future administrations considered resumption at times, such as during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.

Scientists such as Edwin H Land, James Rhyne Killian who had originally conceived the U-2 and had advocated for its development and deployment as a tool of scientific reconnaissance felt betrayed by the use of the U-2 for "dirty tricks" covert operations, such as the Bay of Pigs invasion.

On 28 July 1966, a Lockheed U-2 piloted by USAF Captain Robert Hickman departed from Barksdale Air Force Base to conduct a reconnaissance mission; Hickman's orders included the requirement that he not enter Cuban airspace.

Hickman's Lockheed U-2 flew across Cuba, ran out of fuel and crashed into a mountainside near Llanquera, Bolivia.

From 1960 to 1965, Lockheed U-2 flights originated or terminated on a nearly daily basis at Albrook USAF base.

The Lockheed U-2 managed to return to South Vietnam where Stewart ejected safely.

The Lockheed U-2 crashed approximately 65 miles east-northeast of Saigon in Viet Cong territory.

The only operational carrier use occurred in May 1964 when a Lockheed U-2, operating from USS Ranger, was used to spy on a French atomic test in the Pacific.

The Lockheed C-130 was tested for carrier use to support U-2 sea deployments.

Lockheed U-2 remains in front-line service more than 60 years after its first flight, with the current Lockheed U-2 beginning service in 1980.

The Lockheed U-2 outlasted its Mach 3 replacement, the SR-71, which was retired in 1998.

In January 2006, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced the Lockheed U-2's pending retirement as a cost-cutting measure during a larger reorganization and redefinition of the USAF's mission.

Lockheed U-2 was stationed in Cyprus in March 2011 to help in the enforcement of the no-fly zone over Libya, and a Lockheed U-2 stationed at Osan Air Base in South Korea was used to provide imagery of the Japanese nuclear reactor damaged by the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

In May 2014, a U-2 was accused of inadvertently causing an air traffic disruption in the Western U S due to an apparent ERAM software glitch.

The USAF stated the Lockheed U-2 did not cause the problem as it did not emit any electronic signals that could have scrambled the control center's computers.

In 2014, Lockheed Martin determined that the U-2S fleet had used only one-fifth of its design service life and was one of the youngest fleets within the USAF.

In late 2014, Lockheed Martin proposed an unmanned U-2 version with greater payload capability, but the concept did not gain traction with the USAF.

In May 1961, in an attempt to extend the U-2's already considerable range, Lockheed modified six CIA U-2s and several USAF U-2s with aerial refueling equipment, which allowed the aircraft to receive fuel from either the KC-97 or from the KC-135.

Derivative of the Lockheed U-2 known as the ER-2, in NASA's white livery, is based at the Dryden Flight Research Center and is used for high-altitude civilian research including Earth resources, celestial observations, atmospheric chemistry and dynamics, and oceanic processes.

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Image of a Lockheed U-2 was used on the cover of the band Negativland's controversial 1991 EP titled U2.