"Hey! They're lighting their arrows!... Can they DO that?"
Posted on 01/16/2014 8:21:12 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee
On May 1, 1960, the Soviet Union shot down a CIA U-2 spy plane and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. It was an international crisis for America’s intelligence agencies.
A planned summit between Pres. Dwight Eisenhower and Premier Nikita Khrushchev was scuttled, much to Eisenhower’s embarrassment and to the fury of the Pakistanis, from whose territory the flight had been launched.
First flown in 1957, the 63-foot-long, jet-powered U-2—capable of flying as high as 70,000 feet—is still used by the U.S. Air Force. But after the Powers incident, basing the plane in foreign countries became problematic. Their mere presence caused heartburn in diplomatic circles. Time-sensitive targets could be lost to prolonged negotiations over basing rights.
One solution was to put the U-2, nicknamed “Dragon Lady,” on aircraft carriers. After all, as the U.S. Navy often puts it, an aircraft carrier is four acres of sovereign American territory anywhere in the world it sails.
In fact, the idea of deploying U-2s from carriers was brought up as early as May 1957, only a year after the aircraft’s secret debut. However, U-2 development and operations were joint efforts by the CIA and the Air Force, and the idea was shot down by the flying branch on grounds that adequate land bases were available. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
Nope - but look up the U2G.
There was a proposed Navy version, armed with AIM-47s (precursor to the AIM-54 Phoenix) that would fulfill the long range standoff A2A role of the F6D Missileer that evolved into the F-111B and then to the F-14 that would have had folding wings.
The USAF “carrier” version did not. The purpose of the carrier was as a refueling platform to extend the U-2s operational range, or allow quicker turnarounds. I suppose the wings could be unbolted and removed to get it down into the hangar, if needed.
Yeah, but I bet they didn’t land them back on the carrier...
Very interesting, thanks for finding this!
As an aside, there was also a proposed carrier version of the SR-71, believe it or not. Never got past the paper proposal stage. It used a special cradle hooked into the catapult shuttle to support the nose gear and forward fuselage during launch.
Fascinating article. Thanks for posting.
BUT they DID !!!!
Powers who was captured was exchanged later for KGB Col Rudolf Abel who had operated a spy ring in the US for many years in the NYC area.
Why? I would think that landing a U2 on a carrier would be easier than a regular fighter. All that wingspan and lift should let them approach the carrier at much lower speeds.
Same applies to takeoffs.
I suspect the bigger problem is the good old "interservice rivalry".
A planned summit between Pres. Dwight Eisenhower and Premier Nikita Khrushchev was scuttled, much to Eisenhower’s embarrassment and to the fury of the Pakistanis, from whose territory the flight had been launched.
Khrushchev's outrage over this incident was rather phony--at the time, he was running a swarm of espionage agents in the West. Nonetheless, the Powers affair provided a convenient pretext to cancel the summit, which would probably have embarrassed Khrushchev by showing the world how tough the US and its NATO allies were hanging in opposing his efforts to force us out of West Berlin.
the landing hear of the U2 is more like a bicycle than a tricycle, and the wingspan requires special inserts called “pogos” so be retrieved or installed upon landing or takeoff. Additionally the U2 is supposed to be notoriously difficult to land due to visibility, thus requiring a chase car to act as spotters for the aircrew and a small ground crew to install the pogos. I’ve also hear that the wingspan can act against the pilot when trying to keep the a/c level, due to the fact it generates a lot of lift. All that being said, it’s pretty cool to see a U2 take off, looks almost like watching someone ride an escalator. Steep angle and fairly slow. I’ve also seen one take off with its nose angled at about 75 degrees.
U-2 Aircraft Carrier Operations, Aerospaceweb.org
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