Ever been to the world’s largest and most famous air show? Even if you have, you will want to see what just concluded in the state of Wisconsin this past month. Oshkosh, Wisconsin, hosts the renown “AirVenture” each year. Crowds in excess of 100,000 visitors regularly attend, many camping out on the extensive camp grounds provided or even flying to the show in their own planes, many of them built by the pilots themselves. The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is home to the world’s aviation and aircraft building enthusiasts. It not only puts on the famed air show each Summer, but also provides a beautiful museum on the Oskosh City Airport, known as Wittman Regional Airport, named after the well known early aircraft designer, builder and racer, Sylvester Joseph “Steve” Wittman. Enjoy the following videos, one for each day of the show – – – and two extra videos for even more education and entertainment. Just click on the depiction of your choice down below and you will be quickly taken to the video it represents.
Day one is 7:27 minutes long. Day two is 7:25 minutes long. Day three is 7:35 minutes long. Day four is 6:24 minutes long. Day five is 9:27 long and features the famous USAF Exhibition Team, the Thunderbirds Day six is 9:57 minutes long The final day of the show, day 7, is 4:05 minutes longThis (above) video is from a cockpit cam and shows something extraordinary – a twin engined aircraft doing aerobatics This video runs for 11:11 minutes. The above video is a composite of many events during the show and helps promote the EAA’s AirVenture – 4:47 long.
This story alert was contributed by FASF member, Eric Lambart, of Portland, OR. His first lead on this item came from “Slashdot” news, popularly known as “news for nerds.” The remainder of the information was derived from additional research elsewhere.
Some of you may remember the years just prior to WWII and immediately after the war, when Pan American Airways was still in business, and flying their reknown Clipper Ships, the first true wide bodied luxury airliners. These magnificent flying machines incuded several floors and spiral staircases for passenger use in flight. But, by 1946 these giant flying boats were retired from all passenger service. The degree of passenger luxury these large flying ships provided was never again equaled in the anals of airline or aviation history. To capture the romance of this famous giant of the oceanic airways, see our earlier short (5 minute) video on the famous “Yankee Clipper – A Long Way Home!” If you haven’t stopped by and viewed this short movie clip, please do so – it’s quite an adventurous yet little known piece of WWII history.
With the news that the Chinese are engineering a rebirth of the flying boat airliner, we have come full circle in time. Here are some photos or drawings of the famous Pan American Airways (PAA) Flying Boat “Clipper Ships.” The first view just below is provided courtesy of iFly Blog and shows one of the giant flying boats at dock and being serviced by her crew. And, below, is a magazine ad for PAA showing its fares and destinations. Rio De Janeiro anyone?
In the meantime, it would appear that China is targeting a market no longer serviced by world air carriers, as it plans to begin building 21st Century Flying Boats, once again. Notice the aethetically attractive styling in their new amphibian in the photos that follow.
Here is the following story from “Slashdot:”
“Chinese aircraft maker China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (CAIGA) has started trial production of its TA-600 amphibious aircraft, claimed to be the world’s largest of its kind. With an expected maiden flight late next year, the Chinese plane would replace Japan’s ShinMaywa US-2 short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft as the largest of its kind globally.” Take a look at a side profile illustration of the TA-600, on this Koreanlanguage page. The TA-600 has a huge maximum takeoff weight of 53.5 tons, but looks a bit puny compared to Howard Hughes’ H-4 Hercules (The last American attempt at a large flying boat, but one that was never realilzed, except for the first prototype).”
The only other currently manufactured large amphibian aircraft is the Japanese fire-fighting and emergency craft, named the US-2, small in comparison the the envisioned new Chinese flying boat. The US-2 is pictured below:
Few photos are available of the coming CAIGA flying boat, the TA-600, but immediately below is a depiction of one in flight and below that, a model of another, along with a large wall mounted painting of the same ship as seen on the Chinese Military Review website:
This same mainland Chinese company, CAIGA, has already made inroads into the aviation industry here in the United States by buying into several U.S. aviation companies. Consequently their footprint is already here. It remains to be seen if any U.S. carriers will lline up to buy this new “TA-600” flying boat in hopes of re-introducing this luxurious style of flying over the oceans and larger inland lakes of the world.
Below is the famous prototype of Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose, or “Hercules,” the largest flying boat ever built, yet which flew only once, on its maiden test flight, while at its mentor’s steady hand over the waters of Long Beach Harbor in CA. This massive airplane is now on view at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum near Porland, Oregon. You can go to their site to get the full story with many more photos of this huge wooden behemoth.
Small aviation businesses say pilot shortage could drive industry into the ground . . .
The Washington Post reports, ‘In the past several decades, the number of private and recreational pilots across the country has plummeted, as has the number of small aircraft being manufactured — trends that some say have been accelerated by increasingly strict federal regulations. If the decline continues, it will spell trouble for entrepreneurs … Since 1980, the number of pilots in the country has nosedived from about 827,000 in 1980 to 617,000, according to the Frederick, Md.-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. During about the same period, data from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association in Washington show that production of single-engine planes plunged from 14,000 per year to fewer than 700.’
By Douglas Ernst – The Washington Times – Tuesday, April 22, 201
The Pentagon’s research agency tasked with developing breakthrough technologies for national security has come up with a plan for dealing with shrinking budgets: robotic flight crews.
ALIAS envisions a tailorable, drop‐in, removable kit that would enable the addition . . .
From the BBC: 23 April 2014Last updated at 07:47 ET
Saudi Arabia: First Woman to Get Pilot License
Hindi was also the first Saudi woman ever to receive a pilot’s licence
Saudi Arabia has issued its first flying license to a female pilot.
Hanadi Al-Hindi, 35, has started flying small and wide-bodied luxury planes for the Kingdom Holding Company, owned by Saudi prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the newspaper Arab News reports.
Hindi was already a licensed pilot but until now she could not fly within in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – but the prince’s support helped her to get the certification she needed.
“That was really difficult, being a pilot who cannot fly in her own country,” she says.
Hindi tells the Saudi Gazette it was her father’s dream for one of his children to become a pilot.
When she applied to Jordan’s Middle East Academy of Aviation in 2001, managers there were so surprised they asked her father if he was happy for her to pursue what was seen as a traditionally male career.
The flying license was given to Hindi even though Saudi Arabia has a ban on female drivers. Women have long campaigned against the policy but in October a government spokesman explicitly restated women were still not allowed to drive there.
The Call Field (named after a First Aero Squadron pilot, Loren H. Call) Exhibit commemorates Call Field, the United States Army Air Corps training camp in Wichita Falls during WW I. The plane flown at Call Field, which served as this country’s first military main stream trainer, was the Curtiss JN4-D, known as the “Jenny.” The crown jewel of the exhibit is this Museum’s genuine Jenny biplane. It is one of only five in existence still certified for flight, and for the last few years she has graced the skies above Wichita Falls. Use the buttons to learn more about the history of Call Field and this rare flying Jenny. Interestingly, as is pointed out by FASF Historian, John Deuble, Jr., Call Field’s first Commanding Officer, Major John B. Brooks, was also a FAS pilot in Columbus during the Punitive Expedition in 1916!
The exhibit includes a Model-T Troop Carrier and a Model-T Staff Car such as those used at Call Field. There are also WW I uniforms and equipment, a scale rendition of Call Field, multimedia displays, and more. Currently all these elements are located in a hangar at Kickapoo Airport in Wichita Falls (click on link for map and address). However, the entire exhibit will soon be relocated.
NOTE:The location of the Jenny’s hangar is about 1 block south of the location shown on Google Maps. The hangar is directly across the street from the United supermarket.
In Fall 2014, the Call Field Exhibit will move to the new Wichita Falls Regional Airport as part of a project we call “Jenny to Jet.” Across from the Jenny will be a United States Air Force T-38 jet and artifacts related to Sheppard Air Force Base. This one-of-a-kind display with the very first U.S. military training plane and a modern jet that is a current trainer will show the world Wichita Falls’ unique history and proud commitment to our armed forces. And given that Call Field was the forerunner to Sheppard, “Jenny to Jet” will also serve as proof that history has a direct link to our present day lives.
[For those of you not familiar with historic Clover Field, the city of Santa Monica has been trying to close it for many years, notwithstanding the fact that repeated surveys of the majority of the citizens there have shown they don’t want it closed. Your webmaster has flown into this field many, many times over the years, and did so because it is so close to just about everything in the entire Los Angeles basin area. In the late fifties and early sixties it was the home of LEAR RADIO, headed up by the famed inventor of the Lear Jet . . . This victory is a big feather in the cap of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the group that has helped lead the successful fight . . . ric lambart]
In a victory for general aviation, a U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a federal lawsuit brought by the City of Santa Monica against the FAA to close Santa Monica Municipal Airport (SMO) in southern California.
Santa Monica’s claim, filed in federal court in October 2013, asserted that when the city’s 1984 agreement with the FAA expires in 2015, it is no longer obligated to operate the land as an airport. The lawsuit asked the court to declare that the city held title to the land.
The FAA has consistently argued that the city is obligated to keep Santa Monica Airport open through 2023 under assurances it gave in exchange for federal Airport Improvement Program grants. The FAA also believes that the city is obligated to operate the airport beyond 2023 because it acquired the land on which the airport is located cost free from the federal government in 1948.
On Feb. 13 the presiding judge ruled that the United States government claimed a clear interest in the airport property and has never abandoned that interest.
In his decision against the city, Judge John Walter wrote that the city either knew, or should have known, that the federal government claimed an interest in the airport property as long ago as 1948 and, as a result, the statute of limitations for the city to claim title to the airport has expired.
The judge’s decision was good news to supporters of the airport and to officials at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, who have been involved in the efforts to keep the airport open.
“The city was stopped in its tracks in its most recent effort to strangle Santa Monica Airport,” said Mark Baker, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. “The city is not representing its citizens. Surveys have proven the majority of Santa Monica residents support the airport, yet the city continues to spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money to shut down this economic engine that provides jobs and annual revenue of more than $200 million. Santa Monica Airport is vital to the city and to our nation’s air transportation system and it must not close.”
View of Clover Field (SMO) from directly above – Pacific Ocean is to the left and LA to the right
The airport, which is now surrounded by homes, was home to the Douglas Aircraft Co. in the 1920s. When factory operations expanded during World War II, many of the surrounding homes were built for the employees. Today, the airport, which has a single 4,973-foot runway, is home to 269 aircraft ranging from general aviation airplanes to helicopters and jets.
Over the years there have been many discussions about the future of the airport, with some in the city suggesting the airport has outlived its usefulness and should be closed and the land redeveloped. Complaints against the airport vary from noise and pollution to safety concerns about runway overruns.
Those concerns have increased since last September’s fatal crash involving a jet at the airport, said Kate Vernez, deputy city manager of special projects for Santa Monica.
“We have an obligation to the community that demands relief from airport operations,” she said.
City officials are “disappointed and surprised” by the court’s ruling, she added.
“Our city attorney and outside council are reviewing the ruling to determine options,” she noted.
According to Vernez, the city has 60 days to make a decision about how to proceed.
The Bugatti 100p was a remarkable aeroplane and a truly innovative design.
Designed from the outset to be fast, it would have most likely been the fastest thing in the skies with a projected top speed of almost 500MPH.
Some of the airplane´s unique characteristics:
Extremely streamlined design, made possible by placing the two engines behind the cockpit.
Forward swept wings
“Y” shaped empennage.
A sandwich-construction in wood, where balsa wood between two layers of hard wood makes a very light, very strong and stiff construction.
Propulsion by two counter-rotating propellers, driven from the two engines by axles under the pilot´s elbow.
The aeroplane was equipped with ground adjustable propellers. Propellers with in-flight adjustable pitch were being developed.
The engines were special developments of racecar engines, 8 cylinder 4.9 litre with compressor and many magnesium parts, approx. 450hp.
Automatic wing-flaps, that changed the wingprofile for extra lift or less drag. Adjustment automatic according to airspeed, throttle etc. This system was also capable of acting as an airbrake, or be used during dives. The same system also automatically lowered and raised the retractable landing gear.
Special cooling system with radiators in the fuselage, air entering at the leading edge of the stabilisers. The air flowed through the fuselage to the front, exiting at the trailing edge of the wing.
Il Sogno Blu / Le Rêve Bleu / The Blue Dream
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A Brief History of the Bugatti 100P
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The most extraordinary airplane of its time…never flew.
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By the mid-1930s Ettore Bugatti was a well-known and highly-regarded European entrepreneur and industrialist. Born in Italy but living in France, he was also one of the first global celebrities. Known primarily for the fast and elegant automobiles that won at Monaco and Le Mans, Bugatti’s interests also extended to rail, shipping, and aviation.
Few know that Bugatti built the most extraordinary airplane of its time. The Bugatti 100P exhibited cutting-edge aerodynamics combined with innovative, performance-enhancing features for which Bugatti won five patents. It is perhaps the most historically-significant airplane that never flew.
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Profit was certainly one motive that drove Bugatti to enter aviation. As war in Europe loomed on the horizon, the French government expressed interest in developing an indigenous, defensive, light-weight fighter based upon Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe race-winning designs. Caudron – a French aircraft company – built a Renault-powered prototype fighter that eventually reached production.
Bugatti predicted a new airplane built around his auto engines would outperform anything in the air. A marketing genius who relied on performance to sell cars, he persuaded the French government to fund his vision for a race-winning, record-setting airplane. Properly developed, the prototype would form the foundation for a mass-produced defensive fighter to be built at Bugatti’s Molsheim and Paris factories. Such an endeavor would generate much-needed revenue for his financially-ailing empire.
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Sometime in the mid-1930s, Bugatti discussed with engineer Louis de Monge the possibility of designing a record-setting airplane around Bugatti’s engines. After some study, de Monge responded that it would in fact be possible to design such a plane.
Belgian Louis de Monge was a well-known and forward-leaning aeronautical engineer whose creative designs brought much him attention but little commercial success. Bugatti and de Monge crossed paths during the early 1920s when de Monge used Bugatti engines to power his Model 7.5 flying-wing. de Monge left aviation in the mid-1920s for better paying work but remained abreast of advances in aeronautical engineering.
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The Bugatti 100P was a concept airplane that incorporated the latest advances in aerodynamic research. Scientists on both sides of the Atlantic were pushing the performance envelope, validating theoretical designs in full scale wind-tunnels. de Monge imbedded that knowledge into the 100P, producing an airplane whose attractive appearance belied its remarkable engineering.
Further, it was an elegant response to the challenge of flying fast, being designed to achieve record-setting speeds by finesse instead of through brute force. de Monge’s dream would have flown faster than anything else on the planet using less than one-half the horsepower of other record-holding airplanes of the era!
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A series of tragic events during 1939 and 1940 conspired to slow the development of the 100P, and in June 1940 – as the Germans marched on Paris – Bugatti stopped work on the project altogether. He dissembled and stored the plane on his estate outside Paris where it remained throughout the war. Bugatti died in 1947. Louis de Monge emigrated to the United States after the war and died in 1977, having never designed another aeroplane.
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The Bugatti 100P survived the war intact but was largely forgotten, its anticipated performance surpassed by the combat-inspired technology of the Second World War. An American Bugatti enthusiast brought the plane to the United States in the late 1960s. He sold it to another enthusiast who marshaled the 100P through two restorations, finally donating the plane to the Experimental Aircraft Association, which displays the plane at its AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
It is the extraordinary Bugatti 100P that attracts the most interest – and is the source of more inquiries – than any other exhibit in this fully-accredited and highly-rated museum. EAA.
Originally developed for the US military, the 300ft (91m) helium-filled hybrid Airlander project was scrapped owing to budget cuts.
Now the giant aircraft is being brought back to life by a British company which plans to build hundreds of the environmentally friendly craft for passengers and cargo.
The current aircraft can carry a load of 1225kg for up to 21 days, but on shorter flights could take up to 5 tonnes. Aircraft still on the drawing board may be able to carry 50 tonnes or more.
BBC News visited the headquarters of Hybrid Air Vehicles in a massive hangar at Cardington to see the inflatable leviathan being put together.
At first, you might mistake it for a giant airship – gas-filled balloon on top, pod slung underneath.
But the unique, aerodynamic shape of the balloon – it looks as if a series of cigars have been sewn together – means it can also generate lift just like an aeroplane wing.
That is key, because it enables the designers to make the machine heavier than air, which cuts the need to have dozens of crew hanging on to ropes holding it down every time you land.
In fact, you can land it via remote control with no-one on board at all if you like. And on water if needs be.
Let me put it into perspective for you.
This thing is two-and-a-half times longer than the distance covered by the Wright brothers’ first powered flight.
With a length of 302ft (92m) the new airship is about 60ft longer than the biggest airliners, the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8.
It is also almost 30ft longer than the massive cargo-carrying Antonov An-225, which until now was the longest aircraft ever built.
The hybrid airship is “a game changer”, says Bruce Dickinson.
Government funding
It costs about $100m (£60m) and the designers are planning an even bigger version that will eventually be able to carry 50 tonnes at a time.
The company developing it has now received £2.5m of government funding to develop the technology and engineering for the project.
“We are jointly funding £2bn of research and development into the next generation of quieter, more energy efficient and environmentally friendly planes,” says Business Secretary Vince Cable.
“That includes backing projects like Hybrid Air Vehicles’ innovative low carbon aircraft which can keep us at the cutting edge of new technology.
“Here is a British SME that has the potential to lead the world in its field.”
Cardington’s hangars (left) were built for Britain’s early 20th Century airships
‘We’ll fly over the Amazon’
All of which will be welcome news to one of the project’s high-profile investors, Bruce Dickinson.
He is one of those people who can’t stop achieving stuff.
As if being the lead singer of one of the world’s most successful and enduring rock bands, Iron Maiden, was not enough, he is also an airline pilot, businessman, and is investing in this project.
The airship has always been with us, it’s just been waiting for the technology to catch up”
Bruce Dickinson HAV investor
“It’s a game changer, in terms of things we can have in the air and things we can do,” he says.
“The airship has always been with us, it’s just been waiting for the technology to catch up.”
He wants to sell them and he’ll be very good at it. As we chat in the hangar, he goes through its credentials.
It is 70% greener than a cargo plane, he says. It doesn’t need a runway, just two crew. And it can plonk 50 tonnes anywhere in the world you like, which is 50 times more than a helicopter.
He wants to drum up publicity with the kind of trip Richard Branson would dream up. A non-stop flight around the world – twice.
“It seizes my imagination. I want to get in this thing and fly it pole to pole,” he says.
“We’ll fly over the Amazon at 20ft, over some of the world’s greatest cities and stream the whole thing on the internet.”
A first British flight is scheduled for later this year . . . airships being readied at left
Historic hangars
It is not surprising that we had to go to Britain’s biggest aircraft hangar to see the world’s longest aircraft.
For the best view, we had to climb the world’s scariest staircase too (safe of course, but not one for the faint-hearted).
Cardington shed number one, in Bedfordshire, is nearly as impressive as the flying machine inside it.
Built 100 years ago, it dominates the skyline around here (along with its neighbour Cardington number two shed) and it is bristling with history. This is where they built the ill-fated airship, R101, back in the 1920s.
That behemoth was twice as long as the hybrid air vehicle, had a beautiful dining room and lounge on board, and was meant to herald the future of flight, right up until the moment it was devoured by fire after a crash in France in 1930.
Technology has come a long way since then. The Hybrid Air Vehicle (HAV) is full of inert helium, not explosive hydrogen.
The HAV is back in the UK after the US Army ran out of money to develop the project.
The advantage of modern airships is they can deliver supplies to remote areas, say supporters – Airlander on left
Flight plans
The US military bought it a few years ago and got this aircraft flying as a surveillance machine – it can stay in the same spot for 21 days at a time, and can fly with a lot of bullet holes in it too.
When the US defence budget was slashed, the British developers bought it back, and now they are planning the first UK flight later this year.
They are hoping to sell it to oil and mining companies to deliver heavy equipment to remote corners of the world. But they are also keen to sell its humanitarian possibilities.
The HAV, which has been named Airlander, could ferry tonnes of supplies to and from any disaster zone, day in and day out.
All you would need is a crew of two and a patch of ground, or water on which to land.
In any list of the world’s most impressive jobs, being the pilot of a U-2 spy plane must come near the top. This legendary high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was designed during the Cold War to capture photos of the Soviet Union. Tested in the Nevada Desert’s top-secret Area 51, it is associated with major diplomatic incidents, space alien conspiracies – and an Irish rock band.
Remarkably, almost 60 years after its first flight and in today’s era of high-definition satellite images, the U-2 is still in service – though it was recently announced that the fleet might be retired in the 2015 fiscal year. Only the best of the best get to fly it. And while social attitudes have changed since the 1950s, nicknames stick.
“Its known as the Dragon Lady,” says Colonel Lars Hoffman. “It’s like a lady when you’re flying up high – it’s a very smooth ride – but it’s more of a dragon when you get back down to low altitude.”
As commander of the US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, Hoffman is almost certainly one of the world’s best pilots. His predecessors at the school include moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and the first man to break the speed of sound, Chuck Yeager. Graduates include the second American in space, Gus Grissom, and the only person to manually fly the Space Shuttle (or any vehicle at all) from Mach 25 to landing, Joe Engle.
Photos of these aerospace legends and their comrades line the school’s corridors. Most of the roads at Edwards, on the other hand, are named after the 200 or so test pilots who have lost their lives here, pushing the boundaries of aviation. This is the home of the “right stuff” and Hoffman looks the part: tall, square-jawed and charming. I have to confess to being a little star-struck.
He graduated from the school in 1997, and has flown everything from the latest fighter planes to the Goodyear blimp. But the single-seater U-2 remains a personal favourite. Flying at 70,000 feet (21 km) – twice the height of commercial airliners – he likens piloting the U-2 to flying in space. When I met him recently at Edwards we talked about this and the secret missions the aircraft fly.
Caption for photo at the left:The shooting down of a U2 in 1960 over the USSR sparked an international crisis (Getty Images)
The U-2 first flew in 1955 and it is still flying – but has the mission changed? The mission hasn’t changed but the aircraft has changed considerably. The ones that we fly today were built in the 1980s and were significantly upgraded in the 1990s with new engines, electronics and avionics. The sensors we fly with today are the absolute state of the art. We also have capabilities to network to satellites, to other aircraft and to the ground, so it truly is a 21st-Century weapons system.
What sort of missions is it used for? It’s used for both tactical and strategic reconnaissance. For example, flying along a sensitive border looking into a country of interest we can take images and we can record signals intelligence that tells us what’s going on in that country, such as North Korea for example. We can also fly over battlefields and, in real time, see the battlefield in high resolution. We can communicate to units on the ground or command centres to tell them exactly what the tactical situation is.
You fly at 70,000 ft – 50,000 ft used to be considered space – how dangerous is it to fly at that sort of height? There’s a line known as Armstrong’s line – it’s about 50,000 ft (15km). When you’re above that line if you were to lose pressure, your blood would literally boil due to the low pressure. So, we wear a full pressure suit like astronauts wear to provide an extra layer of protection if we were to lose pressure in the cockpit. The cockpits have been pressurised over the years to an altitude of 29,000 feet (9km), that’s like standing on the top of Everest all day. So I’m wearing the full pressure suit, I’m breathing 100% oxygen, my body is feeling like I’m standing on top of a mountain, so it’s quite fatiguing.
What is it like to be at that sort of height where you are flying higher than anyone else on Earth? It is an amazing feeling. The last long flight I took was to deliver an aircraft from Beale Air Force Base in Sacramento, California, non-stop 12 hours and I landed in the UK. The flight was across Canada, Greenland, Iceland and then dropping into the UK. It was the most amazing experience, those 12 hours, to be detached from humanity on Earth, much like astronauts feel on the International Space Station. It takes about an hour to come down from altitude to land and you have to be alert for the landing because it’s such a physical experience to do. But when you touch down it takes a little while to reconnect with life on Earth.
On Left: The U2 has clocked up nearly 60 years in operational service (Getty Images)
How do you stay alert for 12 hours isolated in a tiny cockpit high above the planet? The aircraft flies on autopilot for most of the flight and that’s good because the margin at altitude is very narrow between the maximum Mach that the aircraft can fly before it breaks up and the stall speed. It’s about 10 knots.
It’s also a handful to fly at altitude because the air is so thin – it’s like balancing a pencil on the tip of your finger. You really have to come back down to lower altitude before you can gain control back.
We can eat through tubes in the helmet and most of the time we’re able to listen to music or something to keep our minds occupied, to keep alert. We are given tasks throughout the flight to record readings on instruments, so it keeps you occupied throughout the flight.
Do you feel like an astronaut? I do actually, putting on the full pressure suit it’s very similar to the suit the astronauts wore when they flew in the Space Shuttle. And that’s the closest thing I can think of to being an astronaut – especially being up there on your own. You really do start to feel removed, or detached, from the Earthlings that are still on the surface of the planet. When you look down and you see an airliner passing below you and it’s half of your altitude, you start to realise how high you are and how alone you are up there. It’s a feeling, I bet, that astronauts experience when they’re on the space station.
A comparable experience to the first Americans in space, who flew alone, the Mercury astronauts? In the movie The Right Stuff, there’s this scene with John Glenn orbiting the Earth and he did feel alone there for a while. It was communication with the team on the ground that kept him focused, occupied and alert while he was orbiting the Earth. It’s the same sort of thing in the U-2, you can be very detached and can get lonely so you have to keep occupied when you’re going along.
Are you out of the range of surface-to-air missiles or other attack? In most places we are beyond those surface-to-air missiles but there are areas we fly where we are vulnerable to those, so we have layers of defence to avoid being attacked. [Unsurprisingly he did not reveal where or what those measures were.]
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