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| Science & Technology |
| U-2 spy planes have lurked all over the world for 64 years ‐ here's how the Dragon Lady keeps an eye on the battlefield |
| 2019-09-02 |
| [Bus Insider] The 64th anniversary of the U-2 spy plane's historic, and accidental, first flight came in early August. While much about the Dragon Lady has changed in the past six decades ‐ most of the 30 or so in use now were built in the 1980s, and they no longer do overflights of hostile territory, like the 1960 flight on which Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union ‐ the U-2 is still at the front of the military's intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mission, lurking off coastlines and above battlefields. The U-2 is probably most famous for what pilots call "the optical bar camera," Maj. Travis "Lefty" Patterson, a U-2 pilot, said at an Air Force event in New York City in May. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #5 The Chinese used the U2s given them by the CIA in the 60s to great effect, surveying the entire mainland, Taiwanese territory, all up to Honshu island, Japan. They flew from Taoyun airbase in Taiwan. In the late 70s, when the UN's romance with the KuoMintang ended, they could not use the Taiwan bases or planes again. They relied on radio, old maps and surveys until some indigenous version of the Martin's 57D was made, of course by modifying the commercially available model. Two of these were subsequently crashed. One in Nepal and another in the sea. By the 80s, china was stealing tech from America, Canada and Japan and had 'reverse engineers' working to reproduce materials and hardware like crazy to produce their own versions of UAVs, reportedly being tested in Irvine and another in Tampa. But they were blind for want of a decent 'eye in the sky' for a long while. It was the Dragon Lady that granted America and allies to dominate the international intelligence game far into east Asia till the late 90s. |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-09-02 14:51 |
| #4 Configurability, taskability and turn around time. Three things satellites just don't have. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-09-02 14:24 |
| #3 Re #2, reminds me of the hot air balloons from the Civil War. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2019-09-02 08:18 |
| #2 ...The current versions of the U-2 haven't overflown 'hostile' territory in decades; their utility comes from being able to get high enough to see the curvature of the Earth from outside the bad guys' boundaries. For instance, they operate from Osan AB, Korea - just about a 45 minute drive from the DMZ - on a regular basis, and Round Boy can't do a thing about it. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2019-09-02 06:03 |
| #1 they no longer do overflights of hostile territory Really, maybe territory that does not have hostile assets? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2019-09-02 01:56 |