Lockheed U-2 | Why Is It Still Flying & Still Spying 65 Years On?
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- čas přidán 22. 04. 2021
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The Lockheed U-2 might well have been created in the 1950s for the coldwar but it's still going 65 years on and has seen off the Lockheed SR-71 and spy satellites. This is the story so far of the spy plane that still flying and still spying 65 years on.
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Written, Researched and Presented by Paul Shillito
Images and Footage : Lockheed, USAF, NASA, US DoD, RAF, H
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It flies because it still hasn't found what it's looking for.
It refuses to land until we forgive Africa's debts.
You win the internet for today, sir! (Now get your coat)
@@RCAvhstape 'It still hasn't spied what it's snooping for'
I see what you did there. ;)
@@RedLP5000S The U2 camera sees it too. It sees everything.
Sr-71: *flies over USSR*
The titanium in it fuselage: I'm on my way! I'm on my way! Home sweet home!
“I return to motherland”
It's *our* way.
As an aussie Air Force brat, I used to watch the USAF U2's taking off in the late 1950's when a squadron was stationed down in Australia doing 'weather' recon missions from the base I lived on. Amazing plane.
Yeah doing recon on "weather or not" the Soviets were up to something new
@@jeffreyhill1011 it ain’t just the soviets they was “watching”
@@kwhp1507 correct. My comment was essentially just playing off the joke OP used with weather surveillance.
I believe they do their 'mission' in indonesia 😂
@@jeffreyhill1011 That one flew by unoticed way above his head ;)
I like how the cars that chase after it during landing have changed over the last 65 years but the U-2 stays the same. I'm sure there's a Matthew Mcconaughey joke in there.
“Alright, alright, alright. That’s what I dig about these U2 Spy Planes. They get older but the muscle cars stay the same age! Yes, they do.”
@@negativeindustrial Nice :)
@@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368
Thank you. Great premise.
Does anyone know what the use of this car actually is?
@@Schaelpy
I’m good with cars. Got a time stamp?
Very interesting. I had no idea there was a later, larger version of the U2.
Same here. I thought they just upgraded the original airframes.
Yeah with Bono reaching an astonishing 460 courics
I like my junk food what can I say, No need to be rude. I do my best cosplay when I sing with or without you.
@@SonKunSama YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!!!!
You have no idea? Isn't that the point?
As per the old adage: "If it ain't broke, just keep fixing it until it is."
Might be useful to take the pilot out of the cockpit, we don't want another Gary Powers incident if one is shot down. 🤔
Works on your car too!
How is this applicable?
@@Netherlands031 It's like an old appliance. They're sturdy and reliable, so you just keep fixing them until you can't get parts for them any more.
Alternatively, the adage could be talking about an incompetent designer (or management) who keeps trying to reinvent the wheel to be more complex and prone to breakage, when the old one works just fine.
@@thomas316 it may be hackable unless they fly a destined flight plan. even so, it wouldnt be possible to change course on the way there. i think a pilot would be much better suited
this plane is so good that it downloaded an album for me without me asking
that's what makes it such an effective spyplane!
Haha..
There is a 170ish DC3s still flying commercially today. 80 years old and without an airforce to maintain them. That's even more impressive.
The DC3 was one of the most popular planes in its era and is probably the most popular pre-war aircraft still flying. So there is a market for keeping up these planes.
A near perfect design. There's a saying, "The only thing that can replace a DC-3 is another DC-3." Over the years there have been lots of upgrades for the old DC-3's avionics, of course, but also re-engine jobs. I remember seeing an ad in a 1980s edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine for a company offering to put turboprops on your DC-3. But anything that makes it less simple and harder to work on is almost a downgrade.
There have been discussions going on that with all the re-engining of these DC-3s with turboprops and the massive financial investments needed to do so....these could become the first commercial aircraft to reach a service life of ONE CENTURY.,!!
@@RCAvhstape I would expect a turbo prop to be simpler and therefore more reliable. But of course the large initial capital investment would be a deterrent.
A re-engineered DC-3 could even be better with minimal improvements like non-riveted hull. As others have mentioned, the big issue is making a whole new aircraft as opposed to just keeping the existing ones flying.
"Why is the U2 still flying?"
It's doing even more than the job that it was designed to do because of the genius of Kelly Johnson and his team.
You are looking for a hero. Impossible for KJ to see 65+ years into the future. Current U2 is mostly new design. More happenstance than genius.
@@jamese9283 Are you a Russian troll by chance?
@@jeshkam No, but my Dad's wife is Ukrainian. Does that count?
@@jamese9283 Could do.
@@jamese9283 All engineers stand on the shoulders of those who came before.
Kelly Johnson did that better than most and those engineers who worked on his designs did it better, too.
Sounds like you work for Boeing!
My great grandfather worked for the NSA and one of his jobs was to view these photos from the U2 and Sr-71 blackbird
How clear was the photos your dad view?
@@astro2493 The film is about the size of a piece of printer paper. From over 70,000 feet altitude, the camera could resolve separate objects that were only 8 inches apart. The camera is extremely impressive.
Your _great-grandfather??_ My grandfather was born in 1922 and was entering middle-age when the U2 was first deployed. How young does your family have children that you've managed to pack 2 extra generations into the past 100 years?
@@rebeccadande2157 that's pretty amazing for the technology at that time
@@deusexaethera Mom was 24 my dad was 26, and my great grandfather was 82 when he passed I was super fortunate to meet him and spen my days growing up with him, still miss him and its been 2 years
The A-12 was actually under development well before Powers was shot down. Kelly Johnson anticipated the U-2's vulnerability in the late 1950s and began a successor capable of Mach 3. Luckily by 1960 the development was well underway and the A-12 first flew only 2 years after the U-2 incident (which is unheard of in aircraft development timelines).
That's actually very impressive
@@ceddricc5909
Prescient engineering.
Thank you for listening Droid! A U-2 episode was way overdue!
Seriously. I actually learned some shit on this one! I had no idea they had a modern version. Still unclear why it’s not a U-3 considering how extensively modified it is from the original.
@@negativeindustrial U-2.5?
The plane is so cool that it have Muscle Cars as landing gears
Imagine having that job. Chasing a U-2 in a muscle car. Talk about bragging rights.
@@bigblue6917 both guys are generally other u-2 pilots. Talk about a job perk
Well its still in use because it can loiter for ages and they already own it. So basically its free now the money has already been spent.
@@brokeandtired there is definitely still money being spent on these planes so they're not free. They are however, tried and true designs so in that regard, the cost of R&D for an existing airframe is 0.
And the SR-71 is so cool it needs muscle car V8 engines to start up its own jets.
Kelly Johnson was just one of those people who had a gift for design. He was the engineer who gave the US (and the world) its first 400MPH (level flight) fighter, the Lockheed P-38 Lightening. Incredibly, Johnson was equally adept at designing supersonic aircraft, including the U2, the F104 Starfighter (still an INSANE looking aircraft, every time I look at it!) and the legendary SR71 Blackbird. He designed the U2 so well for what it was meant to do, that the best we can come up with today, 60 years later, is an enlarged, electronically updated version of the same air frame.
We should not forget the very fast time from starting design to a flying aircraft. The timescales today are massive. Most og KJ's projects were delivered on time and in budget something unheard of today. Todays complexity comes at a very high price. We need a few KJ's to get todays complexity under control and produce workable solutions that are affordable and will last. Great video as usual.
@@johnwales5686 "affordable and will last"
Yeah, no. This whole video explains why this is dumb. The U-2 wasn't able to spy over the Soviet Union anymore, it only lasted because the airframe was good enough for other uses. Without the complex and expensive SR-71, there would've been no spying until satellites took over. For certain very demanding roles, complexity and cost can't be avoided. But once those aircraft aren't needed for that role anymore, they get scrapped because they're complex and expensive. It doesn't mean they weren't necessary or good at their jobs.
Also the complexity and price of modern aircraft has drastically increased because the list of requirements gets longer the more technology we have. There's no way around that currently.
F-104 lawn dart isn’t much to brag about
It's insane that it has survived, especially as it was designed as a short term solution as they knew it would get shot down eventually, so they made its successor that came and went along with the satellites that still cannot do what the U2 does. It's more or less a starfighter with big wings, Kelly knew how to make aircraft.
The c-130 is another one that’s gonna keep going way into the future.
If it works it works
@@qwattyeet4027 PLANE IS PLANE
@@qwattyeet4027 I’m not complaining i live near Eglin AFB always hear them practicing the AC-130 would feel wrong not hearing the hum of those engines
@@thecausalgamer7916 ok
@@qwattyeet4027 yep
I live 4 miles from the runway at Beale AFB, home of the U2. They fly so low over my house they shake my windows.
I know how you feel, i live near a joint military base (army and air force) and they like to send helicopters buzzing just above the treeline even through residential areas on a regular basis. Planes dont often fly extremely low but they do on occasion. It can really irritating when you're outside talking to someone and get deafened because some ass hat wants to reenact an action movie and buzz across the forest and suburbs as low as possible.
@@arthas640 i live right next to a royal Australian Airforce base , every day and night we have F18 super hornets F35's taking off n landing ..... the noise gets alot worse when they have war games going ..... does not really bother me knowing this is a small inconvenience to protect my country and its freedoms
Have you ever seen SR-71s coming and going? Now that is a plane I wish I could have experienced in person.
Yep, you can often see the U-2s doing landing practice at Beal AFB for pilot qualification. The flight path goes over one of the roads going past the base. Beal was also a main base for the SR-71, and there is one on display there. .
@@mclarkson78 Spent about 10 Years working on the navigation system on the SR-71,and about 9 on the U-2.
Back in the age of sail, technology was advancing at a rate that a large warship could be a viable fighting unit for nearly 100 years providing it's maintained probably. It's quite crazy to think we've gotten to a point again where certain weapon systems can still be viable 100 years after first being created
Paul, you've lost weight and you look great! Keep up the amazing work -- I love your videos!
U2: “you still haven’t found what you’re looking for!”
Another interesting factoid about the U-2 was that they were capable of operating off of aircraft carriers, a very unique ability that made mission routes much more flexible.
There was 1 U-2 modified to land on aircraft carriers, which it only did a handful of times for testing
@@stickman3214 Ouch! Poor wings. Just wondering how much extra stress and sudden arrestor hook stop would cause.
@@panther105 The airframe had to be quite heavily reinforced, which reduced the amount of fuel and payload that could be carried
@@stickman3214 Oh man.....That looks so dicey...!! czcams.com/video/L8HMPMYL19E/video.html
Yeah, that was a real great idea: let’s take the most difficult plane to land, and try to bring it down on the most difficult place to land.
It worked, but not practical.
This channel is awsome. All the vintage videoclips and the great information, just love it.
Your channel absolutely rocks in this format. Very detailed yet easy to follow. You have excellent "instructor" type way of speach.
Thanks for the U2 coverage.
The Dragon Lady is a yoke and rudder, tail dragger that would never be approved today. The pilots get a real workout landing it.
There are all volunteers from heavies to fighters with the required command experience.
Half wash out of the demanding training program. Sometimes because they just can't land it.
Paul Shilito just have the BEST shirt collection of the internet. Love it
Probably the most interesting, well researched and presented channels on CZcams. Superb content as always.
I'd put Mustard up against him. Granted Mustard uses CGI more than archive footage.
I wondered how I'd missed this production. then I looked at the posted date. thank you.
I live 5 miles from where the SR-71s were based at, Beale AFB in northern California. They've been long gone since their retirement back in the late 90s but the U2s are still here. I've lived in this area for almost 30 years but no matter how many times I've seen these beautiful aircraft flying overhead (usually several times each week) I can't help but pause and admire them.
I had no idea there was a later version, let alone that they were still in use. Thanks, Paul.
My grandfather worked in intelligence for a while and learned how to analyze photos like that. It’s pretty crazy how you can scale the size of a missile on a truck and be able to identify what model and it’s capability.
Love your videos. They are to the point, well edited and illustrative, as well as being narrated in a fluid fashion.
I loved this guy in game of thrones, glad to still see him making great content.
Well, dani got him near the end. :)
What? really I haven't gotten around to watch !!!!!! no way?
This was a great episode: covered all the bases, explained the SR-71, lots of good footage (I really liked the part that shows how much larger it is and then the modular differences shortly afterwards. Really enjoyed this.
I've loved this plane ever since I saw James May go up in one and got to see just how high up they actually get. Also, I'm curious if the science portion of its use is high altitude weather mapping/monitoring? I'd think that'd be useful.
:) and don't forget James May's nose itch.
@@bluebalute I felt that so hard. *literally itched my nose just thinking about it lol*
I thought that NASA used them (or at least they used to?) for weather/high altitude atmospheric monitoring?
@@KmanK887 They did/do.
@@KmanK887 That's what I said. And I assume so! Makes sense no?
Love all the hard work you do for your channel. Awesome stuff.
Just when I thought, "Oh no, another U-2 vid." You made it quite fresh and interesting. Kudos.
Operations Room did a video on Desert Storm a while back, I was shocked to find out they were still flying then.
Same here, i also learned that it's still flying thanks to that vídeo and i was also shocked that they are still flying
I worked IT for Lockheed a few years ago. I was helping an engineer with his computer who refurbishes U2's. He asked me what I thought and I told him "it was pretty impressive for it's time." To which I received a stern comment back, "it's still impressive now!"
i just saw you’ve hit 1m!! i’ve been here since 320 something thousand and it’s great to see how far you’ve come. your videos are amazing
Loving the amount of content at the moment.
Thanks Paul!
I think the U2 is a beautiful aircraft. Sleek and intimidating. Look great considering how old it truly is. Great video! 🤠
Amazing content as always!
Nice shirt xD
Hadn't had a video of yours show up recently, good to see you again
I once saw this man in a non-paisley shirt and I hated it!!!!! Love your show. Been here since day one and you never let yourself or this show and your fans down!!!! Keep up the great work.
I was stationed at Osan Air Base, Korea 2015-2017. The U2's are awesome, and the sound they make when taking off is majestic.
Camp Humphreys 1988-1990 guardrail tech, also worked both ends of Senior Stretch, Det 3 Akrotiri and ROFA at NSA. Flight test and cal with the U2 at AF Plant 42 Palmdale, same hangar with the big boy SR71.
Still iconic and beautiful - a huge man made albatross.
And a great working bird too. Dragon Lady
So long as it doesn't resamble a huge moth.
@@JonatasAdoM What were wrong wit the vulcan bomber? :oD
I still remember watching a U2 take off from Bien Hoa AB in 1968, with the 2 El,Camino chase trucks with airman in the back holding the wings up until the speed was up enough to lift the wings. I watched the pilot climb out and then start to corkscrew up, until you could not see him anymore. Awesome video Thank you, now can you do one on the WB57 series on spy plans.
Great Video. I had no idea this thing was still around. I thought it went the way of the pterodactyl. This was really fascinating. Thanks for all the hard work on this and other videos; and, please keep up the good work.
Excellent intro. Love watching that crazy thing come down on bicycle wheels.
Ah curious droid... you are legend. Dont ever forget it. Love these videos. Straight to the point, no bias, all fact. Brilliant delivery! As close to perfection as ya can get. 9/10. (10 can never truely be achieved so its really 9/9 🤣🤣🤣)
@MichaelKingsfordGray huh?
Curious Droid makes the best documentaries on YT. Subscribed!
Great video. I enjoyed that.
There’s something satisfying about seeing something from the past, that just can’t be bettered.
When I was in Korea, I saw one of these on the runway. I was stationed in Japan and I loved watching the SR71 take off. Both jets are incredible.
Holy cow! The view up there must be phenomenal.
I have only flown commercially and it is it's been a very long time I still want to go back and take a nice flight somewhere even though I'm older
Really enjoy your videos thank you for all of the effort you put into them
used to work on u-2s in the USAF always cool to see them flying still!!! great video keep up the good work
Fyi JP7 and the blackbird was also used for cooling, and as hydraulic fluid as well. All thie ment the fuel had to have a extremly low vapor and neccessitated the fuel to be super hard to ignite. You could throw a lit match in and it would go out quickly.
As a consequence the Blackbird used triethylborane for engine and afterburner ignition - and AFAIK carried only enough for a quite limited number of ignitions.
With the speed of military arms evolution being so fast in the 50's, it's not surprising they came across things that were evolutionary winners.
Don't forget NASA is also flying 3 of the WB57s, the US built version of the English Electric Canberra bomber / reconnaissance plane which first flew in 1950.
Our family was stationed at McCoy A.F.B. in Orlando (1972-74) and this was the
base for the U-2 Spy Plane. As a child I saw this lane fly over our house on many
occassions. What a sight.
Whenever I see one of your videos in my feed it MAKES MY DAY!
Just because somethings old, doesn't mean it's not usful and this proves that. Great to see this iconic craft still sails the skies!
So, when will you cover the M2 browning? That thing hit its hundredth birthday this year and keeps on going.
That’s astonishing. Good idea for a video.
If you just can't wait for Curious Droid to do it, check out Forgotten Weapons channel. Ian can show you an M2 inside and out while he tells you neat stories about the history and development.
@@johnladuke6475
Thanks! 👍
@@negativeindustrial All praise be to Gun Jesus, for he shall read to us his Gunpowder Commandments from the Book of Armaments. Uploading firearms videos six days a week, and on the seventh day he rests.
To be fair who wants to be the one to fire Ma? Besides she still does a stern talking to like few others.
The SR-71 was a headache, but still such an insane piece of engineering. I know this video was about the U2, but it's insane to imagine flying something faster & higher than missiles meant to intercept it.
Did you ever watch "Firefox" starring Clint Eastwood?
Imagine a spy thriller that revolves around a prototype aircraft and then suddenly turns into an action movie.
It's actually very similar to "The Hunt for Red October".
Saw one of these beautiful planes take off from Osan back in the late 80’s. They were called the Black Cats. They had Chevy Camero’s as chase cars the catch the detachable landing gears from the wings. So cool to watch.
Excellent shirtage and video 👍
I deleted my comment as soon as I posted it I remembered this is the Droid and his shirt game is on point
You used to be able to see them landing and taking off from Moffet Field in Mt. View, Calif.
Yeah. I live near there. How long has it been since they stopped flying U-2's from Moffett?
As always great vid. Thanks!
Great job Droid 👍 I love it and I want some more of it, 💯😁
Ofcourse Lord Varys the master of Whispers would be an expert on spy planes
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
has got to be the most iconic/sexiest thing that ever flew.
Love watching your videos mate, hope all is well with health as I would love to see alot more content from you 💪
Well done video 👍. You gave a good history and explanation of how the U2/TR1 are still incredibly valuable and capable. Another legendary aircraft from Kelly Johnson and crew at Lockheed Skunk Works.
6:57 One major issue the u2 had, I had my hand up guessing Bono 🙃
As always assume informative vid 👍
You can drop a lit match into basically most fuels and they won't ignite.
You try that while I stand over here
Wouldnt try that with petrol :))
And then there's the Hindenburg which would ignite from a wet fart.
@@S3l3ct1ve I said most, and petrol (liquid) is a slow burn to begin with. It's the vapor that'll get ya.
This video provided a lot of information that I did not know. Many thanks.
Still one of the best documentary chanels out there. Good work sir.
The real question is. Who will last longer?
U2 the aircraft. Or U2 the band?
Yes
B-52's.
Don't forget the CH-47, it's planned to stay in the inventory until at least 2060.
And still the fastest helicopter in the US Army inventory.
Cool video. I worked on these in the USAF. It's unbelievable how much work goes into keeping these birds in the sky to perform the mission and bring the pilots home safe.
good one Paul. the more i learn about signal intelligence, the more i realise how important the U2 still is.
It’s still spying for audible to check that CD puts at least 3 minutes of ads into a 10 min video.
Watch or don't, those are your two options. Paul has no obligation to make these for free
@@russellmoore8187 Agreed! I pay monthly youtube premium fees to get rid of ads.
That's a big reason why i never get CZcams premium, there are already a few minutes of ads loaded into most videos so even if you pay for "ad free service" you're really only getting rid of a fraction of the ads.
AND how Audible managed to silently become a monopoly for audio books. And why they charge as much for a narrator and sound crew to read a book as a studio charges for tens of thousands of high paid professionals to produce a movie. (Hey. You got me started.)
For PC you can check out the Sponsor Block Browser extension.
We get the U2 fly over us most days....nice and low going into land...always run outside to try and find it😁👍
It always surprises me when I go to the USAF Museum and look at their U2 in person. The early version is a really small plane
Always a good day when Paul posts a video!
Heros get remembered. Legends never die
I grew up just outside Edwards AFB in the 70s and 80s. I saw (and heard) the Blackbird and U2 in the skies pretty much weekly. Love those old birds.
High quality content!! Just subscribed!!
I look for them on ads-b every day and find them out there a lot. Thanks for the history, it was great!
It's amazing it's still going considering how hard it is to land and takes a chase car with another pilot sat in it to guide it down
Yes, the U-2 pilot can't determine the aircraft's exact attitude when very close to the ground. You would think modern sensors/cameras would help this, but they do it the old proven way. We are not the only ones using 1950s technology, look at the Russian TU-95 turboprop bomber still in mainline service.
Hope Curious Droid makes a video about Reaction Engines and their Space plane prototype Skylon.
Thank you for great video about the forgotten air craft,well done ! till then keep smiling with lol politely and healthy safely great history definitely.
I grew up very close to the US Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson. In the late '80s when I was 12 or 13 years old they had two SR-71s, an A-12/YF-12, an X-15, and the XB-70. All of those were out in the open. You could climb on them. You could play with the ball on the nose of the X-15. But what really fascinated me was the U-2. The U-2 was older than all of those planes but it was the one which was still classified and you couldn't even find a picture of it ANYWHERE. They barely even acknowledged it existed. It was super intriguing that the plane which got shot down and was supposedly replaced by the SR-71 was a big secret. I can play around inside the rotary bomb racks of a B-1, but I can't even see a U-2? It certainly convinced me that the U-2 was the important one. They even got two Keyhole/Hexagon satellites at the museum before they got a U-2.
"and I still haven't found what I'm looking for"🎵
...yeah...that's a better question...why is that band still around...because they suck.
🔥
The most amazing thing about the U2 is actually just how quickly it was built and just how much of a lash up it actually is! With the first airframes built and delivered in less than 1 year, it used the existing fuselage of the Starfighter, with modified wings and low mass undercarriage. Basically, it carried over everything it could from existing products in the name of expiditing the design, development and build, using a lot of starfighter tooling and processes ij the process.
One flew over approx 1000ft agl this week in the Cotswolds. I had no idea they were still in service, but thanks for the refresh. She's a beaut.
I spy with my little eye...the coolest aircraft of them all.
Volcon bomber
Thank you notifications, I will definitely be enjoying this :)
Ring the bell, folks
When I had a chance to see the cockpit of an SR71 in the 1990s, I marvelled at how primitive the instrumentation was. It was stunning that something conceived before computers were really a thing had done things that have never been excelled. This video shows that the same applies--perhaps even more so--to the U-2, and good old fashioned film cameras!
How anyone can give these videos a thumbs down is beyond me. They are well researched, well presented and the topics are well selected and interesting. This is yet another top class video! Love it!
The thumbsdowners would be either the Soviets or the funky-shirt-haters...
@@iconicshrubbery best answer ever lol