The U-2 jet-powered aircraft has been a staple of American intelligence-gathering operations going
back to the Cold War. But for over 50 years, the aircraft has also kept another peculiar record:
being known as the most difficult aircraft to land.
Ross Franquemont, a U-2 pilot and internet vlogger, posted a series of videos in February
of 2021 that provided insight into the aircraft's complex and often messy landing procedures.
In the two-part post, the elite pilot describes the intricacies of being a Dragon Lady pilot
and the process to become part of this select master group.
It is widely known among pilots that taking off a Dragon Lady is one of
the best feelings in the world. Landing, though, is another story…
Landing a Dragon
The Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady jet has been one of America's go-to aerial platforms for
photographic reconnaissance since it was first introduced in 1956.
It is also one of aeronautical engineer Kelly Johnson's most remarkable creations.
With great endurance and capable of flying at altitudes over 70,000 feet,
the U-2 has performed with the United States Air Force and Central Intelligence Agency for decades.
The latest model was upgraded in 2012 and continues to be as much of a marvel
as the day it first took to the skies.
However, despite decades of service and countless modifications and upgrades, Kelly Johnson's
marvel aircraft remains the most challenging aircraft to land in the Air Force's arsenal.
In February of 2021, one of the few people in the world capable of taming
the wild Dragon Lady beast documented his experiences landing the massive aircraft,
as well as the lengthy process of becoming a U-2 pilot.
In a series of videos posted to Instagram, Ross Franquemont,
better known by his online persona, Extreme Ross, showed his audience the U-2 landing process,
including bouncing, swerving, wing dragging, and porpoising.
The Most Difficult Aircraft To Land
Landing the U-2 jet-powered aircraft is no easy task.
With a design resembling a glider more than an actual aircraft,
the Lady Dragon's massive wings are designed to generate as much lift as possible.
This optimization allows the jet to climb to operating altitude in seconds
and half-glide through missions, preserving fuel and dramatically boosting its range.
However, its wings continue to generate lift at a slower speed,
particularly at lower altitudes due to the ground effect,
making the landing and recovery phase at the end of missions quite tricky.
During landings, U-2 pilots commonly and purposefully stall the aircraft as
close to the runway as possible, killing off the lift underneath
the glider-like wings and almost dropping the jet the rest of the way.
Instead of the typical landing gear, the Dragon Lady spy plane uses a bicycle
wheel formation with the main front wheels situated right behind the pilot's cockpit
and the primary set of rear wheels behind the engine.
These low-altitude handling characteristics require each and every landing to be
excessively planned and controlled. And to top it off, forward visibility is highly
limited due to the extended aircraft nose and taildragger configuration.
The turbulence-prone jet can bounce or tip to the side and veer off the runway
if the maneuver is done incorrectly, just as Ross Franquemont's published videos show.
Since handling a U-2 is no easy task, both takeoff and landing
are accomplished with a ground force of fast and specially-equipped chase cars.
Driven by fellow Dragon Lady pilots who help talk down their comrades,
the cars have to be capable of accelerating quickly and reach
140 miles per hour to come into position behind the aircraft and keep up with it.
The pilots also rely on assistance to provide direction, angle of descent,
decreasing speed, and altitude height as the aircraft closes in on the ground,
with the chase car making up for the pilot's sight and mobility, as visibility is limited
due to a restricted cockpit and a bulky pressure suit and helmet.
The drivers in the cars, which have included brands such as Pontiac, Mercedes-Benz,
Audi and even Chevy Camaros, represent a second pair of eyes and ears during the landing process.
In addition, a utility truck behind the aircraft and chase car trails them
with a rack of pogo outrigger wheels.
A crew quickly jumps out and runs toward the aircraft, balancing and slightly leaning to one
side due to the landing gear. After steadying the wings with the outrigger gear clipped on,
the U-2 finally stabilizes, and the recovery is complete.
Achieving The Impossible ﻿
Landing a U-2 spy aircraft on an Air Force runway is considered one of the hardest feats to achieve
in military aviation, so taking off from a Navy carrier was believed to be impossible.
However, the Dragon Lady has been able to take off
from US aircraft carriers’ flat tops on more than one occasion.
On May 1, 1960, CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down as he flew his U-2 over Soviet
airspace. The subsequent international crisis threatened to affect the aircraft's use,
and basing the Dragon Lady in foreign countries became problematic and even potentially dangerous.
To get around the sudden restrictions,
the CIA decided to test the feasibility of landing the aircraft on Navy carriers,
as the ships essentially become American sovereign territory wherever they sail.
After years of delays, CIA Deputy Director Lieutenant General Marshall Carter received
a memo with recommendations on the procedures to operate U-2 aircraft from aircraft carriers.
Carter then went straight to the source and contacted creator Kelly Johnson.
The latter assured the deputy that the jet could be easily modified to allow carrier operations,
including a larger landing gear system, an arresting hook, and other features.
Three months later, Lockheed test pilot Bob Schumacher
took off from the carrier USS Kitty Hawk for the first series of tests.
By February of the following year, two groups were qualified after carrier flight training
for CIA pilots at Naval Air Station. The USS Ranger carrier was then positioned
offshore from Southern California to begin U-2 takeoffs and landings.
A Reliable Spy
Due to Cold War-era secrecy, the only known declassified mission of
a modified Dragon Lady launched from a carrier occurred in May of 1964.
Interested in surveilling the French nuclear program and following signals of an impending
test, the Pentagon devised Operation Fish Hawk. The USS Ranger carrier then sailed to
the South Pacific, and the modified U-2s flew onto the vessel separately from California.
During the mission, the CIA launched two reconnaissance flights in three days
to gather information about the clandestine nuclear operations
in the Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia.
With calm winds and clear skies, the Dragon Lady successfully performed the procedures,
and after preliminary data processing,
the film was developed by Kodak technicians under CIA supervision.
France remained unaware of any American interference throughout the whole ordeal.
After its introduction almost seven decades ago, the U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane remains a demanding
aircraft to master. Consequently, the jet is piloted only by America's most elite pilots,
as only 10 percent of trainees in the volunteer program are accepted.
However, the experience of flying the Dragon Lady is worth the effort of countless hours of
pilot training. As Ross Franquemont put it in his social media post: [QUOTE] "The experience
of the first takeoff [...] is one of the most memorable experiences in your life [...] No
matter how many hours of flying you have, you have never experienced anything like the Dragon Lady."
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