Tests are performed on a secret aircraft, nicknamed: “Inquisitive Angel”.The official code name is CL-282, what will become the Lockheed U-2 strategic reconnaissance plane.
This 1957 CIA documentary tells the story of the U-2 beginnings and the now restricted Area 51.
The film was officially s declassified in 2006.
“The Inquisitive Angel” video was made to show very selected workers at Watertown, a detailed insights into the origins of the area and a broad idea of its activities related to U-2 development and testing. The video also explains the training of the U-2 pilots at the time.
The film is an historic document that details the beginnings of the U-2 spy plane program. A particular emphasis is place on the security of the site: “The highest yet to be maintained in this country. Even higher than that of the Manhattan Project”.
The video is filled with fascinating insights on the development of one of one of Kelly Johnson’s most famous projects and the origins of the legendary “Skunk Works”.
It reveals the details of Lockheed’s truly top secret 26-man special projects group, the elite engineering team that took only 8 months to build the first U-2.
There are specific references to the U-2’s weight saving priorities, with its non-powered, manually opened canopy, unusual tandem landing gear and “pogo” supports on the outer wings.
Get a fascinating look at the innovative control surfaces of the U-2, including the upward tilting flaps that could reconfigure the wing’s aerodynamics completely for different parts of the U-2’s extreme operational envelope.
We even learn that the aerodynamics were not developed using conventional wind tunnel testing!
This project was likely the first application of an early version of modern day, computer-generated computational fluid dynamics or “CFD”, an aerodynamic engineering diagnostic and testing method now nearly universal in aerospace engineering.

The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is an American single-jet engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day and night, high-altitude (70,000 feet, 21,300 meters), all-weather intelligence gathering.

Lockheed Corporation originally proposed it in 1953, it was approved in 1954, and its first test flight was in 1955. It was flown during the Cold War over the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and Cuba. In 1960, Gary Powers was shot down in a CIA U-2C over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. was shot down in a U-2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

U-2s have taken part in post-Cold War conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and supported several multinational NATO operations. The U-2 has also been used for electronic sensor research, satellite calibration, scientific research, and communications purposes. The U-2 is one of a handful of aircraft types to have served the USAF for over 50 years, along with the Boeing B-52, Boeing KC-135, and Lockheed C-130. The newest models (TR-1, U-2R, U-2S) entered service in the 1980s, and the latest model, the U-2S, had a technical upgrade in 2012.

Skunk Works produced the U-2 spy plane that could — and still does — collect images from 70,000 feet; the SR-71 Blackbird, an aircraft that could fly at speeds greater than Mach 3; and the F-117 Nighthawk, the first stealth fighter.

For defense tech journalists and aviation nerds, this is the equivalent of a Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka’s factory, but think supersonic drones instead of Everlasting Gobstoppers.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1
Capacity: 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) payload
Length: 63 ft 0 in (19.20 m)
Wingspan: 103 ft (31 m)
Height: 16 ft 0 in (4.88 m)
Wing area: 1,000 sq ft (93 m2)
Airfoil: root: NACA 63A409; tip: NACA 63A406
Empty weight: 16,000 lb (7,257 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 40,000 lb (18,144 kg)
Fuel capacity: 2,950 US gal (2,460 imp gal; 11,200 l)
Powerplant: 1 × General Electric F118-101 turbofan engine, 17,000 lbf (76 kN) thrust
Performance
Cruise mach number: Mach 0.715 (412 kn; 470 mph; 760 km/h) at 72,000 ft (22,000 m)[210]
Cruise speed: 413 kn (475 mph, 765 km/h) at 65,000 ft (20,000 m)
Stall speed: 65 kn (75 mph, 120 km/h)
Range: 6,090 nmi (7,010 mi, 11,280 km) plus
Endurance: 12 hours[212]
Service ceiling: 80,000 ft (24,000 m) plus
Rate of climb: 9,000 ft/min (46 m/s)
Time to altitude: 60,000 ft (18,000 m) in 12 minutes 30 seconds
Lift-to-drag: 25.6
Wing loading: 40 lb/sq ft (200 kg/m2)
Thrust/weight: 0.425
Fuel consumption: 910 lb/h (410 kg/h) in cruise

#u2 #spy #aircraft

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