Today 50 years ago, 26 April 1965, I dressed up in my fancy new duds for and exciting flight.
My first U-2 flight at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. The flight was real early in the morning to stay away from cross winds on landings. Aircraft tail number was 566714 it was a U-2A. The instructor was on the ground in a vehicle with radio. He observed the traffic patterns and hoped I didn't mess up the plane. Take off was made at reduced power, climbed out to 20,000 feet and did a few stalls to see what it would feel like in the traffic pattern. Back to the airfield and a Cessna U-3A (military version of the Cessna 310) came up on my wing and an instructor was on board the chase plane. He was there to make sure that I didn't get too slow in the pattern. The rest of the flight after a couple of low approaches was devoted to landings. I made five landings and the flight was 2 hours in duration. That particular airplane is on display at Beal AFB in California. It had several mishaps after I flew, the last mishap was at Beal AFB. It was damaged so bad they took it off flight status and repaired it enough to display.
Final approach is in the lower 90's knots. Engine is at almost idle power. On landing when over the approach end of the runway and about 10' the throttle is reduced to idle, the speed brakes are out and the flaps are full down, otherwise it would just keep on flying. The instructor in a souped up automobile takes the runway just behind the U-2 and makes calls to help you on landings. That help continued till the touchdown and would let you know if something was about to happen that needed correction. Luckily I had five years flying the B-47 which had the same gear configuration of the U-2, main difference was the B-47 steered by the nose gear and the U-2 steered by the tail wheel. After touchdown and everything looked good the instructor would say take it around. Two days later I made the second flight and on 4 May 1965 the third flight was a high flight. After take off a climb was made to over 60,000 feet and one celestial fix was made to get familiar with celestial navigation. Then at 60,000 feet above Davis-Monthan, the instructor came on frequency along with the Tower and Command Post, we were all in agreement that I would shut the engine down and see what it felt like for the pressure suit to inflate and glide down to 40,000 feet, then we would all go through the engine start check list. The engine started on the first try, continued letdown and back in the pattern to do more practice landings. That was the last flight with an instructor looking after me.
Fifty years ago and it seems like yesterday. In September of this year the 60 year celebration of the first U-2 flight at what is now called Area 51. Here we are approaching 60 years and it is still flying, a vastly different machine that what I flew. My pilot number is 199 and I don't think the number has reached 1000 yet.
It was a bit more exciting than surveying through the woods in eastern North Carolina.
If you want to spook around about the U-2 just google U-2 at area 51 and you should see a good bit of history of the machine.
I screwed up the subject, the date was 26 April 1965. Fat fingers I suppose or it could be old age.
Wow! Just Wow! You were a predecessor of today's astronauts! 🙂
Do you know Joe Kittinger?
No I don't know Joe Kittinger.
He did something that I could never do. I can't jump off a three step ladder. I can imagine he had second thoughts after stepping out into space from that balloon.
50 YEARS AGO TODAY 26 APRIL 1965
Amazing story! Thanks for sharing.
I thought at first glance that the picture was one of those scenes that you stick your face in the cutout while someone snaps a picture 😀
Now for the real questions,
Was that your first star shot?
Are there any aliens at Area 51?
just kidding on the questions but thanks for sharing.
James
Jerry has one heck of an interesting career flying planes for the USAF. My flying is nothing by comparison. If you ever get a chance to meet him you must do so!
:gammon:
Congratulations on the 50 years! How many hours flying since then? Really enjoyed when you came by the office with those posters of the U-2.
Jake, the U-2 portion of my flying was just a little over two years. I had over five years flying the B-47 before going to the U-2. I had seven years in the Air National Guard at Lincoln, Nebraska while I was based at Kansas City flying for TWA. I had 24 years flying for TWA. I haven't totaled my log books since about 1961 or so. I would imagine I have between 20,000 and 25,000 hours flying. Those long flights back and forth to Europe and Africa with TWA really put on the hours. Get more flying in forty five minutes in the Piper Cub than in seven hours on an Atlantic Crossing.
Thanks for the Westinghouse posters about the Westinghouse engines on the F-90 and the Navy Cutlass. I knew about the airplanes but never knew they were powered by a Westinghouse engine.
Thanks, Jerry, for making me feel like a youngster. I was in the Sixth Grade in April 1965. My main teacher, Mrs. Bratton, had lived in a dugout as a little girl when her parents homesteaded land near Gate, Oklahoma. So, while you were out heading toward the stars I was shooting paper wads at girls with cooties and listening to Mrs. Bratton read a story she had written, ala Little House on the Prairie, about her early life on the plains of Oklahoma.
One question about the U-2 Jerry
Jerry,
If I might ask you one question. How does the U-2 handle in stall recovery? I've had several hours in a Schweizer 2-32 with 57' wingspan (I think the U-2 was over 100') and stall recovery was predictable, but had to happen quickly since there was no power. Just wondering???
One question about the U-2 Jerry
The version of the U bird I flew was the original wing span of 80 feet. The version flying now is 105 feet I think. We did some stalls at about 20,000 feet to get sort of a horizon picture in relation to the lower front of the windshield to get an idea of what sight picture we needed for landing. The stall was not much to speak about, we never took it into deep stall, when it started shaking a bit we recovered right away. At high altitude it was an autopilot airplane. I would say that a person that had autopilot failure and tried to carry on the mission would last less than ten minutes or so. About an hour and half into a mission when we took off with full fuel we entered coffin corner that gave us about 3 or so knots above stall buffet and about 3 or so knots below mach buffet. When I say buffet it wasn't just a little rumble it made no doubt in your mind that something was bad wrong. I engaged the autopilot going through 55,000 feet and at the specified indicated airspeed I engaged mach hold on the autopilot. We were at max power all the time, as fuel burned off it kept a constant mach .74 and would slowly climb. There were times when it got so high that the engine was running at full power and idle power at the same time. In those cases we would index the speed brakes a little to keep from exceeding the altitude that would give an engine failure.
I had one occasion that I got either mach buffet or stall buffet. I would take the autopilot off heading hold while nearing a turning point. Over the turning point I selected the outbound heading and would select heading hold and the autopilot would turn to the next heading that I had put in for the outbound heading from the turning point. It went into a roll and it started shaking violently. I quickly grabbed the yoke and rolled the wings level, the buffet stopped. I slowly let go of the yoke and the autopilot naturally started turning toward the selected heading, again it started shaking violently. I quickly grabbed the yoke and rolled wings level, the shaking stopped. I disengaged the autopilot and engaged it about two or so seconds later, again selected mach hold but not heading hold. From then on I would start a turn with the turn knob of the autopilot and after turning about fifteen degrees I wold select heading hold on the autopilot. It was programmed for about 13 or so degrees max roll at high altitude. To this day I don't know if it was mach buffet or stall buffet. I think the autopilot started the roll toward the heading to quickly. I made a write up on the flight log and the maintenance fellows could find nothing wrong. It scared the life out of me because I was well into the northwestern part of Vietnam. I would disengage the autopilot when starting down for home, did that about every three or so flights to convince myself I could get the old gal down to a decent altitude. Below 60,000 feet it flew as nice as you please but at max altitude it was and autopilot airplane. I don't know anybody that ever got control of the airplane if it departed normal flight at altitude. It would start shedding parts rather quick when out of control.
One question about the U-2 Jerry
What a story to tell! I just can't imagine what the controls were like at those altitudes.
And if no one else had told you lately, thanks for everything you did. It mattered. B-)
Hey Jerry,
Did you know Gary Powers?
Wow!
Thank you for your service to keeping the peace.
Derek
Wow! What else can I say. That is amazing.
I met him in 1966, Lockheed was deep into the design of the follow on U-2. It has 105 feet of wing span and is considerable larger all around. Kelly Johnson requested two pilots from the Air Force and two pilots from the bad boys. The chief of standardization from our unit was one of the pilots and he got to choose the second one. For some unknown reason he picked me. There definitely were more senior pilots than me but I was the senior of the new batch that came in at the same time as myself and a few follow on fellows. We flew a T-33 to Palmdale and went to Edwards AFB and were fitted with the full pressure suits then went to the skunk works at Lockheed and spent two days taking turns sitting in the new mockup to check instrument placement, control placement and to make sure everything could be reached with very little difficulty. By the way we were dual qualified in the T-33 along with qualifications in the U-2, we got our instrument practice and proficiency check rides in the T-33. The first afternoon close to our time to quit. Frances Powers shows up, it turns out that the fellow I was with for the trip had been in the same F-84 unit that Powers had been in when Powers was approached by Lockheed and the CIA about the original bird. He was the production test pilot for Lockheed at that time doing maintenance check flights in the U-2 for Lockheed. He had a Lockheed credit card and took us for a night on the town. The topless Go Go places were just being the rage in LA. We went to one of those and after about five or ten minutes of looking at tits flop about we did what all pilots do, shoot the bull about airplanes. After that he took us to the Play Boy Club. Again we shot the bull about airplanes. The second day of the visit the morning was devoted to more sitting in the mockup in the pressure suit. That afternoon there was a long table in a room at the Skunk Works. Kelly Johnson sat at one end of the table and had a legal pad and was constantly making notes. We went over the cockpit instrument and every other item, was it ok in this place could it bee seen without having to move the head around. Can all the controls be handled without any problems and so on. We got out of the pressure suit and fired up our T-33 and headed back to our home base at Tucson. Frances Powers was soft spoken and was a county boy from Tennessee that just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. There may be some reason for things happening the way they do but I don't suppose we will ever know why.
I left the program in early June 1967 for a job with Trans World Airlines. I have never been in one of the birds we call new, they entered production in 1968. Shouldn't call them the new birds but that is what they are called. They are older than the original birds were when they were taken out of service.
One question about the U-2 Jerry
Wasn't it Auto-Pilot failure that got Powers in trouble?
>Frances Powers was soft spoken and was a county boy from Tennessee that just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. There may be some reason for things happening the way they do but I don't suppose we will ever know why.
>
Thanks Jerry. That is a real fascinating tale.
One question about the U-2 Jerry
I don't think the autopilot was any problem on the Powers flight. There was a big bunch of SAM missiles fired at him. They of course had proximity fuses, in case of a near miss it would sense metal close by and would explode. That explosion might have done some damage to the aircraft but almost surely created a big shock wave that would have up set the U-2. I don't know of any case where the pilot recovered a U-2 once it departed controlled flight. It was not built to take large and wild G loads. It starts shedding parts rather quick once it leaves controlled flight. We were not allowed to fly into areas of forecast moderate turbulence. Never had a flight cancelled because moderate turbulence was forecast for our altitudes. When the pilot leaves the airplane about three hundred pounds or more leaves the front end of the airplane, the center of gravity promptly marches toward the tail, it would in effect become a falling leaf. That is the reason the Russians got so much of the aircraft in tact. Most of the crashes in the states the aircraft has maybe a foot of forward motion when it hits the ground. From 500 feet above the crash scene it almost looks like you could fly the machine.
