How It Works-Amazing Vehicles

DID YOU KNOW? U-2 pilot helmets have feeding tubes through which they squeeze special puréed meals

Named ‘Dragon Lady’ by the US A ir Force,

the U-2 was the brainchild of engineer

Clarence ‘Kelly’ Johnson and went from

design to test fl ight in just nine months. The

slender body and long wingspan allow it to

fl y a range of over 4,800 kilometres at an

altitude of over 21 kilometres.

The next-gen U-2 family, the U-2S, was

built in the 1980s and is expected to be

operational beyond 2050. These planes are

fi tted with state-of-the-art sensor systems

that are able to collect data day and night,

in all weather. The intelligence is

distributed in real time for analysis and

exploitation over super-fast digital links.

Today, some of the U-2’s work is for NASA,

equipped with various sensors to conduct

atmospheric tests. U-2s have also patrolled

the skies above Iraq and A fghanistan,

intercepting insurgent communications

and using their incredible imaging sensors

to detect small disturbances on the ground,

alerting troops to the presence of

improv ised explosive dev ices and mines.

Lockheed U-2

The plane that peeked around the Iron

Curtain is still going strong

U-2 pilots wear

pressurised space suits

to keep themselves

protected when fl ying at

high altitude

NASA captures

atmospheric data

using the U-2

Safety car

Landing a U-2 is very tricky and

requires the help of another

pilot giving radio instruction

from a safety car.

Altitude climb

The U-2 is able to

climb to 15,240m in

about 20 minutes, and

19,812m within an

hour of take-off.

Sensors and display

Electro-optical/infrared sensors feed

data into the cockpit, presenting

information clearly to the pilot.

© WIKI; A lamy / Illustration by A lex Pang

“The next-gen

U-2 family, the

U-2S, was built

in the 1980s and

is expected to

be operational

beyond 2050”