combat aircraft

on the runway. I came away with a new

respect for what lay ahead.

At the squadron once more, ‘PF’ gave

me my ‘brie ng’ on what to expect the

next day, which consisted of a two-

page handout showing tra c pattern

altitudes and air speeds. That was it! He

told me to memorize the numbers and

left the room. Glancing at the handout,

the  rst thing that struck me was that

the airspeeds were predicated on the

fuel remaining in gallons. I had been

 ying jets for years and never heard of

fuel being measured in gallons instead

of pounds. Fuel in this instance was

JPTS (Jet Propellant Thermally Stable),

better known in the 1950s and ‘60s as

Zippo lighter  uid and  ve times more

expensive than JP-4. However, it didn’t

turn to Jell-O at the extremely low

temperatures encountered at operational

U-2 altitudes.

Unlike most jets that  ew a reference

speed all the way down  nal approach,

‘the Goat’ required ever-decreasing

speeds and altitudes throughout the

overhead pattern in order to arrive at

precisely 10ft at the runway threshold

(the T) measured from the bottom of the

main tires to the runway at computed

T-speed — 5kt above the stall. The trick

was to then  are while holding the

aircraft at 2ft until it stalled. Failing to

obtain a full stall resulted in a ‘skip’ (3ft

or less), requiring the pilot to maintain

back pressure on the elevator awaiting

the stall or a ‘bounce’, requiring an

He fi rewalled

the throttle

as I was slammed

back in the seat, and

after a take-off roll of

about 250ft the U-2

leapt into the air as

he rotated the nose

past 60°

immediate forward thrust of the yoke

to negate the stall, followed by full back

pressure and a prayer that a stall would

occur. Stalling above 4ft would guarantee

structural damage.

First flight humiliation

The next morning, after being strapped

in, I placed my cheat sheet where I could

glance at the altitudes and air speeds,

although I had memorized them the night

before. As this was a low training  ight we

wore standard  ight gear with helmets

and oxygen masks. After mobile gave us a

last-chance inspection of our life support

connections and closed our canopies, ‘PF’

cranked the engine and we started our

taxi following a smart salute from the crew

Above: One of two

U-2CTs built from

crashed U-2Cs

to incorporate a

rear cockpit. The

‘Two-Headed

Goat’, more

diffi cult to fl y than

the U-2R, was

used for interview

acceptance

fl ights before

replacement by

purpose-built

TR-1Bs. USAF via

author

Below: A two-seat

U-2RT comes over

the threshold — a

crucial phase of

fl ight. Ted Carlson/

Fotodynamics

http://www.combataircraft.net // July 2018 87

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