This Date in Aviation History: August 1 - August 3

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 08/03/2018 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik, TDIAH

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Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting of you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from August 1 through August 3.

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(US Air Force)

August 1, 1955 – The first flight of the Lockheed U-2. At the close of World War II, the Communist Soviet Union was firmly in control of much of Eastern Europe, while the Democratic western allies held Western Europe. It was the beginning of an ideological struggle between East and West known as the Cold War, and while it never broke out into WWIII, the struggle brought about an arms race, space race, and numerous proxy wars as the two sides strived to become the dominant influence in the world. In the early states of the Cold War, the United States was desperate for accurate and timely intelligence on Russian military activities. While that sort of information is gained by powerful satellites today, it wasn’t until the 1960s that satellites began providing pictures from the safety of space, and even then, it was unreliable. Long ranging reconnaissance planes like the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a variant of the WWII-era !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the jet-powered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , probed the edges of the Soviet Union, but it was hazardous duty and many planes and pilots !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to Russian fighters and antiaircraft fire. What the US desperately needed was an aircraft that could fly high enough to be out of range of Soviet fighters, and perhaps even out of the range of Russian radars.

The US already had in their arsenal the Martin B-57 Canberra, the American-built version of the remarkable English Electric Canberra. The B-57 already had a ceiling of 48,000 feet, just out of the reach of Russian MiG-15 fighters. With a goal of 70,000 feet, Martin lengthened the wings of the B-57 in the hopes of gaining more altitude, but it came up 2,000 feet short. So the Air Force sent out requests to smaller aircraft manufacturers who might be able to devote all of their attention to this important project. Lockheed was not one of them. Nevertheless, the company heard of the project and submitted their own proposal, designed by the brilliant Kelly Johnson. Initially based on Lockheed’s XF-104, the single engine CL-282 had long, slender wings and was powered by a single General Electric J73 engine in a short fuselage. To save weight, the CL-282 had no landing gear, and would take off from a rolling cart and land on its belly. Even though the CL-282 promised the performance the Air Force requested, and perhaps even more, they passed on the Lockheed design in favor of a Bell aircraft that never actually flew. The CL-282 passed to the Central Intelligence Agency, who would adopt and fly what would eventually become the U-2.

The first Lockheed U-2, known as Article 001 to mask its true mission. (US Air Force)

The CIA’s codename for the project was Dragon Lady, and that gave the U-2 its unofficial nickname. But the CL-282 needed some improvements to make it operational. Lockheed added landing gear in the form of two wheels directly behind the cockpit and another set of two wheels behind the engine. The rear wheels are coupled to the rudder and provide steering on the ground. Outrigger wheels on the wingtips, called pogos, keep the wingtips off the ground during taxi and takeoff. The pogos fall out on takeoff, and are replaced after landing, with the wingtips protected by titanium skid plates. The engine was also upgraded more powerful and proven !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojet. The J57 added even more altitude to the U-2, which now had a service ceiling of nearly 75,000 feet, high enough to see the curvature of the Earth. So high, in fact, that pilots breathe 100% oxygen beginning an hour before their mission, and wear space suits in case the cockpit depressurizes at altitude.

Test flights began in 1956, and the Dragon Lady entered service the following year. CIA pilots, all civilians (military pilots were not allowed to make reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union) were called “drivers” rather “pilots.” With its long slender wing and unpowered controls, the U-2 was very difficult to fly at lower altitudes, and required constant attention at high altitude. In 1956, three U-2s crashed with the loss of the pilot. Despite these difficulties, the first U-2s were deployed to Germany in 1956 and began with overflights of East Germany and Poland in June followed by the first overflights of the Soviet Union in July. Though the Dragon Lady could be tracked by Soviet radars, more accurately than the US believed possible, it remained out of reach of the fighters sent up to knock it down. With the threat of nuclear war should the Soviets shoot down a U-2, President Eisenhower was reluctant to continue the flights, and they were canceled numerous times, only to be restarted at a later date, and U-2s made flights over other global hotspots such as the Suez, and later over Cuba and Vietnam. Despite the relative safety of extreme altitude, the Russians did mange to claim one U-2 with CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! by a surface to air missile on May 1, 1960. Another was shot down over Cuba in 1962.

A Lockheed ER-2 operated by NASA for high altitude research. (NASA)

Though very much a product of the Cold War, the U-2 remains in service today, and provided intelligence for conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 60 years after its maiden flight. The airframe has been updated with more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofans and upgraded sensors and cameras. The ability to quickly changes sensors for different mission parameters makes the U-2 a valuable asset to this day. NASA also flies updated ER-2 variants for high altitude research. Capable of providing critical reconnaissance with more flexibility than orbiting satellites, and the judgement of a human pilot, it is likely that the U-2 will continue flying for years to come.

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(Author unknown)

August 1, 1936 – The death of Louis Blériot. The opening of the 20th century was an extremely exciting time in the history of aviation. The Wright Brothers made history in 1903 with their flight at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, and while they are widely recognized as being the first to fly a fully controllable aircraft (some contend that they weren’t really the first), aviation pioneers in Europe were working hard to catch up to them. And . Three years after the Wright Brothers’ historic flight, Brazilian inventor !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , working in France, made a public flight in his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which resembled a giant box kite. In 1907, Frenchman !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! made the first flight of his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Despite the news surrounding the successful flights of the Wright Brothers, many in Europe remained skeptical of their achievements. To prove the doubters wrong, Wilbur Wright traveled to Europe in 1908 and made a series of demonstration flights near Le Mans, demonstrating just how far he and his brother Orville had come with their !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , flying circles and figure-eights that stunned their French audience. One of those in attendance that day was Louis Blériot.

The Blériot V. Though its design appears to resemble a modern aircraft, it is actually a pusher, with wings at the rear and a small canard in the front. (Author unknown)

Though Blériot is best known today for his pioneering work in aviation, he originally made his money as an inventor and engineer. Blériot was born on July 1, 1872 at Cambrai, France and, following his education at the prestigious !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   in Paris and compulsory military service with an artillery regiment, he went to work for an electrical engineering firm where he developed the first practical headlamp for automobiles. The money he earned from this invention would fund his foray into aviation. Blériot began with attempts at building !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but these flapping-wing designs proved unsuccessful for what today seem obvious reasons. In 1905 he met Voisin, and the two agreed to work together. They formed the Ateliers d’ Aviation Edouard Surcouf, Blériot et Voisin , but the partnership was unsuccessful, and Blériot realized that he was still far from his goal. After witnessing a successful flight by Santos-Dumont, Blériot dissolved his partnership with Voisin and struck out on his own. He continued experimenting with different configurations and, at a time when most aircraft pioneers were working with multiple wings, Blériot instead focused on the development of the world’s first powered monoplane, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which took its maiden flight on March 21, 1907. The aircraft only made short flights, and was damaged beyond repair after its third flight, but Blériot was on his way.

Numerous modifications and experiments followed, and his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , with a large forward wing and smaller tail wing, established the fundamental layout of almost all aircraft to follow. The controls of the Blériot VII featured tail surfaces that could be moved together or separately and formed the predecessor to the elevators, ailerons and elevons used in modern aviation. Though the success of the Blériot VII established Blériot as a pioneering innovator, his greatest public notoriety came when he completed the first successful crossing of the English Channel. On July 25, 1909, Blériot took off from Calais at 4:41 am in his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! monoplane which was powered by a 25-horsepower, 3-cylinder !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . After a 36-minute flight, he made a hard landing in Dover and claimed the £1000 prize which was being offered by the British newspaper the Daily Mail . The feat brought him fame and helped the success of his aircraft manufacturing business, and led to 100 orders for his Type XI, and more than 900 orders for aircraft during WWI. Blériot’s continued his manufacturing work after the war, and was present at Le Bourget Airport in 1927 to welcome !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to Paris after his solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Blériot died in 1936 at the age of 64 and, in his honor, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! established the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to recognize !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! set in speed, altitude and distance.

Blériot, standing in the cockpit of his Type XI monoplane, prepares for his cross-channel flight on July 25, 1909. (US Library of Congress)

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August 2, 1966 – The first flight of the Sukhoi Su-17. Before the adoption of the jet engine, almost all aircraft, dating back to the Wright Flyer, were built with straight wings. Generally, straight wings provide good low-speed stability and handling, but the advent of the turbojet engine during WWII led designers to experiment with swept wings that would incur less drag at higher speeds. However, swept wings also had the drawback of requiring higher landing speeds. But what if you could design an airplane that could benefit from both straight and swept wings? As early as 1944, the idea of having an airplane with a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (also called variable-geometry) was being investigated in Germany with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But this aircraft, which never entered production, could only vary the sweep of the wings to a fixed position before takeoff. In England, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! began working on a swing-wing concept in 1949, but it wasn’t until the experimental !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which first flew in 1951 and had three different wing positions, that an aircraft could change its wing sweep in flight.

However, one of the problems faced by variable geometry aircraft is an unfavorable shift in the airplane’s center of gravity when moving between the straight and swept positions. To counter this problem, Russian designers at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (TsAGI) modified an existing !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to use a fixed central wing with a variable outer wing in the hopes of improving the Su-7's low-speed flight characteristics and lowering its landing speed. This new aircraft, dubbed the Su-7IG, was further developed into the Su-17 to become Russia’s first variable geometry aircraft. Along with the modified wing, Sukhoi gave the Su-17 a new canopy, and a dorsal spine for additional fuel and avionics. The new variable sweep fighter was the first in a series that also included the Su-20 and the Su-22 and, despite the different Sukhoi classifications, all of these variants received the NATO reporting name Fitter .

The Fitter was powered by a single !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! afterburning axial flow turbojet that gave it a top speed of 870 mph, and the Fitter was armed with two 30mm cannons and could carry up to 8,800 pounds of external stores under the fixed wing section or on the fuselage. It entered service with the Soviet Air Force in 1970, where it served during the Soviet !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from 1979-1989. While high elevation and high temperature operations proved challenging for the Su-17, the ruggedly constructed engine was tolerant to sand ingestion and the Fitter maintained a high level of readiness, though it proved susceptible to anti-aircraft fire and shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles. The Fitter was widely exported to Soviet allies, and eventually served for over 20 years with the Soviet Air Force and 15 export countries, including Libya, where two Su-17s were !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! by US Navy !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters over the Gulf of Sidra in 1981. Despite advances in Soviet fighter design, the Su-17 and its derivatives remained in service with Russia until 1998, and more than 500 of the 2,867 aircraft produced remain in service today.

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Short Takeoff

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August 1, 2002 – The first flight of the Scaled Composites White Knight, an aircraft designed to launch the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! experimental spacecraft in the first part of a program to take paying passengers into space. Designed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , White Knight is powered by two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojet engines and carried the SpaceShipOne to an altitude of 45,000 feet before releasing the spacecraft to fly on its rocket motor. A total of 17 flights were made with SpaceShipOne before it was replaced by the larger and more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Following the completion of the SpaceShipOne program, White Knight carried out drop tests of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Orbital Test Vehicle. In July 2014, White Knight was retired to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Everett, Washington.

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(NASA)

August 1, 1973 – The first flight of the Martin Marietta X-24B, an experimental wingless aircraft developed jointly between the US Air Force and NASA to explore the design of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! aircraft. The X-24 was dropped from a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , then powered by a rocket engine in flight before gliding to a landing. The lifting body research was carried out from 1963 to 1975 to investigate wingless vehicles that could land on Earth after flying in space, and data gained during these experiments was put to use in the design of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The X-24B made a total of 36 test flights before it was retired to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

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(Tim Shaffer)

August 1, 1949 – The first flight of the Northrop C-125 Raider. Following WWII, Northrop’s first offering for a civilian airliner was the three-engine N-23 Pioneer. However, with so many surplus aircraft available, airlines showed little interest. So Northrop instead pitched it to the US Air Force as the C-125 Raider to fulfill the roll of a short takeoff and landing (STOL) cargo carrier. The Air Force placed an order for 23 aircraft, and Raiders began to enter service in 1950. However, the Raider proved to be underpowered, and they were quickly relegated to ground training duty and declared surplus in 1955. Most of the remaining aircraft ended up flying cargo in South and Central America. Two non-airworthy Raiders remain, one on display at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Arizona and the other at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Ohio.

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Orville Wright (seated right) trains 1st Lt. Frank Lahm in the US Army’s first aircraft in 1909 (US Air Force)

August 1, 1907 – The Aeronautical Division of the United States Army Signal Corps is created “to study the flying machine and the possibility of adapting it to military purposes.” Just four years after the Wright Brothers made their first flight, the US Army already showed interest in the possible military applications of the airplane. The Aeronautical Division was the world’s first heavier-than-air military aviation organization, and the Army purchased their first aircraft, a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , also known as the Military Flyer, on August 2, 1909. The Aeronautical Division saw its first action in 1913 when the 1st Aero Squadron was sent into Mexico to take part in the hunt for Pancho Villa. The Aeronautical Division eventually gave way to the US Army Air Corps and US Army Air Forces in WWII, and then became its own equal branch of the military with the creation of the US Air Force in 1947.

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(UK Government)

August 2, 1917 – Royal Naval Air Service pilot Edwin Harris Dunning becomes the first person to land on a moving ship. American !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! had made the first landing on a ship in 1910 on a ship moored in Hampton Roads, but to make carrier operations useful an aircraft would have to land while a ship was underway. In the era before arresting wires and tail hooks, Dunning had to rely on crew members assembled on deck to grab his Sopwith Pup and bring it to a halt. He made two successful landings on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as it steamed in Scapa Flow in northern Scotland, but on his third attempt a gust of wind caused his aircraft to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and into the water. Dunning was rendered unconscious and drowned. He was just 25 years old.

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(Author unknown)

August 2, 1985 – The crash of Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a regularly scheduled flight of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (N726DA) from Fort Lauderdale to Dallas-Fort Worth that crashed while trying to land during a thunderstorm. Lacking the sophisticated !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! found on today’s airliners that could warn the pilots of wind speeds in a storm, the airliner was struck by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! -induced !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! at low altitude that caused the L-1011 to crash a mile short of the runway, killing 136 passengers and crew, plus 1 person on the ground. The National Transportation Board !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! faulted the pilots for choosing to land through the storm, as well as a lack of training for dealing with wind shear. As a result of this crash, the Federal Aviation Administration now mandates wind shear detection systems on all commercial aircraft. A !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! placed at Founder’s Plaza next to the airport commemorates the tragedy.

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(Flyernzl)

August 2, 1960 – The first flight of the Bennett Airtruck, an agricultural aircraft constructed from surplus Royal New Zealand Air Force !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (T-6 Texan) training aircraft. The Airtruck is essentially an agricultural chemical hopper with wings, engine and twin-boom tail, with the cockpit placed directly over the engine. As many as five passengers could also be carried instead of chemicals. Two were built, though the first crashed in 1963, and the second crashed two years later. Despite the loss of the prototypes, the Airtruck proved to be a very efficient agricultural !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The design was transferred to the Transavia Corporation which produced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a similar aircraft that was manufactured from scratch and did not use scavenged Harvard parts.

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(US Library of Congress)

August 2, 1911 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first American woman to be certified as a pilot. At a time when flying was dominated by male pilots, Quimby, a Hollywood screenwriter, became the first woman to earn a pilot’s license in the United States, and her piloting exploits served as an inspiration to many women of her day. Quimby was hired as a spokesperson by the Vin Fiz Company and became the first woman to fly across the English Channel in 1912, a feat that was unfortunately overshadowed by news of the sinking of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! just one day later. Quimby was killed on July 1, 1912 when her !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! monoplane was struck by a gust of wind and suddenly pitched forward, ejecting both her and her passenger at an altitude of 1,500 feet over Dorchester Bay. The plane came down relatively intact.

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August 3, 1981 – The Professional Air Traffic Controllers go on strike. Air traffic controllers in the US had been unionized since 1970, and had a history of poor relations with the Federal Aviation Administration. Demanding better pay, better working conditions, and a 32-hour work week, controllers went on strike in 1981 in contravention of established US laws prohibiting strikes by government employees. When the strikers refused to return to work after being ordered to do so by President Ronald Reagan, 11,345 controllers were fired and banned for life from federal service. In 1993, President Bill Clinton reversed the ban, but only 800 controllers regained their jobs, and it took 10 years to fully staff the nation’s air traffic system.

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(Japanese government)

August 3, 1945 – The first flight of the Kyushu J7W Shinden,   an interceptor developed for the Japanese Navy and notable for its use of a pusher propellor and forward !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Similar in layout to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Shinden ( Magnificent Lightning ) was developed to provide defense against !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! raids on the Japanese homeland, and designers planned that the propeller engine could be supplanted by a jet engine in the future. The navy ordered the Shinden into production off the drawing board, but the war ended before development progressed beyond the construction of two prototypes.

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(Author unknown)

August 3, 1921 – The first use of an aircraft to apply pesticides to crops. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , popularly known as crop dusting, was first done from the air in 1906 in New Zealand when seeds were spread from a balloon. But the modern method of using airplanes began in 1921, when US Army pilot Lt. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flew his modified !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! “Jenny” over a field in Ohio, spreading a load of lead arsenate to kill catalpa sphinx caterpillars as part of a joint operation between the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Today, crop dusting is performed the world over by both converted and purpose-built airplanes, helicopters, and even unmanned aerial vehicles.

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Connecting Flights

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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. And if you missed any of the past articles, you can find them all at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . You can also find more stories about aviation, aviators and airplane oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > ttyymmnn 08/03/2018 at 12:47

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Since we can't star posts anymore, consider this comment to represent my enthusiastic approval of this post in particular, but also of your ongoing series.

ttyymmnn > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 08/03/2018 at 12:49

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Thank you. It’s kind of a drag to put all the work into something and not hear that people like it, even if they don’t leave a comment. I can only look at the number of hits. But so it goes.

Thanks again.

Svend > ttyymmnn 08/03/2018 at 13:04

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I love stuff like this. Thanks for posting.

I’ve probably said a few times about the R.A.F involvement with the U-2 overflights.

It’s an interesting part of history that allowed for America to keep it’s word to the U.N., NATO and Russia that America won’t over fly Russia, by getting R.A.F. airmen (paid for by the CIA via MI6 ), each flight approved by the then Prime Minister Macmillan.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2396001/The-RAFs-secret-spies-Declassified-CIA-documents-reveal-British-pilots-flew-U2-missions-Soviet-Union-Cold-War.html

After decades of secrecy, the CIA declassified documents that show British pilots were involved in the U-2 flights in 1959 and 1960.

They gathered vital intelligence which the head of the American agency said he regarded as worth ‘a million dollars’.

Until now the Ministry of Defence has neither confirmed nor denied the participation of the RAF in the controversial missions, a position it will no longer be able to maintain.

The first U-2 flights over the Soviet Union started in July 1956, but despite the valuable information gathered, President Dwight Eisenhower was concerned about the ramifications of such a flagrant breach of Russian air space if they were discovered.

Unfortunately for the Americans, even though the hi-tech U-2s flew at more than 70,000ft, the Russians were able to track the planes.

The Soviets sent a strongly-worded protest to Eisenhower, who developed cold feet about the missions and suspended such flights in December 1956.

However, the CIA was very keen for the spying missions to continue and looked for ways, in the words of the newly released document, ‘to increase the possibility of plausible denial’.

The solution was to use British pilots for the sensitive missions. During the spring of 1957, negotiations took place between the CIA and the chief of MI6, Sir Dick White, who saw the obvious intelligence benefits for Britain.

By the summer of 1958, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had given his authorisation, and four RAF officers, Squadron Leader Christopher Walker and Flight Lieutenants Michael Bradley, John MacArthur and David Dowling – all of whom were in their twenties and single – were sent to train in Texas.

But flying the U-2s was not without risk, and on July 8, 1958, Walker was killed when his plane crashed. The cause was never definitively established, but it is thought the aircraft disintegrated at high altitude.

He was immediately replaced by Wing Commander Robert ‘Robbie’ Robinson. By January 1959 all four men had finished their training and were sent to a secret air base in Turkey, from where they would launch their flights over the Soviet Union and the Middle East.

In order to emphasise American denials of the operation, the U-2 planes were formally transferred on paper to the British government. Eisenhower wrote a top-secret letter to Macmillan stating: ‘British missions are carried out on your authority and are your responsibility.’

And the flights remained a secret in Britain, too.

The pilots were no longer paid by the RAF, but by MI6, and the public was told the men were engaging in ‘high-altitude weather-sampling missions’.

The first mission was flown by Robbie Robinson on December 6, 1959, over the Kapustin Yar missile test range and a squadron of long-range bombers in the Ukraine.

It was a huge success and proved the Soviets did not have as many bombers as they claimed – a vital piece of intelligence at the height of the Cold War.

The head of the CIA called Robinson’s bomber picture ‘a million-dollar photo’.

The second British U-2 mission over the Soviet Union was flown by John MacArthur the following month. Although his brief was to look for missile sites around the Aral Sea, he ended up uncovering a new type of Soviet bomber called the Tupolev Tu-22 at Kazan.

The Americans later resumed their involvement in the U-2 missions, but this came to an abrupt end in the wake of the Soviets shooting down and imprisoning US pilot Gary Powers in May 1960. The British ordered the RAF officers to leave Turkey immediately.

The following year, all four British pilots received the Air Force Cross, although their citations in the London Gazette did not mention exactly why. Only now, after more than 50 years, has the truth been revealed.

Emphasis mine.

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn 08/03/2018 at 13:09

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Well rest assured I read every single one, though it sometimes takes me a while. 

DucST3-Red-1Liter-Standing-By > ttyymmnn 08/03/2018 at 13:14

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I share the same sentiment ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)

ttyymmnn > Svend 08/03/2018 at 13:16

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Thank you, and thanks for posting this. It’s always a challenge to keep these posts to a readable length, and I always appreciate it when readers chime in with extra information.

Cheers!

ttyymmnn > Chariotoflove 08/03/2018 at 13:16

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Thanks! I appreciate that.

ttyymmnn > DucST3-Red-1Liter-Standing-By 08/03/2018 at 13:17

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Thank you.

Svend > ttyymmnn 08/03/2018 at 13:32

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When it comes to the Cold War, there is so much more information coming to light.

I especially like the Berlin spy tunnel. The Americans wanted to spy on the East Germans, knew the British were experts at tunnels so teamed up with the British to make them.

Only afterwards did it come about that the Russians and East Germans knew about it, but had to keep up the ruse they had to feed some genuine information so as not to let the British and Americans know they knew of the tunnels, The British and Americans made use of the information.

The Russians and East Germans couldn’t let on they knew because then it’d let the British and Americans know how they knew which would jeopardise their spying.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4137980/How-CIA-MI6-built-1476ft-spy-tunnel-BERLIN.html

It was one of the most audacious projects attempted by the West during the Cold War: a vast underground tunnel beneath the divided German city of Berlin that could be used to spy on the occupying Soviets.

The 1950s project might had seemed absurd, but for the US and Britain it was essential - the Soviets had switched from radio broadcasts to telephone calls, which required a physical connection to overhear.

So began an immense two-year project between the CIA and Britain’s MI6 that saw agents literally being sent underground - and was foiled by a dastardly double-agent, according to a CIA report .

Going underground: This is one tiny section of the near-1,476-foot-long tunnel built by US and UK agents into Soviet-controlled Berlin during the Cold War. The tunnel took from 1951-1954 to plan, and a further two years to actually dig

Tapped in: This end of the tunnel held the amplifiers and other equipment needed to tap into the Soviets’ lines, as they had stopped using radios years before. The steel-walled tunnel could withstand a 60-ton tank driving overhear

Codenamed Operation Gold by the CIA and Operation Stopwatch by the British, the joint mission spun out of Britain’s Operation Silver, which had seen MI6 tapping Soviet lines in Vienna.But the Berlin job required some serious planning to pull off - and some serious hardware too.In 1951 a CIA engineer, code-named ‘G’, was contacted by top CIA brass about a possible new project.‘The only question they asked was whether a tunnel could be dug in secret,’ G later wrote in a now-declassified document was consulted on the tunnel in 1951. ‘My reply was that one could dig a tunnel anywhere, but to build one in secret would depend on its size, take more time, and cost more money.’

Can we dig it? The tunnel began in a fake warehouse in Altglienicke, a US-controlled but sparsely populated area of Berlin. The equipment was rubber-coated to avoid being heard by the people above

G’s previous experience was limited to just ‘several’ visits to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel that was constructed under New York’s Upper Bay in 1948.

Nevertheless, G was put on the job, and was immediately posed with a near-impossible question: how to remove 3,100 tons of soil - enough to fill 20 American living rooms - from beneath Berlin without anyone noticing.

Worse, the soil could not be moved from the dig site, for fear of altering authorities.

The solution, G realized, was to move the soil to a nearby building - ideally a warehouse - with a basement that could be slowly filled with dirt.

There were other things to consider, too, like lining the tunnel with steel so it could bear the weight of the 60-ton Soviet tanks rumbling through the streets above.

Secret flights over the territory provided the architects with an idea of where to dig and specialist machinery, including conveyor belts, was created and coated with rubber to minimize clanking and other noise.

It was shipped in using unguarded passenger trains, so as not to attract attention.

The team built a ‘warehouse’ on the American Sector southwest of Berlin, known as Altglienecke. A tunnel would then be dug from the foundations through to the Soviet-occupied area, where three telecoms lines would be tapped.

Finally, after three years of preparation, the team were ready. It was a perfect plan, provided the Soviets didn’t find out.

But unbeknownst to MI6 and the CIA, they already had.

Plus so much more. 

user314 > ttyymmnn 08/03/2018 at 13:51

1

Compare the clean U-2 above to the absolutely insane options for the U-2R:

Also, the U-2G, specially fitted for carrier service:

ttyymmnn > Svend 08/03/2018 at 13:54

1

I miss the Cold War. We knew who our enemies were, there were rules, and there was honor among thieves. 

RacinBob > ttyymmnn 08/03/2018 at 13:58

1

The thing about the U2 that caught my attention was it was one of the first to apply as far as I know the term Coffin Corner. At speed and altitude the difference be tween stall and supersonic was as little as 5 knots . In and example, it was possible to initiate a turn where the inner wing would stall and the outer go supersonic at the same time.

If you are in the coffin corner, you can’t speed up without crashing and you cannot slow down without crashing. So all you can do is attempt to get to lower denser air all while making sure to not speed up or slow down. Screw that up and the CIA gives you a star....... Bummer.

Per Wiki

Some aircraft, such as the Lockheed U-2 , routinely operate in the “coffin corner”. In the case of the U-2, the aircraft was equipped with an autopilot, though it was unreliable. [4] The U-2's speed margin, at high altitude, between 1-G stall and Mach buffet can be as small as 5 knots. [5]

ttyymmnn > RacinBob 08/03/2018 at 14:50

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It certainly isn’t a situation unique to the U-2, but it was certainly more pronounced in the U-2. Which is why it was such a handful to fly, and required constant attention.

Thanks for the extra information!

RacinBob > ttyymmnn 08/04/2018 at 10:53

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Hmmm Tymmmmn . I would think the U2 problem of being in stall and supersonic at the same time would be limited to subsonic aircraft at very high atmosphere . I can’t think of any other planes who are approaching Mach yet are on the edge of stalling. What other air craft are you thinking of that would have the U2 coffin corner issue?