Early U2 program photos

I see that FEMA did the housing (slides 5 & 6).
 
Groom Lake, no doubt.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread59198/pg1

In 1951 Allen Dulles was made Deputy Director of the CIA, he was born in Watertown, NY in 1893, and thus the facility at Groom Lake, erected in 1955, was given that name in honor of his hometown.

The CIA operated U2s early on, including demonstrating the feasibility of carrier ops.

http://www.creativefission.com/Frame_MOV_Carrier320x240.html




BillTIZ said:
Most excellent... I wonder where that lake bed was?
Click to expand...
 
Cool pics! The color ones are really jarring though....it makes one remember that the world was not shades of gray back then!
 
Steve said:
Groom Lake, no doubt.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread59198/pg1

In 1951 Allen Dulles was made Deputy Director of the CIA, he was born in Watertown, NY in 1893, and thus the facility at Groom Lake, erected in 1955, was given that name in honor of his hometown.

The CIA operated U2s early on, including demonstrating the feasibility of carrier ops.

http://www.creativefission.com/Frame_MOV_Carrier320x240.html
Click to expand...

See image description for slide 65.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
One more early U2 photo found via Google...
 

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Steve said:
Groom Lake, no doubt.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread59198/pg1

In 1951 Allen Dulles was made Deputy Director of the CIA, he was born in Watertown, NY in 1893, and thus the facility at Groom Lake, erected in 1955, was given that name in honor of his hometown.

The CIA operated U2s early on, including demonstrating the feasibility of carrier ops.

http://www.creativefission.com/Frame_MOV_Carrier320x240.html
Click to expand...


Right you are... but not many people would recognize the lake.
 
twdeckard said:
The sound track is NSFW

I am sure this has been posted before but I got a kick out of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eamnTyfkUBY
Click to expand...

That was a great video -- never saw it before. The sound track is quite appropriate. Watching the first "successful" landing, and the control movements... wow. Looks like me learning to land in a crosswind.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
Wow, that video was... sobering. Talk about pucker factor. I wonder how many U2's we've lost to landing practice accidents?
 
I got a copy of "The Inquisitive Angel" DVD for Xmas and some of the images in the link of provided by the OP appear in this movie declassfied in 2006.

Some comments from the DVD:

The plane was designed and built in 8 months.

Tony Levier made the first test hop, August 2, 1955, inadvertantly during a taxi test, reaching 36', landing so hard both tires blew out and the brakes caught fire during rollout.

During the second flight it took 5 attempts to land because it would fly on idle engine thrust.

Watertown was built in 90 days.

The plane can fly 300 miles w/o engine power from altitude. L/D 25.6:1

The original engine would flameout at 74,000' due to oxygen starvation.

Lockheed's company DC-3 made almost daily trips to the test facilty.

Eastman Kodak developed a new film specifically for the U2 that was less than half the thickness of standard film.

One of the cameras used held 2 miles of film in two spools.

The best way to land the plane is in a full stall at 72 kts.

http://creativefission.com/Frame_Film_DVD_U2.html
 
Yeah, but here's a new one (to me). Did you know that in the 1950's, we were training Chinese military pilots to fly the U2, out of Del Rio, Texas?

One of them had an engine failure and had to make an emergency NIGHT deadstick landing in Cortez, Colorado. Here's a video presentation (starts out as holiday greetings) retelling the event, by the pilot involved:

http://www.hmhfp.info/SG_09E.html
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
That birdy needs a Bellanca Viking rudder!
Cool story bout the Chinaman pilot Troy - I sent it onto a few friends.
Click to expand...

Do you think old Guiseppe had a bad experience in an under-ruddered airplane?

Seems that most Bellancas have a healthy amount of rudder.
 
Here, is apparently how that came to be, Pete

"Incidentally, if you have ever wondered why your "Viking" has such a large vertical tail, the story I was told by the company employees was that Jay wanted the triple tail Downer "Model 260" designed with a single fin. He gave the job to an Engineering Consulting firm in Minneapolis. They obviously didn't know about aircraft tail volume coefficients, so they just added the areas of all three fins together for the total area used on the "Model 260" and now the "Viking"."
 
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