Review: New book on the U2 super motorglider

Hi Gang
Occasionally one finds a good read on a subject that many of us are
interested in, namely soaring. Well the Government funded in the 50s
the development of a new spy plane - a motorglider - named the U2. The
specifications of this machine included operation up to 80,000 feet at
80% the speed of sound so that no fighter could approach it and shoot
it down and no fighter has ever shot one done. The U2 was probably
the best spy plane ever until shot down by a SAM. On that day the
Russians not only shot down Gary Powers in a U2 but also one of their
own MIG19s tailing Powers 25,0000 feet below with a barrage of SAMs.
The flying characteristics of the U2 were unlike anything the
Military had been experienced to. To achieve the low weight to get
high it was built much less strongly than any other military aircraft
and was (and is) super fragile. At altitude it has a 5 knot window of
operation. Too fast it would flutter and break up and too slow it
would stall and if not corrected immediately would go into an
unrecoverable flat spin. So only the top fighter pilots were assigned
to U2s. Think about this you pilots! To fly a U2 for several hours at
65,000 feet initially and then as the fuel burned off 80,000 feet in
an uncomfortable space suit the pilot would have to maintain a speed
plus or minus 2.5 knots IAS. Obviously the mortality rate for U2
pilots was high. The plane had initially all kinds of engine problems
with flameout at altitude. The pilot then had to push the nose down
and go to a lower altitude without going outside the 5 knot window of
operation and attempt an engine restart that sometimes was possible
and at other times not. On one flight the U2 glided over 300 nautical
miles after engine failure from altitude and landed safely. And, by
the way, this was at speeds of up to 400 knot per hour. So that would
suggest an average L/D of about 25 from an altitude of 60,000 feet.
Not bad!
OK no more juicy bits of info from the book. The book is written well
and includes almost everything about the U2 since all information on
U2 is now declassified. I found the book to be a super read and an
easy read. Just order yourselves a copy for that long cold miserable
winter's day when you have nothing else to do. You won't be
disappointed.
Dave

"Spyplane the U2 History Declassified"
by Norman Polmar
Publisher: MBI Publishing Co
729 Prospect Avenue
PO Box 1, Osceola, WI 54020
www.motorbooks.com
1-800-826-6600
(Price I paid $21.95)