The world's most advanced surveillance platform took to the skies for the first time in August 1955 when the U-2 made its maiden flight. Fifty years later, the U-2 continues to provide unmatched capabilities as the backbone of airborne intelligence collection for the United States.
The origins of the U-2 can be found at the start of the Cold War when the Soviet Union drew the Iron Curtain between it and its satellite states and the free world. After the Soviet Union blocked all foreign supplies from entering democratic West Berlin in 1948 in an attempt to place all of Berlin under Soviet control, the United States recognized the need to keep anonymous tabs on what was rapidly becoming a Soviet threat. The problem was the spy planes in the US Air Force inventory at the time were not capable of penetrating Russian airspace with impunity. The solution was to create new intelligence-gathering platforms.
Wright Air Development Center, the Air Force research center that explored flight in the 1950s and '60s, prepared specifications for an aerial reconnaissance plane and asked three potential design contractors to bid on the spy plane—Bell, Fairchild, and Martin. Although Lockheed was not in the initial group, the oversight did not deter Lockheed's famed designer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson from submitting an unsolicited proposal. Johnson's design consisted of a fuselage borrowed from the Lockheed XF-104 with seventy-foot wings attached to it. The Air Force rejected the Lockheed design, designated the CL-282, in favor of Martin's design, the RB-57D, which was a highly modified B-57 Canberra medium bomber.
After the RB-57D was selected, the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower realized that gathering intelligence on the Soviets could be achieved effectively only by reconnaissance overflights at altitudes near 70,000 feet to avoid surface-to-air missiles. Such altitude was unachievable by the RB-57D. To resolve this deficiency, Eisenhower assembled a committee to reexamine all proposals, including the unsolicited Lockheed design. The committee selected the CL-282. It liked the CL-282's performance characteristics and its comprehensive support package. And it particularly liked Lockheed's promise to have four aircraft ready for deployment in only seventeen months.
The CIA received approval from President Eisenhower in late November 1954 to proceed with the development of the U-2. Final design and construction began almost immediately at the Lockheed plant in Burbank, California. The first prototype was flown about eight months later.
After thirteen years of service—and numerous configurations—U-2 production ended in 1968. In the intervening years, the original design had evolved into the U-2R with an airframe approximately forty percent larger than the original aircraft, which by this time had picked up the nickname Dragon Lady.
The production line reopened in 1980 to accommodate an Air Force requirement for additional U-2Rs (redesignated TR-1s) and a NASA requirement for two ER-2s, an Earth Resources version of the aircraft. The first ER-2 was delivered to the NASA Ames Research Center near Sunnyvale, California, in June 1981. It joined two U-2s already performing NASA missions, such as water resource evaluation, land use development, disaster assessment, and stratospheric sampling.
New deliveries to the Air Force began in September 1981 and concluded in October 1989. Initially introduced as TR-1s, all of the aircraft in this production run were later officially redesignated U-2Rs.
The Air Force fleet of U-2R aircraft was retrofitted with General Electric F118-GE-101 turbofan engines in the late 1990s to increase the aircraft's range, altitude, and payload. The new engine also alleviated rising costs associated with maintaining and operating a 1950s-era engine design. Other upgrades included an emergency start system, electrical generator systems, and digital autopilot to give the aircraft an increased service life expected to extend to the year 2020 or beyond. The upgraded aircraft was designated U-2S.
The U-2S and the ER-2 were recognized with the 1998 Collier Trophy, which is given annually to the most outstanding achievement in American aviation the previous calendar year. It is considered the most prestigious aviation award in the United States.
The U-2S and the ER-2 variant established several world records in 1998. Two records were set by pilots flying both a U-2S and an ER-2 when they each flew a payload of 3,300 pounds to an altitude of 49,000 feet. The third record was set by an ER-2 when it attained 68,700 feet to surpass its previous record of 62,500 feet. This new record broke an absolute altitude record for its weight class.
The U-2S Reconnaissance Avionics Maintainability Program, or RAMP, accounts for the latest upgrade to the U-2S fleet. The program calls for refurbishing the 1960s-vintage cockpit with new equipment to include three multifunction displays, an up-front control and display unit, and an independent secondary flight display system.
The first upgraded U-2S reconnaissance aircraft, equipped with state-of-the-art cockpit displays and controls, was delivered to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, California, in April 2002. The aircraft have since seen operational service over Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as over other locations. As a result of continuous airframe upgrades, engine improvements, and sensor modifications, the U-2S is capable of providing leading-edge intelligence collection capabilities well into the twenty-first century.
Ellen Bendell is a communications representative with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Palmdale, California.
