I thought they left these methods back in the days before the Wrights. Wow.

The U-2 is not a bomber and carries no weapons. It is used as a recon aircraft. The payload bay is filled with cameras that cost more than the entire aircraft.

The U-2 was designed in the 50's to fly higher than the theoretical engagement envelope of Soviet Surface to Air missiles (SAM) and aircraft. In 1960 Air Force pilot Capt Gary Powers was shot down by a SAM site while flying a recon flight. This sparked an international incident during the heightened tensions of the Cold War.

What I find most amazing is that they were able to win 22 Grammys by this method...

Tags for this video have been changed from 'military' to 'military, U2, spy, plane, air force, reconnaissance' - edited by MarineGunrock

*Nochannel *military *spacy *comedy for the guys running with a plane and *wtf because I've never seen someone help a plane take off

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Ok I get it. I'm an idiot. Evidently not as big as the guy who thought it would be a good idea to land this thing on 2 wheels though.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'military' to 'military, U2, spy, plane, air force, reconnaissance' - edited by MarineGunrock

How about you stop jacking-on to Popular Mechanics and listen the first time, Sifty!

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

very interesting!

*requeue

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I swear I'm watching a video from the Onion.

The method seems reasonable - why spend billions on trying to invent something to save the work of a Camry and a couple of grants?
But definitely upvote for the title...

that was cool, could watch hours of this stuff

Man that is not an efficent air craft at all!

What a silly plane. Works damn well, though; I love the elegant simplicity of just building a ridiculously large glider.

I did (local) government work for 4 years and I have to say this sounds so much like government spending...

Smith: We've got extra staff at our airstrips with nothing to do. How can we resolve this situation?

Johnson: Let's design an aircraft that needs to be carried down the runway on the backs of soldiers.

Smith: I like the way you think, Johnson, but we need to keep the tire-inflaters busy too. How about we just put 2 wheels on it and have soldiers run alongside it to keep the wings off the ground?

Johnson: Excellent idea, sir. I'll get started on some concept sketches.

I'm betting the glider wings couldn't handle the extra weight of carrying wheels with it and still attain recon altitude. The guys running alongside was part of the design, and since it's a military plane, you can always count on having some grunts around ready to do things that seem stupid.

I wonder what kind of car they used in the '50s.

without the hyphen between "Ghetto" and "launching", I was expecting a far different video. lol.

*wings

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