WEBVTT - TechStuff Spies on the U-2 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.880 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:17.720 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.040 Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:22.760 I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:26.320 Sitting across from me, as always his senior writer Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:31.280 it was like, so, but wasn't. This is the second 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.440 podcast we've recorded today, and the second really short quote. 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:36.320 This is what happens when I run out of time 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:38.320 and I need to find a quote very quickly. I think, no, 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:40.040 that one's too long. I can't read it to make 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.479 sure there's nothing objectionable in it. All, right, then well, 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:46.760 speaking of objectionable and thinking of things that were like so, 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:51.479 but weren't okay, then we were um We were going 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.880 to talk today about an interesting thing that I saw 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.200 the other day, which is um Well. In a way, 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.160 it's sort of a drug own because it starts with 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:06.959 a the r Q for Global Hawk, a drone aircraft 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.200 that is um Well. It's status is sort of in 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:12.600 question right now, as at the time we're recording this, 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:17.120 there negotiating the budget for UH the United you know, 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.240 the defense budget for the United States of America. UM, 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.320 and UH, that's one of the items that was considered 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.959 to be struck. Now, of course, UM, over the past 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:31.080 few years, unmanned aerial vehicles have been UH coming up 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.039 a lot in the news. They've been instrumental in several 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:40.000 of the military engagements around the world with the United States, 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.560 I mean, US has has employed unman aerial vehicles in 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:47.880 lots of cases. The proposal was that there would be 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:52.600 three d forty two million dollars budgeted UM to UH 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.160 to work on the Global Hawk and UM. As it 0:01:56.200 --> 0:02:00.400 turns out, it's been proposed that they dropped the item 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:05.960 entirely in favor of a much more uh much more 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.680 or less cutting edge technology in a way. And the 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:10.720 reason one of the reasons to talking about cutting this 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:14.440 whole Global Hawk thing is because, uh, it's expensive. Yeah, 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.120 the estimated cost of a single Global Hawk is a 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.799 hundred and seventy six million dollars. That's expensive. So they 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:25.240 had they had enough. They had just they didn't even 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.600 quite have enough money in the budget for two of them. 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.360 So you could get one and seven eighths of a 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.440 Global Hawk for the budget they had proposed, So the 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:40.000 the alternative right now for a and the purpose of 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.400 the Global Hawk, we should say, is it's reconnaissance aircraft. Yes, 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:45.840 it doesn't attack people, it is it is their for 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:50.560 surveillance purposes, specifically spying. Yes. So, you know, there are 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.120 a lot of unmanned aerial vehicles that have been developed 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.160 over the last several years. Many of them are designed 0:02:56.160 --> 0:03:00.760 to get a real time uh feel of what's going 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.880 on in certain environments. And they they're designed to do 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:08.000 things like fly through areas that could be combat zones, 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:13.120 but they're not necessarily designed to spy, to be able 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:17.120 to fly through undetected. It's more about getting as quick 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:21.880 and accurate a picture of the situation as it exists 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.520 right now, rather than let's go find out what those 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:29.600 pesky so and so's over there are doing. So are 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:34.560 pesky so and so technology tends to be much more sneaky, 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.240 and it's designed to be very fast. Usually it's designed 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.760 to fly very very high, so that can try to 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:46.480 avoid things like radar as well as missiles, you know, 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:50.080 attempts to take it down, uh. And it's designed to 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:54.080 try and gather as much information as quickly as possible. Uh. 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:58.960 And since the nineteen fifties, that technology has been one 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.640 particular type of aircraft in the United States. Even though 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.960 we've tried to replace it on multiple occasions, we're still 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.320 using it today and the it's what we will be 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:14.280 using instead of the Global Hawk, the Lockheed U two. Yes, 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:17.799 I believe it or not. Um they're saying that the 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.000 the U two is actually a better piece of technology 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:26.040 and in some ways than the the newer unmanned aerial vehicle. 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:28.440 And like I said, the replacement for the U two 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:34.680 has has was built and was retired already, which was 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.200 the SR seventy one Blackbird that we'll get into that. 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.560 It's a gorgeous design, right. So they have the Blackbird, 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.159 which was designed to be the replacement for the U two. 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.560 It actually lived out its useful life in the U 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:51.600 S Air Force and then was retired because well, it's 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.839 really expensive to maintain as well. In fact, well, and 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:56.960 I'll talk about why it was expensive to maintain, because 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.400 that's kind of an interesting story. But to to understand 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.600 the U two, we have to go back quite a bit. 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:03.320 And we're not going to use the way back machine 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.919 because I found out that stuff. You should know used 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.960 it about a week and a half ago, and apparently 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:13.520 they left it somewhere like they actually hoofed it back 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.320 from seven And I have no idea what they were 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:19.840 doing back then. But yeah, so I have no idea. 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:21.720 We have to track it down, so we're just have 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.480 to talk about today, all right then, But um so, 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.200 then you would probably go back in time if we 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:33.160 were using the machine to uh about Well, August nine 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.000 is the first day it ever flew, Yes, August one, 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.240 nineteen fifty five, it's the first flight of the YouTube. Now, 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.120 the whole purpose for developing the YouTube stems out of 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.320 the Cold War between the United States and the then 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:54.960 ussry Soviet Union. Um So, the whole reason for it 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.160 was that we needed to have we being the United States, 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.800 because from the US the Unit and States needed to 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:03.760 have some sort of vehicle to get an idea of 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:10.039 what was going on in a potential uh UM wartime enemy. 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:12.680 And the Cold War was was called the Cold War 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.440 because it wasn't like there were actual physical outbreaks of 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:19.880 violence between the two countries, but there was a true 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:24.160 rivalry of global proportions going on between the two and 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.680 so we there were needs each each country felt the 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:29.720 need to find out as much about what was going 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.200 on in the other country as possible, and so they 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.400 were developing their own ways of spying on each other. 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.800 Of course, this also figured into the space race. Um. 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.680 We've talked about the thing what beeped Sputnick sput Nick 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:47.400 that they sent up from the Soviet Union. Um shortly 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.040 after that period, but it was around the same time 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.640 they were looking for ways to spy on each other. 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.960 Of course, satellite technology entered into it, but the YouTube 0:06:55.960 --> 0:07:01.160 predates because I mean it was already flying by that point. Yeah. 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.480 So this is during the Eisenhower administration in the United 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:10.480 States history and uh, and so there were several the government, 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.800 the United States government actually invited several different companies to 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:19.920 submit proposals for a spy plane. That's pretty typical, right, 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:24.240 And the company that one out was Lockeed And there 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:28.240 was a fellow by the name of Clarence Kelly Johnson 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.080 who was put in charge of the development of this 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:38.480 spy plane. Johnson also was instrumental in creating the facility 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:42.080 that was the testing grounds for this particular airplane, and 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:47.080 that facility has gone on to gain incredible notoriety. Yes, 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.480 partially because it was very innovative, and partially because it 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:52.840 just has a very cool name, and it was very, 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:56.160 very very secret about everything. And that cool name, at 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.880 least that's the popular name for it, is Area fifty one. 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.840 So if you always wondered what Area fifty one was about, 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:07.120 and you've heard about things like UFOs and aliens, what 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.920 it really was about was a testing ground for secret aircraft, 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.800 and the YouTube was very much a secret aircraft. The 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.160 United States did not really talk about what the You 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.960 two was for until they were forced to, and we'll 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:23.440 get into that story too, because that's pretty dramatic. But 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.320 but before we get into that, let's talk more about 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.760 what the You two actually was and uh oh, and 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.840 in case you're just wondering, Area fifty one, also popularly 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.320 known as Groom Lake because it's a dry lake bed, 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.040 was where it was built up on. And uh I 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.120 think in the future we're going to have to do 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.680 a podcast all about Area fifty one because it was 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.360 such a cool place. It's not really not really a 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:48.360 thing anymore, but it was definitely a neat idea and 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:52.040 some really cool technology was developed there. Anyway, getting back 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.280 to the YouTube, it's got a now and this this 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:59.840 sucker can fly at at altitudes of more than seventy 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:08.000 thousand feet. Yes. Um, that's pretty high up. Least that's 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.680 when you think about commercial jet liners or tend to 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.800 be between thirty and thirty five thousand feet sometimes a 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.960 little higher. Uh, you know, it's more than twice as 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.760 high up. And uh it was built. It was built 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.520 with a really really long wings almost like a glider, 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:28.000 and a very light air frame. Yeah. Well, I'm sorry, 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.199 go ahead. The wingspan of the U two is about 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.720 a hundred and five feet or you know, thirty two 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:37.000 meters or so. The length is sixty three ft or 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:40.959 about nineteen point two meters, and height, uh sixteen feet 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.319 about four point eight meters. It only weighs sixteen thousand pounds, 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.400 which when you think about it, is pretty light. That's 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:52.199 pretty remarkable. Yeah. It's got one General Electric FE een 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.160 Dash one oh one engine. Yeah, although there were other 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:59.240 engines used in the U tube during its entire history. Uh. 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:04.040 There Uh, there's a J fifty seven turbojet engine, the 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.800 J seventy five turbojet engine, and then the General Electric 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.200 F one eight team turbo fan engine. Uh. They have 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.320 all been used in you two's throughout its history of 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.679 its service in the United States. Also, before we get 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:19.920 too much further into the technical details, one of their 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.600 interesting elements. Originally this was pitched to the Air Force. 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:29.320 The Air Force decided it did not The Air Force 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.800 decided not to fund it. The funding came from the CIA, 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.440 so the Central Intelligence Agency is actually responsible for the 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.720 development of the you tube and UH. In fact, the 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.160 pilots of those early you two's were all CIA pilots 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:51.040 because the idea was that if you had a a 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.720 plane go down and the pilot of that plane was 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.920 a member of the United States military, it could look 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:02.959 like a military action against another country. Because you were 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.719 a pilot for the CIA, you had to be a civilian, 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:11.360 so you actually would go through and and quit a 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.560 branch of the military service. He would no longer be 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:15.920 a part of the Air Force. You would become a 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.120 civilian and be employed by the CIA, and that would 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.720 give you the deniability that it was a military action 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:27.440 against another country. Well, of course, um also sneaky. If 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.559 you're wondering how much these aircraft cost, they won't tell 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.240 you that information is classified. There's actually a lot of 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.600 information classified about the YouTube, like we can't tell you 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:42.240 specifically all the different sensors that are on board a YouTube. 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.200 We can tell you that it does have a camera, 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.640 actually has multiple cameras in order to get a visual 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:50.920 representation of what's what it's flying over. It also has 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.680 sensors that can detect the quality of the air and 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:57.720 and perhaps even sniff out things like, uh, chemicals that 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:01.960 would be indicative of a nuclear facility in the area. Um, 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.000 it's got Supposedly it has sensors that can allow it 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:09.319 to even eaves drop on cell phone conversations. Interesting, and 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.240 there's also a data link that allows it to upload 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:16.319 information in real time to a remote location. Yes, it's 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:21.480 got a it has infrared cameras and an optical bar camera. UM. 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:26.400 And uh it does have you know, advanced radar capabilities 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:31.520 as well. UM. So it's it's certainly able to pay 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:33.960 a lot of attention to what's going on in the 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.800 world around it. Um, even from the altitudes that they 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.080 can reach. Does have a crew of one, we know 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.680 that much. Yeah, it's it's designed to be a one 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.680 person aircraft. I have heard that there are a few 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:49.360 examples of two man youtubs, but they are specifically built 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.679 for training purposes. They are not they're not actually used 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.360 in service. Uh. It does. It can reach a speed 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.040 of about four miles per hour. It's not you know, 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.160 we're not talking about breaking the speed of sound um, 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.880 which is unlike the SR seventy one. Yes, which that 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.559 was one of the reasons why the SR seventy one 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.280 was developed was they wanted the government wanted something that 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.120 was even faster and could fly even higher than the 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:18.120 U two, And the SR seventy one could do both 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.640 those things. It could fly at an altitude around ninety 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:24.240 thousand feet and it could fly very fast. Indeed, yes, 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.360 which works for the X men. Yes, sort of um 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:32.559 and often than not. And if you're wondering, there are 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:36.440 about thirty three of them. They are still active. Um 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:39.920 And Yeah. Despite as as Jonathan said earlier, just Bite 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:45.360 attempts to phase them out as older, outmoded technology. They're 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:47.079 just too good at what they do. You know what. 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:48.719 It turns out the other stuff that was built to 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.480 replace them wasn't good enough and was more expensive. So 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:58.000 while you had aircraft that could fly faster and higher. Uh. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.840 The one of the big drawback because of the Blackbird 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.240 was that it did not have a data link. So 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.240 when you sent a Blackbird out on a mission in 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:08.560 the dead of night, you had to wait for it 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.040 to come back and dump all that information for you 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:13.880 to be able to look at it. You couldn't get 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.280 updates as the mission was going on, at least not 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:18.640 of all the data that it was collecting. You know. 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:23.800 The pilot could communicate, presumably, but smartphone, yeah, there's a 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:27.160 nap for that. But flying over foreign power l O 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:33.360 L nice TfL uh the uh the only uh. There's 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.040 some other interesting things about the YouTube. It's landing gear 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.400 it has. You know, most most aircraft that we think 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.640 of today has have the landing gear where there's the 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:44.800 one set of wheels up front and then the two 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:46.880 set of wheels in the backs. It's almost like a tricycle, 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.000 you know. YouTube does not have that. It has more 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.760 like a bicycle set up. It's got one the front 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:55.640 set of wheels and back set of wheels are in 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:59.600 line with one another. Now, it does have a wheels 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:04.240 call pogoes that are attached to the wings for takeoff, 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.880 so to give it stability when you're taking off with 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:10.400 a you two, but then once you take off, you 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.720 jettison those wheels they're gone and you only when you're 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:17.360 coming into land you only have those two sets of wheels. 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.560 So you're thinking, how can you maintain balance? Well, the 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:25.000 wings have skids on them to protect the wings. It's 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:30.160 apparently really really hard to fly you two and and 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.640 more so not just because of the landing thing, although 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.480 landing apparently is one of the most difficult maneuvers you 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.480 can do with the YouTube. Because the wings are so wide, 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:43.200 the a little cross wind can very much affect the 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.400 you two, it can start gliding off track, and uh, 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.600 it's it's really hard to correct for that. Another issue 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.200 is that it's designed to fly at a very high altitude. 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:56.960 We'll add that altitude, the atmosphere is not as thick. Yeah, 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.800 it's a thinner atmosphere. Well, in order to give precise 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:06.840 controls at that altitude, the controls are extremely responsive when 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.480 you are flying through a very thin atmosphere. So just 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.640 a tiny little adjustment by the pilot is going to 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:19.760 result in a pretty dramatic change in the plane's behavior. 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:23.760 All Right, when you start going down, you start descending 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.560 in the atmosphere is starting to get thicker. Suddenly, those 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.960 controls aren't as responsive and you have to do more 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.200 to get the plane to do what you wanted to do. 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.560 So as you're descending from that height where you're actually 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.680 spying and everything, and you're coming down, uh, the plane 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:40.880 becomes less responsive and the pilot has to use a 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.800 lot more force to get the plane to do what 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.080 he wants it or she wants it to do. And 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:50.360 and so it is supposed to be or supposedly one 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:55.040 of the most difficult aircraft master because the two sets 0:16:55.120 --> 0:17:00.400 of flying UH scenarios are so different. As if that 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.480 weren't enough, Because of the way the plane is configured, 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:07.000 it's kind of hard to see out of um that 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.120 the nose is very long, and it's difficult to see 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:15.320 out the back because of the tail. So as a 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.640 matter of fact, Uh, Jonathan I, I've actually seen information 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.520 that suggests that many pilots call it the most difficult 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:24.760 plane in the world to fly, and and it actually 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:28.080 requires in some instances, actually requires a second set of eyes. 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:30.760 Somebody else will go up after the you two to 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:35.160 help it get down, somebody who's sort of if you will, 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.840 it's sort of a visual spot and they go, you know, 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.840 there's sometimes lined up. Sometimes it's a person in a 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:44.200 souped up car. As a second, a second YouTube pilot 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:48.160 who is being driven on in a souped up car 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:52.680 going alongside the plane as it's coming down and giving 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:57.560 verbal directions to the pilot. So the pilot hasn't indication 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.520 of how far they are from the surface and whether 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:03.720 they need to make any adjustments, so they'll be in 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.280 a car traveling at a pretty good clip of speed. 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:09.720 See that was my That was my assumption because it 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.440 said my notes say high performance vehicle, and it didn't 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:14.240 say what kind of vehicle. Yes, yeah, it was a 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:18.360 high performance car, the Blues Mobile. Actually they just check 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.040 they have that that megaphone on top and the alright, 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.760 is what you gotta do? You gotta go down two 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:30.639 ft two ft anyway? Um, so yeah, there's that, and 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.760 then there's also uh, some other interesting things about the YouTube. 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:37.000 Another reason why it's so hard to fly is that 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:43.240 it has to almost always be flying near the maximum 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:45.960 speed of the vehicle. And the reason for that is 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:50.160 because if it starts to get down below about nineteen 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.600 kilometers per hour below maximum speed, which is ten knots. 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.400 When it starts to drop below ten knots from its 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:02.600 maximum speed. At whatever altitude it's at, it starts to stall. So, 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.600 in other words, there's a really narrow window of performance 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.560 that the plane can operate at where it's not falling 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.360 out of the sky. It has to be going almost 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.359 full speed or else it's dropping like a rock. And uh, 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:19.639 the pilots have a a special name for that, that 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.359 little window you were, that little narrow window of of speed. 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:26.359 Can you do you have you? Did you come across 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:30.439 that did not? It's it's a charming name. It is 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:37.640 the coffin corner. Nice. So yeah, it's um yeah, pilots. 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:43.119 Pilots have a interesting set of um of of terms 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.000 for various things. They have a they have a very 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:53.680 dry and realistic view of the world. So yeah, interesting designs. 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.760 So why sorry, go ahead, I was gonna say, well, 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.600 the design has changed over the years somewhat. I mean 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.720 they've they've made some adaptations for it. It was originally 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:05.880 based on the F one oh four uh fighter jet, 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.280 but um, you know it has they they actually the 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.040 version that they fly now is somewhat longer and has 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:15.639 they've they've upgraded the the avionics systems in the past. 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.280 They didn't originally use digital uh, systems. They were using 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.280 UM analog gauges, but they've they've updated all those things 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.040 now and so it's a it's a much more UM 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.439 I mean, of course, the plane itself is based on 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.720 the original design. It's just it's been adapted and updated 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.600 as as necessary over the years have have gone by. 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:39.040 So and for the first several years of YOU two's existence, 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:42.840 the government of course did not admit that it had 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:45.639 this spy plane. They said that the U two. That 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.320 people knew that the YOU two existed, they just didn't 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:53.680 know what it was for. And the reason given mostly 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:58.280 was that it was a a vehicle used to examine 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.880 the weather patterns and weather conditions. It was all about 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:05.320 gathering information about the environment. That it wasn't anything about 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:10.359 spy plane. Well, that all changed on May one, nineteen sixty, 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:17.720 that is when a pilot, a CIA pilot named Gary Powers, 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:23.600 was operating a YouTube and crashed in Soviet territory. Now, 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:27.200 the cause of the crash is has always been disputed 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:30.520 right there. There are some reports that say that what 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:34.000 happened was he was shot down, that it was hit. 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:37.080 The plane was was hit by a Soviet missile and 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:41.200 it caused the plane to crash. There were other reports 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.959 that said that the YouTube passed through the slip stream 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:49.800 of another vehicle, another plane, and that it caused the 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:53.320 you two to go out of control and a wing 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.199 ripped off of it and it crashed because of that. 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.679 There's another report that said missiles were fired at the Utuo, 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:06.000 but uh it exploded behind the plane, and the that 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:08.840 the explosion was enough to send it out of control. 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:12.439 What is known is that there was unfortunately, there was 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.679 another pilot, a Soviet pilot who was flying a MiG 0:22:15.960 --> 0:22:19.120 who actually did get hit by the missiles that were 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:23.119 meant for the YouTube plane and died as a result. Well, 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.960 Gary Powers was shot down, but he survived. However, he 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.879 was he was used in a little bit of subterfuge 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.080 on top of the subterfuge he was already a part of. 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:40.639 Because the premier of the Soviet Union, Kruscheff, didn't let 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:44.800 the United States know that Powers survived the crash. Instead, 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:48.440 what krus Jeff did was he said, uh, the United 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:51.399 States had a spy plane over my country and we 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:54.320 shut it down, and you've got some splaining to do. 0:22:57.040 --> 0:22:59.320 Chris is banging the table with his shoe. So if 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:01.680 you don't know what that's about. Look up Christeff and Shoe. 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:06.160 But yes, so Christeff. Christeff was a little perturbed, said 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:08.639 there was a spy plane over well he was an 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:12.560 aggressive act. Yes, yeah, and how can you disagree with that? 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:15.920 I mean it was a spy plane, you know. Yeah. 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:19.920 So did the United States say? Yeah? Okay? Now, because 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:23.720 again the US, not aware that Powers was alive, went 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:27.840 into the cover story that they had created for this 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:31.240 sort of scenario, assuming that Powers had died, The Eisenhower 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:35.520 administration said that the plane was just a weather research aircraft. 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:38.959 It had accidentally moved into Soviet airspace. It was not 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:42.439 meant to be there. The pilot had actually radio that 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:45.520 there was some problems with the equipment aboard the plane. 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:50.240 That was specifically the oxygen equipment, because when you're flying 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:53.560 at that height you need to have special equipment to 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:57.560 pressurize the cabin. And in fact, the pilots of the 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:00.400 YouTube where something that's almost like a space suit. Yes, 0:24:00.960 --> 0:24:04.480 because of the otherwise you could have some real pressurization problems. 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:08.320 So they said, no, no, no, it's just a weather aircraft. 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:10.959 It was there were some problems that we heard about. 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:14.239 They were supposed to be over Turkey. Uh, it was 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:18.520 completely just a misunderstanding, and that that the plane that 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:21.760