WEBVTT - TechStuff Classics: The U2 Spy Plane 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.520 Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from Stuff 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:14.320 from stat Co. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.680 I'm Jonathan Strickland, and I'm bringing you another classic episode 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.160 of tech Stuff. If you guys haven't figured this out, 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.000 I am preparing for a vacation and it means that 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:28.160 I have to add in extra recording time. But unfortunately, 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:32.760 getting extra time for potential co hosts is a really 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.000 challenging thing. So I've recorded a couple of you know, 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:39.240 updates to old episodes. This time, I want to talk 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.480 about the U two spy plane. You know. Recently Ben 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.159 Boland joined me for an episode about the super secret 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.040 space plane and what it might be up to, uh, 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:50.440 and that reminded me of this classic episode of tex 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.320 Stuff about the U two spy plane. Also, I was 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:55.880 thinking about the U two spy plane because I still 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.120 have uh my Negative Land episode on the brain. If 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:02.120 you missed that episode, should definitely check it out. It's 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:06.280 really awesome. Nold did an amazing job producing that episode. 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.200 And of course Negative Land is the performance group that 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.280 got into a little bit of legal trouble when they 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.280 had a sort of spoof on a YouTube song Come Out, 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:17.760 but you can hear all about that in the episode 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.039 about Negative Land. Oh and I also was thinking about YouTube, 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:24.840 because even though it happened months ago, it still kind 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:29.200 of makes me chuckle that Apple essentially forced a new 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.280 YouTube album onto everyone who owns an iPhone, whether they 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:37.120 wanted it or not. Obviously that didn't pan out exactly 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:41.039 the way they had planned. The best intentions did not 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.280 lead to the best outcomes in that case, but pretty 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:46.960 amusing at any rate. YouTube has been on my mind. 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.760 So it's time to talk about the actual spy plane, 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:53.760 not the band, not the Negative Land piece. But it's 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.120 an interesting story. I hope you enjoyed this classic episode 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:58.320 of tech Stuff as Chris Polette and I look back 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:00.960 about where that spy plane came from and how it 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:04.040 played such an important role in surveillance over the years. 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.359 We were going to talk today about an interesting thing 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:15.680 that I saw the other day, which is um Well. 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.480 In a way, it's sort of a drone because it 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.760 starts with a the r Q for Global Hawk, a 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:27.119 drone aircraft that is um Well. It's status is sort 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:29.160 of in question right now, as at the time we're 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:33.959 recording this, there negotiating the budget for uh, the United 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:36.639 you know, the defense budget for the United States of 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:40.520 America UM, and UH that's one of the items that 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.600 was considered to be struck. Now, of course, UM, over 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.720 the past few years, unmanned aerial vehicles have been UH 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.400 coming up a lot in the news. They've been instrumental 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:56.119 in several of the military engagements around the world with 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.560 the United States, I mean, US has has employed unman 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:04.480 aerial vehicles in lots of cases. The proposal was that 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:07.880 there would be three d forty two million dollars budgeted 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.680 UM to UH to work on the Global Hawk and UM. 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:17.080 As it turns out, it's been proposed that they dropped 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:22.560 the item entirely in favor of a much more uh, 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.640 much more less cutting edge technology in a way. And 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:27.640 the reason one of the reasons to talk about cutting 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.519 this whole Global Hawk thing is because, uh, it's expensive. Yeah, 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.200 the estimated cost of a single Global Hawk is a 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:38.880 hundred and seventy six million dollars. That's expensive. So they 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.320 had they had enough. They had just they didn't even 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.520 quite have enough money in the budget for two of them. 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.440 So you can get one and seven eighths of a 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.520 Global Hawk for the budget they had proposed. So the 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.080 the alternative right now for a and the purpose of 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.520 the Global Hawk, we should say, is it's reconnaissance air craft. Yes, 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:02.960 it doesn't attack people, it is it is their for 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:07.720 surveillance purposes, specifically spying. So you know, there are a 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.360 lot of unmanned aerial vehicles that have been developed over 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.360 the last several years. Many of them are designed to 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:18.040 get a real time uh feel of what's going on 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:22.279 in certain environments. And they they're designed to do things 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.320 like fly through areas that could be combat zones, but 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:30.280 they're not necessarily designed to spy to be able to 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.520 fly through undetected. It's more about getting as quick and 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:39.520 accurate a picture of the situation as it exists right now, 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.479 rather than let's go find out what those pesky so 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.120 and so is over there are doing. So are pesky 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:51.640 so and so technology tends to be much more sneaky, 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:55.320 and it's designed to be very fast. Usually it's designed 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:58.880 to fly very very high so that can try to 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:03.520 avoid things like radar as well as missiles you know, 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:07.159 attempts to take it down. UH. And it's designed to 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:11.160 try and gather as much information as quickly as possible. UH. 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:16.080 And since the nineteen fifties. That technology has been one 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.720 particular type of aircraft in the United States. Even though 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.040 we've tried to replace it on multiple occasions, we're still 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:26.440 using it today and the it's what we will be 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:31.320 using instead of the Global Hawk, the Lockheed U two. Yes, 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.880 I believe it or not. Um they're saying that the 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:38.200 the U two is actually a better piece of technology 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:43.120 and in some ways than the the newer unmanned aerial vehicle. 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:45.560 And like I said, the replacement for the U two 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:51.760 has has was built and was retired already, which was 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:54.360 the SR seventy one Blackbird. But we'll get into that. 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.640 It's a gorgeous design, right. So they have the Blackbird, 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.400 which was designed to be the replacement for the YouTube. 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.760 It actually lived out it's useful life in the US 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.920 Air Force and then was retired because well, it's really 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.160 expensive to maintain as well. In fact, well, and I'll 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.200 talk about why it was expensive to maintain, because that's 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:16.560 kind of an interesting story. But to to understand the 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:18.680 You two, we have to go back quite a bit. 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:20.400 And we're not going to use the way back machine 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:24.000 because I found out that stuff you should know used 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.080 it about a week and a half ago, and apparently 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:30.599 they left it somewhere, like they actually hoofed it back 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.400 from seven And I have no idea what they were 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.960 doing back then. But yeah, so I have no idea. 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:38.760 We have to track it down. So we're just gonna 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.560 have to talk about today, all right then, But um so, 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.320 then you would probably go back in time if we 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:50.240 were using the machine to uh about Well, August nine 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.760 is the first day it ever flew. Yes, August one, 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.320 nineteen fifty five, it's first flight of the YouTube. Now, 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:02.200 the whole purpose for developing the YouTube stems out of 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.400 the Cold War between the United States and the then 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:12.040 USSR Soviet Union. Um So, the whole reason for it 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.240 was that we needed to have weaving the United States 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.080 because from the US the United States needed to have 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.040 some sort of vehicle to get an idea of what 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:27.160 was going on and a potential uh um wartime enemy. 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.800 And the Cold War was was called the Cold War 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:34.000 because it wasn't like there actual physical outbreaks of violence 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.720 between the two countries, but there was a true rivalry 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.480 of global proportions going on between the two, and so 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:45.000 we there were needs each each country felt the need 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:46.920 to find out as much about what was going on 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.440 in the other country as possible, and so they were 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.840 developing their own ways of spying on each other. Of course, 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.440 this also figured into this space race. Um. We've talked 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:01.120 about the thing what beaped but sput Nick that they 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:05.600 sent up from the Soviet Union um shortly after that period, 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:07.680 but it was around the same time they were looking 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.920 for ways to spy on each other. Of course, satellite 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:15.640 technology entered into it. But the YouTube predates ate because 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.200 I mean it was already flying by by that point. Yeah. 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.560 So this is during the Eisenhower administration in the United 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:27.560 States history and uh, and so there were several the government, 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.880 the United States government actually invited several different companies to 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:37.000 submit proposals for a spy plane. That's pretty typical, right, 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:41.319 And the company that went out was Lockeed and there 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:45.319 was a fellow by the name of Clarence Kelly Johnson 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.120 who was put in charge of the development of this 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:54.800 spy plane. Johnson also was instrumental in creating the the 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.880 facility that was the testing grounds for this particular airplane, 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:04.160 and that facility has gone on to gain incredible notoriety, yes, 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.560 partially because it was very innovative and partially because it 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:09.920 just has a very cool name and it was very, 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.280 very very secret about everything, and that cool name, at 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:17.040 least that's the popular name for it, is Area fifty one. 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.920 So if you always wondered what Area fifty one was about, 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:24.120 and you've heard about things like UFOs and aliens, what 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:28.040 it really was about was a testing ground for secret aircraft, 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:30.920 and the YouTube was very much a secret aircraft. The 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.240 United States did not really talk about what the You 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.040 two was for until they were forced to. And we'll 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.560 get into that story too, because that's pretty dramatic. But 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:42.440 but before we get into that, let's talk more about 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:44.880 what the You two actually was and uh oh, and 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.920 in case you're just wondering, Area fifty one, also popularly 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.440 known as Groom Lake because it's a dry lake bed, 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.120 was where it was built up on. And uh I 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.200 think in the future we're going to have to do 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:58.760 a podcast all about Area fifty one because it was 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.440 such a cool place. It's not really not really a 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.440 thing anymore, but it was definitely a neat idea and 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:09.160 some really cool technology was developed there. Anyway, getting back 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.360 to the YouTube, Yeah, it's got a Now this this 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:17.000 sucker can fly at at altitudes of more than seventy 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:25.080 thousand feet. Yes, Um, that's pretty high up. Yeah, that's 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.760 when you think about commercial jet liners are tend to 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.880 be between thirty and thirty five thousand feet, sometimes a 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.080 little higher. Uh, you know, it's more than twice as 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.839 high up. And uh it was built. It was built 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.640 with a really really long wings almost like a glider, 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:45.960 and very light air frame. Yeah. Well I'm sorry, go ahead. 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.720 The wingspan of the U two is about a hundred 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.400 and five feet or you know, thirty two meters or so, 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:55.360 the length of sixty three ft or about nineteen point 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.880 two meters, and height uh sixteen feet about four point 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:03.240 eight meters, and only way is sixteen thousand pounds, which 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.520 when you think about it is pretty light. That's pretty remarkable. Yeah. 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.840 It's got one General Electric F one eighteen Dash one 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.079 oh one engine. Yeah, although there were other engines used 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:17.480 in the YouTube during its entire history. Uh. There Uh, 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.840 there's a J fifty seven turbojet engine, the J seventy 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.280 five turbojet engine, and then the General Electric F one 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:29.199 eighteen turbo fan engine. Uh. They have all been used 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.360 in you two's throughout its history of its service in 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.200 the United States. Before we get too much further into 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:38.640 the technical details, one of their interesting element. Originally this 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.520 was pitched to the Air Force. The Air Force decided 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:47.000 it did not The Air Force decided not to fund it. 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.520 The funding came from the c I. A. Yeah, so 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.640 the Central Intelligence Agency is actually responsible for the development 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.840 of the you tube and uh. In fact, the pilots 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:04.280 of those early youtubs were all CIA pilots because the 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.200 idea was that if you had a a plane go 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.720 down and the pilot of that plane was a member 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:14.720 of the United States military, it could look like a 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:20.040 military action against another country. Because you were a pilot 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.360 for the CIA, you had to be a civilian, So 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:28.199 you actually would go through and and quit a branch 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.240 of the military service. You would no longer be a 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.040 part of the Air Force. You would become a civilian 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:35.800 and be employed by the CIA, and that would give 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.720 you the deniability that it was a military action against 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:44.120 another country. Well, of course, um also sneaky. If you're 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:48.320 wondering how much these aircraft cost, they won't tell you 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.280 that information is classified. There's actually a lot of information 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:55.000 classified about the YouTube, Like we can't tell you specifically 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.680 all the different sensors that are on board a YouTube. 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:00.760 We can tell you that it does have a camera, 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.160 actually has multiple cameras in order to get a visual 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.480 representation of what's what it's flying over. It also has 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.199 sensors that can detect the quality of the air and 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.240 and perhaps even sniff out things like, uh, chemicals that 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:18.480 would be indicative of a nuclear facility in the area. Um, 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.560 it's got Supposedly it has sensors that can allow it 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:26.120 to even eavesdrop on cell phone conversations. Interesting, and there's 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:29.240 also a data link that allows it to upload information 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:33.040 in real time to a remote location. Yes, it's got 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:38.000 a it has infrared cameras and an optical bar camera. Um. 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:42.920 And uh it does have you know, advanced radar capabilities 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:48.080 as well. UM. So it's it's certainly able to pay 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.480 a lot of attention to what's going on in the 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:54.360 world around it. Um, even from the altitudes that they 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:56.600 can reach. Does have a crew of one we know 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.200 that much. Yeah, it's it's designed to be a one 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.200 person aircraft. I have heard that there are a few 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.599 examples of two men you twos, but they are specifically 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.840 built for training purposes. They are not They're not actually 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.559 used in service. Uh, it does. It can reach a 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:16.520 speed of about four miles per hour. It's not you know, 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:20.720 we're not talking about breaking the speed of sound. Um, 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.400 which is unlike the SR seventy one. Yes, which that 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.080 was one of the reasons why the SR seventy one 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.800 was developed was they wanted the government wanted something that 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.640 was even faster and could fly even higher than the 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.440 U two And the s R seventy one could do 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.800 both those things. It could fly at an altitude around 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.880 ninety thou feet and it could fly very fast. Indeed, yes, 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.920 which works for the X men. Yes, sort of um 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:49.080 and often than not. And if you're wondering, there are 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:53.000 about thirty three of them. They are still active. Um 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.480 and Yeah. Despite as as Jonathan said earlier, just Bite 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:01.880 attempts to phase them out as older, outmoded technology, they're 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.000 just too good at what they do well. It turns 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:05.880 out the other stuff that was built to replace them 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:10.480 wasn't good enough and was more expensive. So while you 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:14.640 had aircraft that could fly faster and higher. Uh. The 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.640 one of the big drawbacks of the Blackbird was that 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:20.680 it did not have a data link. So when you 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.120 sent a Blackbird out on a mission in the dead 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.440 of night. You had to wait for it to come 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:28.760 back and dump all that information for you to be 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:31.320 able to look at it. You couldn't get updates as 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.320 the mission was going on, at least not of all 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:35.680 the data that it was collecting. You know. The pilot 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:40.960 could communicate presumably, but smartphone, Yeah, there's anap for that. 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.800 But flying over foreign power l O L nice R 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:50.200 TfL uh the uh the only uh. There's some other 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.720 interesting things about the YouTube. It's landing gear it has. 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:56.440 You know, most most aircraft that we think of today 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.800 has have the landing gear. Where's the one set of 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:01.960 ehels up front and then the two set of wheels 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.120 in the backs. It's almost like a tricycle, you know. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.760 YouTube does not have that. It has more like a 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.520 bicycle set up. It's got one the front set of 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:12.720 wheels and back set of wheels are in line with 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:18.600 one another. Now, it does have wheels called pogos that 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:22.320 are attached to the wings for takeoff, so to give 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.000 it stability when you're taking off with a you two. 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.360 But then once you take off, you jettison those wheels. 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:32.000 They're gone and you only when you're coming into land. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.640 You only have those two sets of wheels, so you're thinking, 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:39.000 how can you maintain balance? Well, the wings have skids 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:44.160 on them to protect the wings. It's apparently really really 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.480 hard to fly a YouTube and and more so not 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.240 just because of the landing thing, although landing apparently is 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.360 one of the most difficult maneuvers you can do with 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:56.840 the YouTube because the wings are so wide, the a 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:00.040 little cross wind can very much affect the you to 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.920 it can start gliding off track and uh, it's it's 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:07.440 really hard to correct for that. Another issue is that 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:10.600 it's designed to fly at a very high altitude. We'll 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.520 at that altitude, the atmosphere is not as thick. Yeah, 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.320 it's the thinner atmosphere. Well, in order to give precise 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:23.360 controls at that altitude, the controls are extremely responsive when 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:27.040 you are flying through a very thin atmosphere. So just 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.159 a tiny little adjustment by the pilot is going to 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:36.280 result in a pretty dramatic change in the plane's behavior. 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.280 All right, when you start going down, you start descending 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.080 in the atmosphere is starting to get thicker. Suddenly those 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.480 controls aren't as responsive and you have to do more 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:48.720 to get the plane to do what you wanted to do. 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:52.040 So as you're descending from that height where you're actually 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.200 spying and everything and you're coming down, UH, the plane 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.439 becomes less responsive and the pilot has to use a 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.320 lot more force to get the plane to do what 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.280 he wants it or she wants it to do. And UM, 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.880 and so it is supposed to be are supposedly one 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:11.560 of the most difficult aircraft master because the two sets 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:16.919 of flying UH scenarios are so different. As if that 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:20.000 weren't enough, because of the way the plane is configured, 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.520 it's kind of hard to see out of um that 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.680 the nose is very long, and it's difficult to see 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.840 out the back because of the tail. So as a 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:36.200 matter of fact, Uh, Jonathan I, I've actually seen information 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:39.040 that suggests that many pilots call it the most difficult 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.280 plane in the world to fly, and and it actually 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.600 requires in some instances, actually requires a second set of eyes. 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.280 Somebody else will go up after the U two to 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.240 UH to help it get down, somebody who's sort of 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:53.000 if you will, it's sort of a visual spot and 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.760 they go, you know, there's sometimes lined up. Sometimes it's 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.520 a person in a souped up cars, a second, a 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:03.919 second YouTube pilot who is being driven on in a 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:08.160 souped up car, going alongside the plane as it's coming 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:12.560 down and giving verbal directions to the pilot. So the 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:16.959 pilot hasn't indication of how far they are from the 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.760 surface and whether they need to make any adjustments. So 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.040 they'll be in a car traveling at a pretty good 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.199 clip of speed. Okay, see that was my That was 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.520 my assumption because it said my notes say high performance vehicle, 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:30.639 and it didn't say what kind of vehicle. Yeah, it 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:34.360 was a high performance car, the Blues Mobile. Actually they 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:37.240 just chat. They have that that megaphone on top, and 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:41.400 they all right, is what you gotta do? You gotta 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:46.560 go down two ft two ft anyway? Um, So yeah, 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:49.520 there's that, and then there's also uh, some other interesting 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:51.920 things about the YouTube. Another reason why it's so hard 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:56.760 to fly is that it has to almost always be 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:01.679 flying near the maximum speed to the vehicle. And the 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:04.520 reason for that is because if it starts to get 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:09.200 down below about nineteen kilometers per hour below maximum speed, 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:12.560 which is ten knots. When it starts to drop below 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.040 ten knots from its maximum speed at whatever altitude it's at, 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.240 it starts to stall. So in other words, there's a 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.400 really narrow window of performance that the plane can operate 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.520 at where it's not falling out of the sky. It 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.120 has to be going almost full speed or else it's 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:33.679 dropping like a rock. And uh, the pilots have a 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.360 a special name for that, that little window you were, 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.600 that little narrow window of of speed. Can you do 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.240 you have you did you come across that? It's it's 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:52.720 a charming name. It is the coffin corner. Nice. So yeah, 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:57.040 it's um, yeah, pilots. Pilots have a interesting set of 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:01.800 um of of terms for they have. They have a 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:08.400 very dry and uh, realistic view of the world. So yeah, 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:13.280 interesting designs. So why sorry, go ahead, I was gonna say, well, 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.160 the design has changed over the years somewhat. I mean 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.280 they've they've made some adaptations for it. It It was originally 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.440 based on the F one oh four UH fighter jet, 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.840 but um, you know it has they they actually the 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:28.560 version that they fly now is somewhat longer and has 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.120 they've they've upgraded the the avionics systems. In the past. 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.800 They didn't originally use digital uh systems. They were using 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.800 UM analog gauges, but they've they've updated all those things 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:41.560 now and so it's a it's a much more um 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:43.960 I mean, of course, the plane itself is based on 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:47.240 the original design. It's just it's been adapted and updated 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:51.120 as as necessary over the years have have gone by. 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:55.560 So and for the first several years of you tube's existence, 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:59.400 the government of course did not admit that it had 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.760 this biplane. They said that the U two. That people 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:04.919 knew that the you two existed, they just didn't know 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:10.520 what it was for. And the reason given mostly was 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:15.200 that it was a vehicle used to examine the weather 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:19.200 patterns and weather conditions. It was all about gathering information 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:23.400 about the environment. That there wasn't anything about spy plane. Well, 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:28.760 that all changed on May one, nineteen sixty, that is 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:34.800 when a pilot, a CIA pilot named Gary Powers, was 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:40.240 operating a YouTube and crashed in Soviet territory. Now, the 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:45.320 cause of the crash is has always been disputed. Right there. 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:47.840 There's some reports that say that what happened was he 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:51.879 was shot down, that it was hit the plane was 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:55.000 was hit by a Soviet missile and it caused the 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:59.040 plane to crash. There were other reports that said that 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.800 the YouTube passed through the slip stream of another vehicle, 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:08.240 another plane, and that it caused the YOU two to 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:10.720 go out of control and a wing ripped off of 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:13.600 it and it crashed because of that. There's another report 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:17.959 that said missiles were fired at the U two, but uh, 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:23.560 it exploded behind the plane, and the that the explosion 0:23:23.640 --> 0:23:27.080 was enough to send it off control. What is known 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:29.720 is that there was unfortunately, there was another pilot, a 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:33.800 Soviet pilot who is flying a MiG who actually did 0:23:33.840 --> 0:23:36.119 get hit by the missiles that were meant for the 0:23:36.160 --> 0:23:40.399 YouTube plane and died as a result. Well, Gary Powers 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:44.359 was shot down, but he survived. However, he was he 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:47.840 was used in a little bit of subterfuge on top 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:50.760 of the subterfuge he was already a part of, because 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:57.399 the premier of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev, didn't let the 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:01.520 United States know that Powers survived the crash. Instead, what 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:05.240 Kris Jeff did was he said, uh, the United States 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:08.240 had a spy plane over my country and we shut 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:13.840 it down, and you got some splaning to do. Chris 0:24:13.920 --> 0:24:15.879 is banging the table with his shoe, So if you 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:18.240