SOUTHWEST ASIA -- In a distant portion of the ever darkening Southwest Asia sky a hidden figure approaches. A yellow gleam from its single eye, previously hidden amongst the billowing clouds, now subtly begins to give away its presence.
Lights flash from the rooftop of one of two vehicles on the ground, as if to warn all of the dark figure’s approach, which is now accompanied by an ever-growing roar.
The vehicles suddenly speed down the runway as if making their escape, but the figure, resembling a giant black dragonfly upon closer viewing, is now several hundred yards behind them and quickly approaching. As the vehicles speed down the runway the figure flies directly overhead, gliding several feet above the ground while the cars follow closely in pursuit.
After being chased for only a moment the ominous figure touches down and comes to a pause on the flightline, one wing drooping lower than the other, a result of its attempt to balance itself before landing. One of the vehicles comes to a stop right next to the now lopsided beast and several maintainers rush out, propping the wings of the U-2 Dragon Lady aircraft after another successful landing.
The U-2 is a single-seat, single-engine, high-altitude, reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft capable of providing signals, imagery, electronic measurements and signature intelligence to U.S. and coalition forces.
As opposed to other aircraft in the inventory that are able to taxi to and from the runway without the assistance of maintainers, the U-2 requires a maintainer’s hand at every step along the departure, landing and recovery process.
“When a maintainer launches fighter aircraft like A-10’s or Predators, we release the aircraft as soon as we marshal it out of its parking spot to the end of the runway where they will receive their weapons armament and they’ll let it go,” said Senior Master Sgt. Donald, Dragon Aircraft Maintenance Unit superintendent. “With the U-2, when we launch the aircraft out, we get in a maintenance truck and we follow a mobile chase car with the aircraft on the runway.”
Once on the runway, the U-2 comes to a stop and maintainers in the nearby truck are given the go-ahead to remove safety locks securing the “pogo sticks” to the underside of each wing.
Pogo sticks are approximately four-foot long, spring aluminum devices that help the aircraft balance its 105-foot wing span while on the ground. The U-2’s wheel setup is similar to a bicycle with no outward support for the wings, except for pogo sticks, making them a crucial piece to keeping the aircraft balanced.
Once maintainers remove the locks and clear the aircraft, the U-2 begins its takeoff, with the pogo sticks falling to ground once the aircraft has gained enough lift to begin its climb.
“We have the best mission out here,” said Senior Airman Kyle, DAMU maintainer and crew chief. “We maintain an aircraft that supplies vital information to analysts so they have the intelligence they need to save lives.”
The aircraft’s unique design allows maintainers to take it apart by sections, such as removing the nose and aft sections or wings, as opposed to opening the various panels seen on other aircraft.
“It’s kind of like fixing on an old car,” said Kyle. “It’s very easy to work on and there are not a whole lot of things that can go wrong with it.”
DAMU Airmen were responsible for the launch and recovery of the only U-2 combat mission on Aug 8, 2015, the day of its 60-year anniversary.
Despite flying for more than half a century, there are still a lot of misconceptions about the Dragon Lady.
“A lot of people think it has more than one engine, carries bombs and that it’s a drone, but that is not the case,” he said.
Another misconception about the aircraft is the wingtips; specifically the type of metal used to absorb the impact and heat produced from wingtips scraping the ground during landings.
According to Donald, some people believe the wingtips are made of titanium, but they’re actually made of stellite. Stellite has a strong resistance to mechanical degradation up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, maintaining a stout level of hardness, reducing the potential for damage to the aircraft’s wings, whereas titanium is more expensive and considered wasteful to use as a consumable component.
The stellite tips are an essential feature of the aircraft, since one of the wing tips usually scrapes the ground after landing due to the imbalance of fuel between the wings.
“When we have airframe work that needs to be done on the aircraft, we have a set of blueprints we can refer to in order to determine the materials we should be using,” he said. “Most of the components on the U-2 are designed to be lighter and thinner, that way it can fly higher to gather the intel it needs.”
After working on and off with the aircraft since 2007, Donald states his favorite part of the aircraft is history.
“Once you work on the U-2 it takes a special place in your heart,” he said. “This is my third time out to this AOR with this aircraft. Every single time I have been out here we have made history in one way or another. Some of our planes have more than 25,000 flying hours on them, which is unique for the U-2 and we have made history right now with what we’re doing with the [Islamic State of the Levant] in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, operations in Afghanistan and collecting intel for our guys down range.”
The above article is part one of a three-part series about the men and women behind the operation of U-2 Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft. Next week’s article: Part 2 -- Dancing with a Dragon: a physiologist’s tale.
Due to safety and security concerns last names were removed.