Triple Tree Aerodrome is a private airport near Woodruff, South Carolina, which promotes general aviation and radio-controlled model airplanes through a number of events events and educational activities each year.

On April 21st, Triple Tree sponsored a presentation by Richard Gould Woodhull at the Hartness Hotel, off Highway 14, to talk about his experiences flying the U-2, an American spy plane. 

The U-2 typically flies above 70,000 feet, and is nick-named the “Dragon Lady”.  

Originally, Dragon Lady was the name given the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project for which the original U-2s were built.  However, the airplane is called Dragon Lady by its pilots, because it is very difficult to fly.

First produced in 1955, the U-2 is one of five airplanes (the others being the B-52, C130, KC135, and C-5) which have been in use by the US Air Force for more than fifty years.  

Despite attempts to replace the U-2 with the SR-71 and various drones and even satellites, the U-2 continues to fly missions to the present day, 70 years later.  Those missions include air sampling at high altitudes, to collect particles such as those created by nuclear explosions, for weather monitoring, and photography of military installations.  

U-2s have flown all over the world.  All overflights of other countries are approved by the President.  The U-2’s most famous flight was made in May 1960 with Gary Francis Powers as pilot.  

Powers’ assignment was to overfly the Soviet Union (modern day Russia) from Pakistan to Norway.  But midway in the flight, a Soviet surface-to-air missile intercepted Powers’ U-2.  The Soviets retrieved the remains of the U-2, which were in good enough shape that the Soviets were able to identify much of the airplane’s equipment.   

U-2 project officials believed it was impossible to survive an accident at 70,000 feet, but Powers was able to bail out of the U-2 and parachute safely to the ground.  Captured by the Soviets, he was put on trial, convicted of spying, and imprisoned.  

The U-2 is 63 feet long, but has a wingspan of 103 feet.  While parked or when taxiing, outrigger struts are used to support each wing-tip, keeping the U-2 level.  The struts are removed just prior to take-off, and the wings are held level by support personnel until the U-2’s jet engine reaches full power and the airplane begins its takeoff roll.

The tips of the U-2’s wings include small vertical struts that act as skids when the U-2 lands and comes to a stop.

Landing with even a slight crosswind is problematic.  With such long wings, the U-2 cannot be banked into the wind.  When positioning the U-2 for the landing, a pilot must take into account the airplane’s drift.

Landing a U-2 is very difficult.  The pilot cannot see the ground from the cockpit, and has no way to judge his height.  The U-2 has a single large wheel near the wing’s leading edge, and a smaller wheel near the tail.  The smaller wheel must touch down first, or the airplane will ground-loop (spin around), causing serious damage.  When landing, a chase car follows the U-2 with another U-2 pilot in radio contact, announcing the U-2’s distance above the ground.  When the pilot is told the distance to the ground is less than 2 feet, he cuts the jet’s power, the plane’s airspeed drops, the wings stall, and the airplane falls to the runway.  

Woodhall’s book, “Flying High – Memoir of a Thirty Year Adventure” is easy reading, and supplies a great many more details of not only flying a U-2, but also the rigors of training to become a USAF pilot,  his U-2 flying assignments, his promotion and his assignment to manage the entire the U-2 program.  Woodhall finished his thirty years with the USAF as a full colonel, and was then hired by Boeing as a military aircraft salesman.

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