The Fast and Furious Chase Cars of the U-2 Spy Plane
The Dragon Lady is so notoriously difficult to land that the Air Force enlists high performance chase cars to safely guide it to the runway.
1. One Unique Problem
Most aircraft don't have much trouble landing without assistance on the ground, but the U-2 spy plane isn't most aircraft. Thanks to its very delicate 103 foot wide wings, the U-2 can't utilize the traditional landing gear setup of two mounted in the wings, plus one in the fuselage. It has to make due with just two sets of wheels - one up front and one out back, upon which it balances like a bicycle. As you can imagine, that makes landing pretty difficult. So difficult, in fact, that the Air Force uses high performance chase cars to help guide the planes down safely.
2. A Diverse Group of Characters
The Air Force has used a wide and diverse group of vehicles to assist with landing the U-2 over the years. They originally started with 50's Ford station wagons, before moving on to Chevy El Caminos, always with the highest performance spec drivetrain. They've also used highway patrol issue Fox body Mustangs, but soon moved on to much better rides like 4th generation Camaros, Pontiac GTOs, Pontiac G8, Corvette, and Camaros. When landing in Europe, they either fly in a chase car before hand, or utilize locally sources Mercedes AMG, or Audi high performance vehicles.
3. A Delicate Landing
Landing something this wonky on what amounts to a pair of training wheels is obviously a delicate process, and the pilot is in a high altitude pressure suit, so has limited visibility. That is where these fast cars come in. The chase car waits at the end of the runway for the U-2 as it's landing, pacing it at over 10025 mph to let the pilot know exactly how close he is to the ground. This gives the pilot, who's typically just returned from an eight or nine hour mission, an extra set of eyes as he tries to set the ultra expensive plane down gently.
4. History of Perfomance
After they ditched the Ford station wagons, and were using El Caminos in the 1980s, the Air Force borrowed a single 5.0 liter Mustang from the California Highway Patrol. The Mustang worked so well, they ordered 50 more. But when Chevy rolled out the fourth generation Camaro, the government made the switch to GM power and haven't looked back.
5. Modern Day Muscle
The Air Force replaced their Camaros with Pontiac GTOs in 2005. Those modern day muscle cars served them well for nearly a decade before they began replacing them with Pontiac G8s. Reports out of Australia just this past May indicate they are still using these today, as the U-2 flies missions over North Korea, which makes sense since the G8 tarted life as a Holden. While we don't doubt the usefulness of these high performance chase cars, we just wonder if they swap 'em out just so they can wring out different cars. Want to see what this crazy process looks like? How about a video shot during a training day while pilots practiced take off and landings.
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