The U-2 Pilot Who Forgot How To Fly MIDFLIGHT 

Im gonna use this

@@jimboyarab1072 It's seriously really useful.

Wow

Long time no see, RU-vid Notifications broke. Also why arent the su35 crash video / short showing up in your channel page

ngl it genuinely sounds like an incredibly useful platform

Not to mention just have been delivered permanent brain damage

@pyropulse his brain was also damaged

@pyropulse By your logic, no one can ever do anything extraordinary since if they are able to do it, then it must have been easy.

@pyropulse Ok Mr Intelligent. He landed perfectly even after having fking bubble in his brain. Yeah that was too easy. 🤡

​@pyropulse You're conveniently ignoring the part where: A. Pressurized cabins don't fully normalize until you're already on the tarmac B. he had suffered literal brain damage. (Plus the lingering but temporary effects that were immediately impairing him on top of that)

The Perlan Project has already operated their glider to well over seventy thousand feet. Not even using an engine. I think they've gotten up around 75,000ft.. I think think their next goal is 90,000ft.

It gets worse. Because the wingspan is so long, any higher, and even a gentle turn in the coffin corner on the U-2 can result in the inboard wing stalling out, while the outboard wing goes supersonic and risks structural damage. This is because in a turn, the outboard wing has to move slightly faster than the fuselage relative to the air, while the inboard wing moves slightly slower.

@@stephenalexander6721 you beat me to this. Perlan topped out at 76000 (pulled airbrakes at 70000) and you're correct with the next altitude being 90,000 ft. I think they're attempting that next year. All done in mountain wave.

I learned during a conversation with one of our Squadron’s U2 pilots; going supersonic is a condition that is very easy to get into. Thankfully the stick shaker engages to alert the pilot to pull up. He also said there was also some time to take it a little easier. He related to me that on a particular mission, he was feeling pretty relaxed, but also realized that he needed to correct a penciled notation. He rubbed the eraser as we all do, and then reflexively, tried to blow the eraser dust of of the pad ! thought that was so cool

@@gonegliding2966 I find it fascinating.

Yeah it's crazy they let that minimum level of pressurization last as long as they did. This plane was designed in the 50's technology had increased enough for them to fix it but they just let it go until 16 people were injured.

I WUZ A PILOT BUT NOW I LIKE APPLE JUCE. DO U LIKE APPLE JUCE????

Can you imagine being one of those 16 people?

@@bobbygetsbanned6049 typical government run anything..

16+ people. There must've been decompression sickness cases back during the Cold War that were not reported. Yes, the chances of getting the sickness increased when they started flying longer and more frequently and doing more stuff in the air but that doesn't mean the chance of getting the sickness was 0% during the Cold War.

Yep sadly its only got 2 years of service left.

​@@doomsday9973 we've got tons of satellites up there that can stream data back in real-time. With the U2 they've got to wait until it gets back and lands, then process the 2 mile long spool of film, then wait for the analysts to review it all. With a satellite they get realtime intel. I understand the nostalgia, but we're not losing much, if anything, in the way of surveillance capabilities.

@@ParadigmUnkn0wn didn’t say we were. But the U2 is used today for far more than it’s old spy plane role. It was primarily used for battle management during iraq/Afghanistan for example. They call it a flying truck because of all the different payloads it can carry for different missions. Also the cameras are all digital now. No film. we’ve had spy satellites for decades and we still use the U2. Satellites are great but they have their limitations as well. What’s really replacing the U2 is drones not satellites

@@ParadigmUnkn0wn the military doesn't just spend millions on useless missions 'For the nostalgia'. If they still use a ships or plane or tank as much as the U2, there's a reason for it.

@@cookiecraze1310 you're right, they definitely don't waste millions on useless missions... like Operation Chrome Dome. Where we kept nuclear armed B-52s in the air 24/7. It made sense before the US and Russia had mature ICBM programs and nuclear armed submarines, but they kept it going for years after that and the result was accidentally dropping multiple nukes, one of which even had a partial detonation of its conventional explosives that failed to initiate a thermonuclear event, but scattered radioactive material across the ground. At least one lost nuke was never found, down near Tybee Island, Georgia, USA. The fact the military is retiring the U2 kinda tells you what you need to know. They hold onto stuff until a viable replacement is well established, much like with Chrome Dome where they kept running it well after its usefulness was questionable thanks to newer solutions.

I get the joke but I am not sure "forgot" was in the vocabulary back in 2006

💀💀💀

Kevin forgor💀

this should really be a pinned comment

5:25

🥈

lol

You forgot how to fly before exam??? 😱

@@vyneshindenmc6181 😱OmG

Before this gets out of hand, i was just being sarcastic xd

Thank you!

My Dad worked on the U-2 program. Randy Duffey. He was last stationed at Beale A.F.B. installed glass cockpits.

He descended too fast?

@@angeloftheabyss5265 I assume it would be similar to ascending too fast for a diver and getting the benz.

@@Broken_Orbital If you got a free Mercedes for ascending too fast we'd all be doing it.

I used to see Kevin at the True Value in Penn Valley!!

@@TimberWolf21 Awesome! We used to live in Grass Valley

Did he have permanent partial brain damage? Why was he retired?

I'm curious, I don't know much about it but was Kevin and the others affected satisfied with the military's explanation? To me it sounds more like a defect of the suit, plane, or some sort of tech within the U2 that they don't want to go into detail about so they just blame it on longer missions and movement, which if true is still an oversight/negligence within leadership so they are admitting some fault but it doesn't make much sense to me that adding 4 hours of flight time will exponentially increase those symptoms/issues

@@StayProteus I imagine it’s similar to the charts divers use 4 hours under pressure or lack there of certainly has an exponential effect

That's cool!

Dang I'm jealous

If you can get the funds go for your ppl! It can be tough but it’s worth it

My brother is a pilot and let me fly the first time I flew with him. Simply flying a plane is surprisingly easy and intuitive. Oh and lots of fun.

Idk why but I thought this would be a joke about the book hatchet

I know, right! At least I hope that Kevin can still play flight simulator games on their computer, it is better than no more flight experience at all, one of my friends is a Cessna pilot and when he is not able to fly in person he likes to fly in flight simulators on his computer, he has a yoke & throttle controller and such.

He was in charge of million dollar equipment, but now he can't even hold a job parking cars. 😟

I highly recommend you also through in a "Honey, it's not what you think!" in there 😉

Ive only seen the B2, but several times at Griffiss afb, Rome, Ny. I still have yet to see a U2, SR71, or U2. Hoping to make it to OshKosh next year to at leaat catch a glimpse of a U2.

@@jonbonson75 good luck with that, it’s truly a sight to behold

It was exciting to me also but after 8yrs not so much lol. It's is a fascinating plane and was privileged enough to get to be part of the U-2 program and know some amazing pilots.

I believe he was suffering from the bends also as his ankle started hurting early on in the flight.

@@NotWhatYouThink damn you were actually offended by that, huh? Good thing this vid raked in a million views so you can make up for your insecurity with $$

@@tsnstonepilot5375 lmfao shut up

@@tsnstonepilot5375 ??

@@tsnstonepilot5375 What part of his sentence indicated he was offended?

Happens to the best of us.

Ever seen a video of people in an oxygen deprivation test? There's a good one where 2 people are unable to add 2+2. Oxygen deprivation is insidious.

Yeaa it's not that. It just flies really high. Literally every 4th gen fighter is more technologically advanced.

It's a 50s plane with some upgrades, hardly anything advanced. It just has some special flying conditions.

@@nickcook2775 8

And apparently they let these guys fly solo. Jesus

I remember that movie, I think. They were searching for a mechanism to precisely control the flow of oxygen and settled on a lipstick applicator.

Will check that out.. thanks for sharing

the U-2most respect

LOL

Well of course that's due to the alien visitors.

@@tomcline5631 Yes of course, not at all because the of the renaissance and more consistent education, more peaceful time period, no no no! All because of the Aliens that you have no evidence exist! (sarcasm)

The 19th century was pretty damned impressive too. It started with technology scarcely better than medieval times. It ended with the steam engine, the telephone, telegraph, the automobile, the railroad, electric lighting, and on the cusp of flight and radio.

@@tomcline5631 no it was the Roman's in the hollow earth

@Micah Eiber,what philosophy is that from? Seriously,the world rests on the back of an elephant...is it Hindu? The northern European, (I'm not sure of the culture anymore) believed the earth rested on the back of a turtle. Serious question,really! I used to study different religions/ mythologies.

The ability to fly is entirely memory related there are no reflexes like that. A reflex is a physiological reaction to outside stimuli. Humans all share the same basic reflexes, flying a plane is not one of them. He most likely immediately panicked and an air force pilot at the base had to tell him to do everything down to the minutest detail.

@@drkevinsmithFRCPath no You can train reflexes I’ve done martial arts since I’m six,… if you push me over, I roll and I stand back up before I even realize what just happened (it happened) There are reflexes based in flying, especially when it comes to landing The turbulence based movements of a plane on approach have to be balanced out and corrected faster than you could consciously think about them

@@arwo1143 Your example and what the pilot was experiencing are completely different. What you are describing is muscle memory. Landing a plane has nothing to do with muscle memory, as there are way more factors involved. Even more is the fact that the pilot was landing at an unknown airbase, not his home base.

Flying has very little muscle memory evolved especially when you are talking about navigation

As a pilot I'd say that muscle memory plays a huge part in ability to fly, though it's certainly not the only factor. At least for the basic flight controls, muscle memory is a big factor in making the airplane go where you want it to go, similar driving a car or riding a bike. That being said, higher order functions like advanced systems and navigation still require critical thinking

They are the pogos.

Think of them like training gear until the plane gets fast enough for lift to do its job

the 80 day miracle of genius

Johnson

Johnson

Johnson

Glad you enjoyed it!

Youre kidding me, how?!?!? Ive puked easily over 100 times and im 28 and this isnt me boasting I freaking hate it.

What the fuck that’s actually extremely impressive

I’ve vomited more times in a day than u have in ur life and I’m 10 years younger than u

you dont drink enough, that's your problem

I'm 34 and I've only vomited once from sickness so far. But I've vomited about 8-10 times from alcohol intoxication in my early drinking days till I started to tolerate a blood-alcohol level of 2,5 - 3.0 without problems.

Yes, you’re correct! We actually considered including that fact in the video, because it’s kinda cool how DCS gets fixed as pilots descend. That said, once DCS gets severe enough, it can cause permanent damage, as it did to Kevin’s brain. So I wouldn’t think everything would have been ok for him at the time of landing. You know what I mean?

@@NotWhatYouThink Maybe if he had dropped altitude sooner, but with something as fragile as the U2 that may not be possible.

@@NotWhatYouThink yea I know what you mean if the DCS has caused brain cell deaths it’s not a good day regardless if the bubbles have gone now or not.

Reduction in altitude would probably mean loss of both the aircraft and the pilot, remember he was over hostile territory for a good bit of the flight. Also the escort aircraft reported that he also approached the ground on multiple occasion. DCS does not clear up as soon as you return to the correct pressure, it can take several hours to days to remove the nitrogen bubbles, depending on how severe the case is. The bubbles do NOT go back into the bloodstream anywhere nearly as quick as they came out.

Glad you enjoyed it! No association with the military. We use publicly available records and footage.

They can and do calculate this. However, the pilot was forced to deviate from the procedure. As soon as he opened his helmet he rapidly decompressed. It would be similar to a diver rushing to the surface after a long/deep dive even though the charts/computer said to ascend at a much slower rate.

Cheers!

why do they call it the bends?

@user-ey5jl2so7b in the old days of scuba diving, the Divers would go deep(100-ish ft) and come back without doing a safety stop (they had not figured that part out yet) They would bend over due to the excruciating pain

Yeah, having bubbles popping in your brain sounds quite disorienting

"Your injury has been deemed non-service related". "oh so it happened went I went to 70,000ft on my own time?

BS! That is a Blatant LIE!

The downside is often all three branches fund programs investigating/developing the same damn thing then all cancel them for some other companies bid a few years and a couple billion later.

@@MrDJAK777 Yeah it's not perfect, I can't help but feel a sense of pride when thinking about them though

@@MrDJAK777 yes that's true and that's what makes US absolutely different from rest of the countries ( I don't encourage or support to waste resources including money) they want result not worrying about money. If that is streamlined and make sure there working is protected bcoz they are investing billions of $ in R&D but potential opponents are bypassing that if that is taken care of then I hope thay will remain dominated for few more decades or atleast one

Spoken by someone that obviously has had no long term experience with the DoD. Just ask any 20+yr veteran or thier family.

I guess losing highly trained pilots to permanent brain damage was costing enough to take some action.

Scott

Link?

Not sure how much higher they could fly. At some point, the control surfaces would not be able to maneuver the aircraft due to the thin atmosphere.

@@NotWhatYouThink hmm, maybe they could have small thrusters, like spacecrafts have, at the tip of the wings for maneuvering at the max altitude.

Yeah of course you can add rockets to it. It's just not a U-2 plane anymore.

@@NotWhatYouThink Yeah of course. I was thinking of some kind of new concept :)

@Jaxon Kennedy Yeah absolutely. Although I have no idea if x37 can do spying missions.

Decompression or nitrogen narcosis ?

@@richardsolberg4047 sorry, it was nitrogen narcosis. I always mix those two up

Youre not my dad I will do it

Aircrew flying long missions are fed high protein, low roughage meals prior to flight to reduce the likelihood they have to have a bowel movement. However this doesn’t always work and then the fighter-type crew are faced with the choice of either aborting the mission or “letting it go” suffering the results until they finish the mission. I had a single-seat fighter pilot friend who spent most of a flight from the US to Spain sitting in his own poo.

@@ericbainter826 Damn that's rough

You should urgently consider changing your diet do more sport and get off playing video games with no end.

@@dipling.pitzler7650 assuming to much with no knowledge of what this person does with their life

It's not better than regular air. Usually breathing pure oxygen poses serious risk of uncovering a sensitivity which some people may have, this is also why airforce pilots are medically tested to the extremes. Sensivitiescan include loss of consciousness, fatigue, nausea and in severe cases of prolonged (as in days at a time) pure oxygen exposure some brain damage could occur, but this has almost no confirmed cases and the only confirmed ones were combined with other body issues. Despite all this, it's probably fine for anyone, just not for too long.

I did an oxygen bar at the airport in las vegas. It kinda makes you feel a little more energetic and refreshed but it could be mostly placebo.

Most of the time, your blood oxygen should be above 95% in normal conditions, your blood doesn't really have room to accommodate much extra so it doesn't really benefit you

He ended up having another mini-episode, which wasn’t as bad as this one, but was enough to disqualify him from flying the U-2.