The Many Guises of the Dragon Lady v1.3 - A Tentative Guide to External Differences of Small Wings U-2s

[Kekelekou]

Hello fellow modellers and aviation enthusiasts!

I am pleased to share with you the latest update of the booklet I have written in the last few months about the external differences of the first generation photo-reconnaissance, air sampling and SIGINT U-2s.

Each item that went though a modification is listed and a very short technical description is given.

Due to the confidentiality of the project and of the missions flown, many questions remain open about such differences. Even Chris Pocock, the top authority on the subject who very kindly answered to many of my questions and proofread the file, could not give definitive answers on some introduction dates or the functionality of several items.

So the scoop of the guide is limited to CIA or SAC articles dedicated to photo-recce, air sampling or SIGINT missions. There are waaaaay too many equipments flown by the NASA or the Air Force Test squadrons for me to cover them all.

This guide is by no means perfect of comprehensive, but I gave my best shot and I do hope it will be of some use for you to learn a little more about this fascinating high flying, aerial photography, jet-power motorglider.

Thanks to Chris Pocock and @Rob de Bie for their help.

And I will be pleased to read any comment/remark/correction about either the content or the wording!

Enjoy the read! EDIT on 29th October 20022 : Link updated to v1.3, points to a short URL for analytics reasons

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by Kekelekou
v1.3 out

[Kekelekou]

Hello chaps!

 

Just spotted a mistake regarding the sunshade color : black was the standard for Black Velvet livery from the beginning. White is not-standard. Nothing to do with early/late BV camo.

A few other items will be added to the v1.2, mostly related to hard-nose gear.

So stay tuned.

[Kekelekou]

v1.2 is out. Posted in the Jet modelling section.

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by Kekelekou

[Kekelekou]

v1.3 is out!

[Loach Driver]

Great bit of research. Thanks for sharing it.

 

LD.

[Kekelekou]

You are much welcome LD. Glad you like it!