Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 01:10:50 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Spy plane crash?

At 09:18 PM 6/22/05 EDT, MarkLFischer at aol.com wrote:

>The U2 design is based on the Schweizer 2-32 sailplane which, despite  its
>extreme age, is still the benchmark for efficient high-altitude  flight.

The U2 is a (heavily) modified F-104.  See this page for details:

http://area51specialprojects.com/genesis_u-2.html

It doesn't say how they came up with the wing design though.  It's
obviously either based on a glider of some sort, or just had similar design
requirements and so ended up looking like one.

Where did you hear that it was a Schweizer 2-32?  I'm not sure that's
possible...the U2 first flew in 1955.  I'm having problems finding a first
flight date for the 2-32, but the 2-31 was 1960
(http://www.aerofiles.com/_sa.html) and the 2-33 was 1967
(http://www.sacusa.com/corporate/history.asp).  I don't know if the model
numbers imply "birth order" or not.  The National Soaring Museaum has two
2-32s, both built in 1964, so it was around by then anyway.

http://www.sacusa.com/corporate/history.asp says that the Lockheed YO-3A
quiet observation airplane was built using parts of the 2-32 in
1968...could that be what you are thinking of?

In any case, the Schweizer 2-32 wing is based on NACA wing forms (NACA
63(3)-618, 4301 2A according to
http://www.sailplanedirectory.com/PlaneDetails.cfm?planeID=313), which were
publicly available for anyone to use I believe.  NACA was NASA's predecesor
(info at http://naca.larc.nasa.gov/?method=about).

For those keeping score, this one was based on the "general knowledge"
rule...I've seen shows about the U2's development before and didn't
remember anything about the Schweizer plane...just the F-104...so I did
more checking.  The results are above.

-- Mike B.
--
Everything you know is wrong.  But some of it is a useful first
approximation.