Most TAH readers know a bit (or more than a bit) about the Lockheed U-2. I\u2019d guess some may even have worked on projects or operations involving that airccraft.<\/p>\n
But without a bizarre-sounding suggestion from one of the technicians during the early days of the project, the aircraft may have been doomed to failure. Once upon a time, \u201cfeminine sanitary supplies\u201d may indeed have saved the U-2 project from failure.<\/p>\n
Seriously.<\/p>\n
. . . <\/b><\/p>\n
The earliest U-2s suffered from an oil-loss problem with potentially catastrophic consequences. <\/p>\n
The first U-2\u2019s cockpit defogging systems used compressed air from the aircraft\u2019s engine, bled off after the compressor stages, as its source. The original engine was designed for operation at much lower altitudes; at the U-2s very high altitudes, lubricating oil seeped around seals and formed a fine mist in that compressed air.<\/p>\n
This resulted in oil loss while flying \u2013 very severe oil loss, enough to threaten the aircraft with total oil loss on a long mission. And although most of that lost oil was burned in the engine, because some air was bled off from the compressor for the defogging system it also resulted in a significant amount of oil deposited on the aircraft\u2019s windscreen. That (oil mist in the cockpit air with depositing of oil film on the windscreen) resulted in both fire and visual hazards.<\/p>\n
Either problem by itself? Not good. Both together? \u201cDouble-plus ungood.\u201d (smile)<\/p>\n
Accounts vary somewhat on what happened next. The late Ben Rich \u2013 Kelly Johnson\u2019s successor at Lockheed\u2019s famous Skunk Works, which designed and built the U-2 \u2013 was at the time responsible for the air intake system on the U-2. His account, found in his book Skunk Works<\/u>, states that one of the Lockheed technicians suggested to him that that they \u201cpack Kotex around the damn thing and absorb the mess before it hits the windshield\u201d (or words to that effect). Rich in turn pitched the idea to Kelly Johnson; Johnson\u2019s response was reportedly words to the effect of, \u201cWhat the hell, give it a try.\u201d And it worked.<\/p>\n