James May rides in a U2

[Christien]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Top Gear fills a great niche...we TIVO every show and watch it as a family, laughing all the way.

Agreed - it's the only car-related show my wife will watch! She loved the polar expedition special.

[450knotOffice]

Originally Posted by Christien

Agreed - it's the only car-related show my wife will watch! She loved the polar expedition special.

Yep. My wife loves Top Gear. So do I.

I'll download the show via BitTorrent. What's the name of the show so I can find it?

[Sonic dB]

great video thanks for sharing

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by 450knotOffice

Yep. My wife loves Top Gear. So do I.

I'll download the show via BitTorrent. What's the name of the show so I can find it?

This is the only Top Gear site you need: http://www.finalgear.com/ As soon as the torrent is available each week they'll link to it. Typically I can have it downloaded by early evening so we can watch it as a family. My wife protests, but I think she deep down enjoys the show. The first show of the new season was 13x01, scroll down the page and you'll see the link.

[t951]

I agree completely with what you guys have said:

All of the Top Gear presenters are great. Each is unique and they can stand up on their own, or part of that magical blend that makes TG great.

The cinematography is awesome, as is the music....they got LedZep in that one!

James is a funny bloke. His "angry" comments always make me laff, ("You utter pirate")

This show was really cool. I have d/l'ed all of the different shows that they have done. Make sure you watch Top Garden Gear Force. They basically redo a former Olympians garden....with Top Gear type results. Brilliant.

The U2 is still awesome. Makes you wonder what they have now. Prob satellites do it all, but still, what a plane. It's amazing how much work, and how many people it takes just to get you up in the super glider...

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Geronimo '74

Thanks for sharing!

Like the pilot said, godsmacked is the right term.
May, you lucky sob!

i always thought it was gobsmacked... getting smacked by god wouldn't be fun...although i'm sure it would render you speechless as well .

Great stuff though, them Top Gear boys are indeed lucky sob's... not only do they have the best job in the world, they have the best sideshow job's as well...

[911Freak]

3 years ago:

When I was taking my very 1st GA training flight at the Chico airport in NorCal (which is located north of Beale AFB) we were rolling out to the end of the runway and over the radio we are advised to watch out ofr the "P3" doing touch and goes....

So low and behold I look left and what do I see but a U2 trainer not 50 feet away just about 10" off the runway!

P3 my azz! So we roll out to take off position and just sat and watched this beautiful bird so soft and smoothly touch the runway and raise right back up

Eventually we take off and see the same U2 doing a go around at about 8k feet or so to do another touch and go... Freaking mind blowing for me a super big fan of all the military & stealth planes...

The next hour was a blurr as I was concentrating on learning to fly, set my trim correctly etc all the while this beautiful U2 is circling around..

Come time to land our little T72 and there he is again coming down for another touch and go!

I couldn't wait to get out of the plane and call my family of pilots to share my experience..

Loved it loved it loved it

From what my instructor was telling me they do this all the time,,

Also, from our property in the footthills south of Chico (again directly north of Beale) watching these U2's and fighters practice air to air refueling is a common occurrence

[450knotOffice]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

This is the only Top Gear site you need: http://www.finalgear.com/ As soon as the torrent is available each week they'll link to it. Typically I can have it downloaded by early evening so we can watch it as a family. My wife protests, but I think she deep down enjoys the show. The first show of the new season was 13x01, scroll down the page and you'll see the link.

Thanks. I've already downloaded the first episode via Bit Torrent (last week). Was that U2 show a Top Gear episode?

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by javadog

Somewhere around 35-40 minutes, most likely.

JR

A bit less than that to tell the truth.

We used to pick up films from the U-2's based in Taif Saudi Arabia during the war and got to know the pilots pretty well. They would climb at a very nice rate the first minute or so, then settle down after that, but they would easily see 20,000 feet the first minute after takeoff unless they were chock full of fuel.

Problem that they had was descent, where it usually took 1-2 hours to get the bird back down. Their range between MMO (mach overspeed) and stall at higher altitudes is as little as 10-12 knots, so even after you pull the engine back to idle if there was even the slightest bit of thermal activity it would take forever to get the ship down.

I have three very good friends who flew the U-2/TR-1 and or SR-71. It was the pinnacle of their career in the US Air Force.

[pwd72s]

So the U2 is still flying...for some reason I always thought the blackbird had grounded it...

[Joeaksa]

Paul,

NASA has one or two of them flying, and they are still quite a few on active duty with the Air Force. Last I heard they were talking about keeping it airborne until 2014 or so, waiting for a replacement platform to get in the air.

The SR-71 retired (unfortunately) in 1998. That we know of there is no replacement in the air at this time for the -71. Satellites simply cannot be "re-tasked" as often as needed nor as quickly as it was possible to dispatch a -71, so we have a large hole in our airborne intel net now. Grounding the -71 was a political event done internally in the Air Force.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Christien

May seems to get the shaft on top gear frequently - he's the butt of jokes (albeit good-natured), etc. but he's done 2 things so far that absolutely make up for all of that - drive the Veyron at 300mph and this. Screw the Ferraris, Lambos, and all those other supercars. Seeing the actual curvature of the earth is on a completely different level.

If I ever make enough money to buy a space flight, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I agree, I thought the same thing while watching, He got to drive the Veyron at 253mph (not 300) and take this flight. THose are pretty monumental. Not only that, but he got personal driving lessons from Jackie Stewart, that's pretty cool too.

Hamster was nearly killed going 300mph in a jet car. That's monumental, but not really in the same way.

[jeffgrant]

Torrent can be found here: http://www.mininova.org/tor/2711629

It's called James May on the Moon, Part 1

He basically relives the moon race, and goes on the Vomit Comet, flies in a U2, does 30 seconds in a 5g centrifuge, etc.

Awesome show.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

They would climb at a very nice rate the first minute or so, then settle down after that, but they would easily see 20,000 feet the first minute after takeoff unless they were chock full of fuel.

I realize that there were many variants of the U2, but a typical "published" climb rate was 5,000 fpm at low altitudes. Surely they didn't sandbag the rate that much....

20,000 fpm?

JR

[Joeaksa]

Have you ever seen one in person? Talk with someone who has then ask them what it looks like.

They get off the runway and start a climb, get the gear in the wells and then point the nose right up.

A civilian jet I used to fly could do 14,000 feet per minute through 10,000 feet, and it has no where near the wings that the U-2 does. Look up the performance on a Lear 60.

[javadog]

Yes, I have seen a U2. Here's the thing, though. The initial climb to say, 60,000 feet is done much faster than than the cruise climb from that altitude to the final altitude. I'm still betting that they took the better part of 45 minutes to reach 70,000 feet.

It doesn't matter, anyway.

JR

[MFAFF]

http://www.blackbirds.net/u2/u-2mission.html

Gives a bit of an insight...I think he's refering to the earlier U-2s.. not the TR-1 onwards generation.

[m21sniper]

I remember reading once that the the difference between wing stall and max speed for a U-2 at op. alt is a mere 35 knots.

[javadog]

I think it is more like 10 knots. Not an easy plane to fly, I'd wager.

JR

[m21sniper]

BTW, i think Mike Rowe from the Discovery Channel is as good a narrator/presenter as any i have ever seen.