THE PILGRIM
Member
Did you guys know that a U2 landed at Cortez? It was the Cold War, before satellites and all that neat stuff. We needed to know what our potential enemies were up to. So Lockheed and the CIA came up with the U2. It was basically a powered glider that would cruise at 75,000 feet.
We flew the U2 over the USSR, most famously Gary Powers got shot down. But we needed to also overfly Red China. The Taiwanese Chinese had overflown there for years, so it was their mission.
By this time the U2 program had moved from Area 51, Groom Lake down to Del Rio, TX. The first U2 I ever saw was down there. So six Nationalist Chinese pilots were selected to train in the U2 in Del Rio.
So on Aug 3, 1959 Mike Hua was flying a night training mission. His flight plan was to go up to Ogden, UT and then back to Del Rio. Everything went well until he made a turn at Delta, UT. Heading SSE out of Delta his engine flamed out. He lost cockpit pressurization and his high altitude pressure suit inflated. He was at 70,000 and needed to be below 35,000 for a restart. He descended into clouds at 40,000. He attempted unsuccessful restarts below 35,000. He was just about ready to bail out when he saw something he did not expect. Runway lights.
The two guys who were still at the Cortez Airport were about ready to then off the lights and go home. Mike Hua managed to make a successful approach and gear up landing, with only minor aircraft damage.
When he walked into the terminal in his funny looking suit and explained in his limited English that he was a Chinese pilot flying a secret US airplane-
They finally believed him.
The U2 was flown out in a cargo plane, and repaired to new condition.
Mike Hua became a general in the Taiwanese Air Force, got a PHD from Purdue, later lived in Maryland.
We flew the U2 over the USSR, most famously Gary Powers got shot down. But we needed to also overfly Red China. The Taiwanese Chinese had overflown there for years, so it was their mission.
By this time the U2 program had moved from Area 51, Groom Lake down to Del Rio, TX. The first U2 I ever saw was down there. So six Nationalist Chinese pilots were selected to train in the U2 in Del Rio.
So on Aug 3, 1959 Mike Hua was flying a night training mission. His flight plan was to go up to Ogden, UT and then back to Del Rio. Everything went well until he made a turn at Delta, UT. Heading SSE out of Delta his engine flamed out. He lost cockpit pressurization and his high altitude pressure suit inflated. He was at 70,000 and needed to be below 35,000 for a restart. He descended into clouds at 40,000. He attempted unsuccessful restarts below 35,000. He was just about ready to bail out when he saw something he did not expect. Runway lights.
The two guys who were still at the Cortez Airport were about ready to then off the lights and go home. Mike Hua managed to make a successful approach and gear up landing, with only minor aircraft damage.
When he walked into the terminal in his funny looking suit and explained in his limited English that he was a Chinese pilot flying a secret US airplane-
They finally believed him.
The U2 was flown out in a cargo plane, and repaired to new condition.
Mike Hua became a general in the Taiwanese Air Force, got a PHD from Purdue, later lived in Maryland.
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