U-2s at RAF Fairford
 
In the last few years America’s all black glider-like U-2s have become fairly common visitors to RAF Fairford although the dark cloud of mystery that surrounds them often means little gets said about them when they’re here. Usually we’ll post a few photos of each visitor to the web site and ‘acknowledge’ them on the Operations Board to prevent rumours but everything else we leave to the reader’s imagination. However now we bring a special article that explains some of what the U-2 does at Fairford and what makes this unusual aircraft different to anything else that visits the base.






 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

What Does RAF Fairford Do?

RAF Fairford is known to U-2 crews as an En-route Stop. Sometimes when the aircraft have to move between their operating bases positioned around the world the distance between the start and finish can be too long to travel in one flight, either the pilot would get too tired to land or the aircraft would run out of fuel. When this happens they’ll break the transit journey up and stopover somewhere along the route, in this case RAF Fairford. This gives the aircraft the chance to pick up more fuel and a rested pilot before continuing to the final destination. This is nothing unusual, bombers, fighters, airlift and tanker aircraft do it all the time but what makes the U-2 special is the amount of ground support the aircraft’s unique capabilities mean it requires.

 
Why RAF Fairford?

Selecting a base for a U-2 stopover is no simple task. The wide turning circles the aircraft has when taxiing means anywhere with a narrow runway or taxiways is out already. The aircraft has its own fuel that’s designed to be ‘thermally stable’ at high altitudes, that has to be available. Security requirements mean the base must have a hangar big enough to park the wide winged aircraft in, the pilots must have room to have people put on their bulky space suit for them and then pre-breath oxygen and much more. The unusual physiological stresses high altitude flight places on the human body also mean that specialist medical facilities must be close to the airfield.


In the mid-1990s RAF Fairford was home to OL-UK, the European U-2 operation. It’s because that operation went smoothly that flight planners today confidently use Fairford as a stop-over base. They know the base’s airfield can physically handle the aircraft, they know it has the logistical support needed for their flights and they know they’ll get good service from the people on base. Some of these requirements make a typical busy American air base unsuitable for U-2 operations while Fairford is perfect.
 








 


What Happens?

There’s no regular pattern or programme that determines when a U-2 will come to Fairford but when the transit mission plan is started a little over 20 ground support personnel will fly to the UK then travel to the base. They’ll include pilots, a flight doctor and flight ops officers and the airframe technicians, the physiological staff and maintenance people. Arriving a couple of days before the aircraft is due they’ll unpack the ground equipment shipped in for them, prepare the space suit for the pilot who’ll fly the aircraft out and start checking the weather forecasts. Weather is a big concern for the flights as the aircraft is a lot more sensitive to strong gusts and cross winds than normal aircraft. There’s no official divert base for the aircraft when it comes to Fairford, any decision to stop the aircraft coming after take off would either mean it returning to base or a fast drive to get the ground support team to the new landing airfield. This is very rare and usually flights go as planned.










 






 

When flying up high the pilots need protection against the potentially fatal surroundings at the edge of space. To protect them they wear space suits, bright yellow bulky pressure suits which can inflate in an emergency to protect them against depressurization. The pilots need a team of specialists to help them put on the Dave Clarke suits and then prepare their bodies medically for high altitude flight. Costing $180,000 each and tailor made for every pilot the suits need to be handled carefully and pilots mustn’t walk any further than they have to so vehicles must be on standby to ferry them around. After having a high protein breakfast the pilots will suit up then pre-breath pure oxygen for an hour before flight which removes the nitrogen in their blood.

To keep the pilot nourished during their flight they carry bottles of fluids to drink and tubes of processed food. The food tubes and bottles have long drinking straw like tubes on them which can be pushed through a valve in the suit's helmet.





 







 

Being sat in a space suit in high cockpit position means the pilots can rarely see around or beneath their aircraft. To allow them to land safely a chase car known as the Mobile is used. The car driven by a qualified U-2 pilot will drive along side the aircraft down the runway as it approaches touchdown and call out the height remaining over the radio. Rental cars are used for this job when they’re at Fairford, the only lease requirements being that they can carry four men and a radio, have automatic transmission and can reach 130+ mph so they can catch up with the aircraft. At more permanent U-2 bases dedicated Chevy Cameros are used.

 


 








What Do The Crews Think Of Fairford?

The simple answer is they love it, they love coming to Fairford and seeing England. There’s always time for them to take trips to London, Swindon, Stonehenge and the pubs local to the base. Crews used comments like ‘They take care of us here and make sure we get what we need to do our job’, ‘People always want to come here’ and of course ‘Being here means I’m not somewhere bad!’



Many thanks to everyone at RAF Fairford and the visitors
from Beale AFB who made this article possible.