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Old 11-21-2019, 05:33 AM
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StainlessSteelCynic StainlessSteelCynic is offline
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Default Semi-OT: Today I learnt that the U-2 was tested for carrier suitability

I admit, I'm posting this because it's utter madness and utterly cool... like the time the US tested the C-130 landing on an aircraft carrier (so yeah, the topic fascinates me).

Randomly looking for military topics on Youtube, I found a vid (no audio unfortunately) of carrier trials of a U-2G on USS Ranger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8HMPMYL19E

Looking a little further into the topic, I found the following timeline of the U-2 and it mentions that tests were first conducted on the USS Kitty Hawk and then the USS Ranger in August 1963 and March 1964 respectively.
It also mentions that a U-2 was launched from Ranger to gather particle samples from French nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll.
https://www.blackbirds.net/u2/u2-timeline/u2tl60.html

And finally a decent website with an article about the whole deal (as opposed to the clickbait websites that mentioned it because it was cool but offered no info or opinion, other than it was cool)...
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/yes...s-ce2b020bfab6
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