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Spoke with a resident of our area today who was a U2 pilot during Viet Nam. He advised me that chase/landing coordinator vehicles in their squadron were Camaros during his tours. He had an interesting story to share about the Camaros. The base commander was rotating back to the states and wanted to take one of the Camaros with him. The U2 squadron commander advised they belong to the U2 squadron and not the base motor pool. After a urinating match and a check of the records the base commander lost and did not take a Camaro back to the states with him.
I memtioned this a while back also. Check on HISTORY.COM (the history channel) or the MILITARY channel. The both have presented documentary shows on thew U2/TR2 and the SR-71. If you check those sites and search for U2, you might find pictures from the programs. Interesting point was that these "chases' down the runway to keep the pilot apprised of his aircraft/ground proximity during landing often exceeded 130 mph. Some job huh!
I have been associated with the U-2 for 37 years as a Lockheed-Martin employee. I was on the CIA and NASA side of things until 1983 and we didn't use chase vehicles. After going to the Air Force side of things in 1983, we used El Caminos for chase cars. El Caminos were followed by Mustangs, then Camaros and now the Camaros are being replaced by Pontiacs. The purpose of the chase car (mobile pilot) is to call out the last 10 feet to the pilot as forward vision is difficult when landing. The mobile pilot is also there to assist the mission pilot in other ways such as an IFE (in flight emergency). The chase car normally gets to well over 100 MPH chasing the U-2 down the runway on landing. The chase car is also used on take off to assist the pilot as well. I've ridden along with the mobile pilot many times and it's always a thrill to go from a full stop to over 100 MPH in a matter of seconds.
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