LaRonge and the USAF U2

[ehbuddy]

I thought this was an interesting tidbit...........

http://www.lswilson.ca/u2.htm

[BGH]

My father was part of a U2 recovery about that time,he told me about it a few years ago.He was RCAF on DC3's on skiis then.The way my dad told me it was in the dead of night in the dark of winter & the pilot deadsticked it onto the frozen lake saving the aircraft.

Daryl

[buzzinaround]

I believe there might be alot more to this story. I recently found something in a blog and a story about Flett Lake. In the search for the U2 they also discovered an aircraft that crashed months before. Its a great read!

http://northsaskatchewan.blogspot.ca/
Scroll down to the Flett Lake Adventure.

[bmc]

You mean to tell me that the Americans were spying on Saskatchewan and we didn't shoot them down?

The liberal must have been in office at the time.

[Siddley Hawker]

Naw, they were spying on Dief the Chief.

[Rowdy]

Naw, they were spying on Dief the Thief.

Here. I corrected that for you

[Moose47]

G'day

If I read the story right, the U-2 supposedly went missing in September of 1951. Bit of a problem here. The first official flight of the Lockheed U-2 did not take place until the 4st of August, 1955. It was flown during a 36 minute test flight by legendary test pilot Tony LeVier at Groom Lake, Nevada. On the 1st of August, 1955 the U-2 inadvertently left the ground during high speed taxi tests.

If I read it wrong, disregard this posting and forget you ever read it!

Cheers...Chris

[624]

Here's what I read:

15 March 1960 - Captain Roger Cooper landed his U-2 on frozen Wapawekka lake in Saskatchewan after suffering an electrical failure. He was flying U2 tail # 66717 at the time on an Operation Crowflight. The U-2 was still a Top Secret aircraft at the time of this incident - although the subsequent shooting down of Francis Gary Powers in his U-2 over Russia on 1 May 1960 made the U-2 a "household word" around the world.
RCAF Station Cranberry Portage arranged for snow clearing on the lake by a Lac La Ronge contractor. A C-119 landed on the ice with a new engine and the U-2 was flown off the lake . Personnel from Cranberry Portage were used as guards at the site.

My old friend Mel Hegland, RIP Mel, told me this story 20 years ago. His dad was the contractor from La Ronge who plowed the runway for the U-2 departure.

I cold never find anything on it for years.

Mel had the greatest stories and was a pleasure to work with.

[lost in the north]

He was a great man...

[grimey]

G'day

If I read the story right, the U-2 supposedly went missing in September of 1951. Bit of a problem here. The first official flight of the Lockheed U-2 did not take place until the 4st of August, 1955. It was flown during a 36 minute test flight by legendary test pilot Tony LeVier at Groom Lake, Nevada. On the 1st of August, 1955 the U-2 inadvertently left the ground during high speed taxi tests.

If I read it wrong, disregard this posting and forget you ever read it!

Cheers...Chris

yea. The 1960 landing is fairly well documented, but I can't find anything about a fatal crash in Canada, in any year. I did find this while looking though, which someone may find interesting. A partially redacted CIA book about the U2, it's development, and operations.

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for- ... 974/u2.pdf

[grimey]

As an aside, I watched (on radar, he was too high to see) a U2 fly overhead CYTH while I was an FSS there. He was off radar for 20NM as he passed directly over the SSR at FL600. No, I never spoke to him.

[grimey]

It was flown during a 36 minute test flight by legendary test pilot Tony LeVier at Groom Lake, Nevada. On the 1st of August, 1955 the U-2 inadvertently left the ground during high speed taxi tests.

From the book I linked to above...

A second taxi trial followed on 1 August. LeVier Accelerated to 70 knots and began to try the ailerons. "It was at that point thatI became aware of being airborne," LeVier noted afterward, "which left me with utter amazement, as I had no intentions whatsoever of flying. I immediately started back toward the ground, but had difficulty determining my height because the lakebed had no markings to judge distance or height. I made contact with the ground in a left bank of approximately 10 degrees". The U-2 bounced back into the air, but LeVier was able to bring it back down for a second landing. He then applied the brakes with little effect, and the aircraft rolled for a long distance before coming to a stop."

[shaune]

Mayor Mel told me this story also. Said that some guys in suits came to his dad's door with a briefcase of money, looking for some Cat work to be done.