U-2: The drawback of an aircraft that leaves part of its landing gear behind during takeoff

The Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady is undoubtedly one of the most famous aircraft in history and one of the most associated with the Cold War era.

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The U-2 is a reconnaissance aircraft with a very peculiar design, since, due to its mission, it is a hybrid of glider and jet aircraft. Its fuselage is 19 meters long and its wingspan is 31 meters. It is a subsonic aircraft, capable of flying at a maximum speed of about 800 km/h, and its most notable characteristics are its service ceiling of about 21,000 meters and its range of 10,300 kilometers. However, its shape gives rise to certain drawbacks.

The U-2 has a landing gear consisting of two sets of wheels: a larger one at the front and a smaller one at the tail. In addition, this aircraft has two auxiliary skids with small wheels on each wing, which are only used during takeoff and detach as soon as it lifts off. This means that during landing, the U-2 has an unstable landing gear, so when slowing down, the aircraft rests on the wingtips. For this reason, the wingtips of the U-2 are equipped with titanium skids. After landing, the ground crew must reattach the auxiliary wheels to the wings so that the aircraft can taxi down the runway.

This makes the takeoff and landing of a U-2 always a curious spectacle. Here we can see it in a video published this Wednesday by AirshowStuffVideos, footage recorded at the California Capital Airshow in Sacramento last year:

One final note: I have put "driving gear" instead of landing gear because in the case of the U-2, the small auxiliary wheels on its wings are strictly just a "takeoff gear".