Description

A detailed model of the U-2, complete with texture sets, all components, wheels, and doors, rudders are parented and pivoted for animation.

Textures

All major surface textures are 4096 in greatest dimension. Color, bump, and specular maps provided. Dashboard controls have their own textures. Photoshop templates for each detail are available for download.

History

The U-2 project was initiated in the early 1950s by the CIA which desperately wanted accurate information on the Soviet Union. Overflights of the Soviet Union with modified bombers were taking place frequently, but they were vulnerable to antiaircraft fire and fighters, and a number of overflights and peripheral missions were shot down. It was thought a high altitude aircraft such as the U-2 would be hard to detect and impossible to shoot down. The manufacturer was given the assignment with an unlimited budget and a short time frame. Its Skunk Works, headed by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson performed remarkably, and the first flight occurred in August 1955. Edwin Land of the Polaroid Corporation developed the optics for a new large format camera to be used in the U-2 mission. These new cameras were able to provide high enough resolution from 70,000 ft that you could see people on the ground. The aircraft"s first overflight of the Soviet Union occured on July 4, 1956, when it departed the Army Airfield in Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, Germany to overfly Leningrad. Interestingly, at the same time as the first overflight, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was visiting the U.S. ambassador to Russia in Moscow, and the two toasted President Eisenhower"s health. [2]