Note: If you click on the link toward the end of the
column, don’t turn off your volume. Even though the video starts in Chinese
with English sub-titles, it soon goes to English with Chinese sub-titles, the
only one I’ve ever seen to do that.
I’m going to take you back to the year 1959 to introduce
today’s column. Some of you were alive
at that time and some weren’t. And even
those who were might never have heard or read this story. I know I hadn’t until very recently because
I was over in Korea at the time.
Besides, the incident was classified for many years afterwards.
Okay, August of 1959… The U.S.S.R has launched their Sputnik
two years earlier, and we are on a fast track to try and catch up in the space
race. Everything is, however, top
secret, and nobody knows the names of the astronauts, or that there are
astronauts, or even that the term “astronaut” exists. Communist China is
threatening to attack two islands off their coast called Quemoy and Matsu,
which are held by the Republic of China on Taiwan. It is still a secret that we have a spy plane designated U-2, or
“Dragon Lady,” and Gary Powers is not a name anyone knows, because his U-2 will
not be shot down by the Soviets for another few months.
That U-2 is the focus of the column, because we were testing
it with American and Republic of China pilots.
We were doing so with a terrible loss of aircraft and pilots. On one of those test flights a ROC Major, Hsichun Mike Hua, took
off from Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas on a U-2 mission. He was to fly a trapezoidal pattern up to
Ogden, Utah and back. The flight was designed to test celestial navigation, and
therefore, it was conducted at night.
All went well until Major Hua reached Delta, Utah on his
return flight. Then, at an altitude of
70,000 feet, his engine suddenly flamed out.
The time was 10:28 PM, so it was pitch black outside. And if you have ever driven or flown over
the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, you will know that there are several peaks in
the range that top 10,000 feet. Beyond
the mountains there is a canyon- and mesa- filled land.
Major Hua tried several times to restart the engine after he
glided to a lower altitude, but his efforts were unsuccessful. Fortunately, the U-2 has a great glide slope,
so the plane was kept high for a considerable time while major Hua assessed the
situation. But finally, he was down to
about 15,000 feet and things were getting dicey. He was in danger of becoming the 18th casualty and the
12th fatality of the U-2 program. As he was preparing for a forced
night landing, possibly in those rugged mountains, he spotted runway lights in
the distance.
Southwest of the little town of Cortez, the gateway to Mesa
Verde in extreme southwest Colorado, there was a municipal airport not even
shown on Major Hua’s aviation maps. The
town council had been debating for months the practice of leaving runway lights
on overnight. No decision had yet been
made, so they were on that night while Captain Tom Johnson finished up some
paperwork in the flight shack. Little
did he know the events that were unfolding far above him.
Major Hua was able to turn the craft while still on a glide
path and line up with the runway, though he had no idea in which direction the
wind was blowing or what the altimeter setting would be to touch down on the
runway. And since the U-2 doesn’t have
the typical tricycle landing gear, but rather a in-line bicycle configuration,
he would have to land it very precisely while totally unable to see the ground
and with a dead stick—no power.
Not only was Major Hua successful in bringing the U-2 in on
the runway; he was able to turn it off to the edge before the wing touched
down. He climbed out of the craft and
proceeded to the flight shack, walking in on Captain Johnson in what must have
appeared to be a totally alien “space suit.”
It was later suggested by Captain Johnson that he fully expected the
alien to say the words, “Take me to your leader.”
Major Hua, who later retired with the rank of General, was
awarded the “Distinguished Flying Cross” for his achievement on the night of
august 3, 1959. And he was in Cortez on
August 2, 2009 for the celebration
of the 50th anniversary of the feat.
On my recent trip to the Four Corners I stayed three nights
in Cortez, and I was able to drive over some of the country that Major Hua had
traversed in his crippled airplane. I
also visited the airport at Cortez. It has a wall of fame inside the passenger
terminal that recounts the “Miracle at Cortez.”
The runway at Cortez, barely visible in the middle running
center to right edge, is just below the Mesa Verde National Park in the background. On the other side, behind the photographer, is Sleeping Ute Mountain, an even higher obstacle.
A modern passenger terminal has since replaced the crude
flight shack that existed in 1959 and Cortez is a commercial airport today with
commuter flights to and from Denver.
Here is a 2-minute video that shows how difficult it is to land a U-2 even with a chase car to relay height above the runway to the pilot. Chase cars are always used during landing the U-2 night or day, so Major Hua's feat was even that much more challenging.
