NASA ER-2 Earth Research 2 (Unusual Aircraft Collection)

This NASA ER-2 ("Earth Research 2") is a jet-powered glider which burns lighter fluid, has bits which fall off whenever it leaves the ground, is in constant danger of dropping out of the sky or breaking up in mid-air, and falls over every time it lands.

The ER-2 is a development of the CIA's U-2 spy plane, and it's this unusual role which explains all of the plane's peculiarities.   It has long, glider-like wings to enable it to climb very high, to at least 85000 feet.   The altitude requires the engines to be fueled using a very light hydrocarbon almost identical to lighter fluid.   When it's at its operating altitude, the difference between the U-2's stall speed and the speed of sound is only 12 miles per hour, so the pilot must constantly work to stay within that narrow range.   If the plane goes too slowly then it will stall, but if it goes too fast then its very lightly built fuselage and aerodynamic surfaces will break up.   Since the U-2 can stay in the air for 12 hours, it's an exhausting plane to fly, and it doesn't help that the pilot has to wear a space suit in case the cockpit depressurizes.   To decrease the amount of nitrogen in the bloodstream and prevent getting "the bends" the pilot starts breathing pure oxygen an hour before the flight begins.

The original design of the U-2 used the same fuselage as another plane designed by Kelly Johnson at Lockheed's "Skunk works", the F-104 Starfighter.   In order to save weight and improve the plane's aerodynamics, Johnson made many unusual choices when designing the undercarriage.   The first choice was to have no undercarriage at all, just a wheeled dolly for takeoff and a skid under the fuselage for landing, exactly the same arrangement as the Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet.   Later this was changed to a bicycle configuration, with two sets of wheels under the fuselage and two "pogo" or "pogo stick" outrigger wheels mounted into sockets under the wings.   When the plane takes off, these pogos fall off, so when the plane lands and slows down, the plane tips over and scrapes the ground on one of its titanium-sheathed wingtips.   As soon as the plane stops, the chase crew fits the pogos back under the wings and the plane can then taxi to its hangar.

For many years at the start of the Cold War the United States had been flying reconnaisance flights over Russia, some of which had been shot down.   It was hoped that the U-2 could fly high enough to evade both radar and defensive measures like fighters and ground-to-air missiles.   However the Russians could track the flights, and when they shot down Francis Gary Powers in 1960 they displayed the evidence and proved that the not permitted flights had been happening.    What's less well known is that other U-2s were also shot down, one over Cuba and five over China where they were being operated by the Taiwanese government.