U-2 Disassembly In Under 2 Minutes In Time-Lapse

That Seems Like A Lot Of Work.

Welcome to Lockheed’s maintenance shop, a place where some of the most incredible overhauls happen. This awesome time-lapse will quickly show you how intricate the whole process is and exactly how detailed these maintainers are.

Lockheed calls this “Programmed Depot Maintenance.”

The video also includes some explanations as to what is happening and why, but we’ll go over some basics here too in case you miss some key points. Apparently, every 4,700 hours Dragon Ladies are in the air they need to go through this procedure.

The entire plane is taken apart into 1,800 seperate parts and inspected. The fuselage of course is checked for structural damage or stress as well. If any parts seem to be worn out or damaged, they’re immediately replaced. In all, technicians inspect over 40,000 rivets and make sure they’re holding up.

After everything checks out, the entire surface of the plane is stripped down, sanded and repainted. At the end of the process, it’s safe to assume the plane is as good as new. Now that’s diligence.