Posted on 01/16/2021 12:22:30 PM PST by Onthebrink
Despite the fact that satellites and drones can provide an eagle-eyed view to remote regions of the world for the United States military and intelligence community (IC), an aircraft design older than its pilots continue to serve a crucial role in intelligence gathering. It is the sixty-year-old Lockheed U-2. Initially projected to have an operational life of just two years, this aircraft has been flying high for more than six decades and has been present in every American conflict since.
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
I do believe all of the airframes are newer than the originals but the design has held up.
In 1950s Japan, an Air Force friend of the family was a U-2 pilot. He was American Indian from the SW US.
I got an invite to CIA family weekend years back, there is a U2 on pylons outside the building. myself and a small crowd were looking at it- I said to no one in particular “I wonder how long these have been out of use.”
it was like I said the magic word, immediately several people offered the likes of “Oh, they’re still up there” “hell we never stopped” etc.
NASA has been flying them for high atmospheric research data collection .
Those birds are awesome to watch on takeoff! As soon as they clear the runway they shoot straight up in to the sky.
At least I hope it outlives the band.
Someone on FR posted that they are still used for combat zone targeting?
Old air frames aren’t going away because the military defense contractors have grown fat, lazy and corrupt along with our federal bureaucracy elected officials and bureaucrats.
I don’t know. I would think that unmanned drones have taken up that role because they can stay up for many more hours than a human.
Anew redesign put about 30 wingspan so they could fly higher. One popped up over Northern California on ABS-B Exchange this week.
A long time friend, former NavySecGrp and CIA guy was in the crew that enabled GFP to fly over the ChiComs.
Even with the coming of long-range long-time-on-station drones like Global Hawk, and even a new reconnaissance SR-72, the Air Force still loves the U-2. It’s not so great for the pilots though - they suffer from a form of the bends due to the pressure suit.
And just how was Gary Powers shot down?
Cool pic of this remarkable plane at the link.
With a SAM.
Astronauts and high flying military pilots pre-breathe oxygen for some time before flight to avoid what you speak of.
The test pilot was Darryl Greenemeyer.
He set records that can never be revealed/
He also owned & drove a top fuel dragster sponsored by Shmirnoff
The 'how' is pretty well known. You should be asking 'why'. George H.W. Bush probably knew the answer to that one.
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