[dalereed]

“and the plane went on to spy for the CIA until 1974”

They were operating them through the 80s because i used to see them fairy constantly coming into Burbank right past where I kept my airplane in the middle of the night with no lights for maintance at the Skunk Works.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Pay the Chicago Tribune? Are you serious?

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB434/

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

I thought this was about the band U2 being on the CIA payroll.

[mylife]

The Dragon lady

[mylife]

What a great plane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJoMDq4AyLc

This i just about the airframe.

[iowamark]

The U-2 was certainly useful, but was not a success at photographing the USSR, as Gary Powers discovered. Only satellites were successful at that.

[sr4402]

A newly declassified CIA history from 20 years ago spills the story about Nevada's Area 51 and its secret mission — which was not to study UFOs, but to test the U-2 and other spy planes.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/area-51-its-purpose-declassified-no-ufos-lots-u-2-6C10931555

[The Great RJ]

Kelly Johnson and John Moses Browning represent the best examples of American genius. The SR-71 Blackbird like the 1911 pistol and 50 cal. machine gun are machines that cannot be improved upon even decades after their creation and despite giant leaps in design technology.