So were SR-71 crewmen astronauts?
They would have to have flown at least three times higher to have qualified under this 50 mile definition. Even more if the Karman line criterion is used. X-15 pilots, though, definitely qualified.
The max on the SR-71 was about 16 miles (roughly 40 percent higher than the flight ceiling used by private jets, which fly above commercial airliners), or 1/4 the distance to the Karman Line. Still, I'd rather fly the distances in the SR-71, even facing backward (since I'm not a pilot). Only aircraft capable of sustained flight above Mach 3 (not counting the X-15, about which one test pilot said, it was the only plane he'd ever flown where he was glad when the engine quit). Never had an operational loss, outran every missile ever fired at it, what an engineering achievement of Clarence "Kelly" Johnson (see his memoir, "More Than My Share", grad of MTU btw) and his Skunk Works at Lockheed. Just building windows that wouldn't melt or fall out, and keeping the cockpit cool, oh those little things, brilliant, brilliant.
yes.
the space suit was invented for u2 pilots