Taking a spin in a U-2 spy plane isn’t like hopping on a regional trip to grandma’s house — pilots cruise at a staggering 70,000 feet (21,366m). How high is that? High enough to require a spacesuit.
U-2 pilots like these at California’s Beale Air Force Base are strapped in to a pressurised suit and begin breathing pure oxygen up to an hour before they even hop in the cockpit. But they’re probably in no hurry to don the spectacularly cool-looking duds — totally reminiscent of Mercury-era spacesuits — as they might be up there for over 12 hours. That’s a lot of spying. [USAF]
RooBoy
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 12:46 PMCheck out the following 3 videos if you’re into the U2 and know who James May is.. luck bugger!
http://documentaryheaven.com/james-may-at-the-edge-of-space/
RooBoy
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 12:47 PMOK I meant he’s a lucky bugger to get to do the flight.. :-\
Tom
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:21 PMI think that is my favourite of his shows, simply because it taps into that boyhood dream of being an astronaut.
RooBoy
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 2:14 PMThe trip would be pretty spectacular, after seeing this I found a link for a company in South Africa that was running flights in an old sabre or lightning and taking passengers up to 80,000 +… sadly they are no longer around :-(
TSH
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 12:52 PMwow, according to Wiki the design’s been in service since 1957! It outlasted its own offspring (the legendary SR-71), I can only assume because of the costs involved in keeping an SR-71 in working order.
Just amazing that the same airframe design is planned out ’till 2015. Almost 60 years old and there’s still nothing better!
Ozoneocean
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:14 PMWell the cold war is over now so the mission and needs are a bit different. There’s not as much danger of someone actively going after a spy plane and shooting it down anymore, so the SR-71 is redundant.
I suppose the super high altitude and long linger times make the U2s similar is use to satellites, except a lot more versatile.
Muskrat
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 2:12 PMand they get towed by a holden commodore (Monaro)
Muskrat
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 2:13 PMwhoops not towed but ‘chased’