[geeks] U2

[Chris Byrne]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: geeks-bounces at sunhelp.org 
> [mailto:geeks-bounces at sunhelp.org] On Behalf Of dave
> Sent: Saturday, February 01, 2003 23:56
> To: geeks at sunhelp.org
> Subject: Re: [geeks] U2
> 
> 
> There have been slight changes in the design, but I believe the
> military has used the U2 continuously since the mid 50s.
> Details beyond that are going to be hard to pin down - it is
> a spy plane after all.
> 

The U2 and TR-1A (an updated version) are still very much in active use
all over the world. They are used for their initial purposes of tactical
and strategic arial reconnaisance, as well as intermediate altitude
atmospheric research, arial photography, cartography and survey mapping,
basically anything where a high flying long endurance platform might be
useful.

My very first training officer Capt. Lisa Dunn Soeby was a TR-1A project
officer. The crews have a bit of a love hate relationships with them.
They are absolutely beautiful birds to fly until something goes wrong.
And when it does you generally get very little warning. They go from
perfect to unflyable in an instant, and its very difficult to recover
from an unanticipated attitude. 

They're also a bitch to handle on the ground because of their long, and
fragile wings, and their extremely long noses. The pilots have very
little visibility during landing or taxi and there are a lot of minor
accidents.

Chris Byrne