HuggyU2

42 years later, and still in the conversation!

LOL, wut?

Go fly aerobatics. Fly anything you can get your hands on.

Terrible idea.

I went over to Warbirds Registration, and signed up our Deuce for warbird judging. We did pretty well! JUDGES CHOICE ACTIVE MILITARY RECONNAISSANCE Hahaha!! Hail Dragons!

1 Aug 1955... 70 years ago today... A team of folks was on a secret lakebed with a new, unflown airplane. The pilot, Tony Levier, was going to do the first round of taxi tests. After a 2+ mile taxi run with speeds up to 55 mph, Tony turned around and headed back south for another run. Accelerating to 80 mph in about 1/4 mile, he pulled the power to idle... only to realize he was airborne! Because of the featureless lakebed, he wasn't sure of his height, and came down hard from about 35 feet, left wing low, then bounced back again. Finally getting back in control, he got the plane stopped, with the main wheels on fire. And that, ladies and gentlemen, marked the first flight for the U-2... on Groom Lake, later named Area 51. By 18 October, they were flying the aircraft in excess of 70,000 feet. Ironically, 22 years later to the day... 1 Aug 1977... Francis Gary Powers died in a helicopter mishap. Hail Dragons.

Or maybe, since the FAA has not gotten the job done, it's time for somebody further up the chain to get the job done. Additionally, if the investigation exposes issues that are safety related… even if they are not directly related to the mishap… I would hope they would address and fix them, so more people won't die in the future. We have a former helicopter pilot in our squadron who flew out of DC, and talking to him it sure sounds like the entire place needs to be revamped.

Great! We will be on the south end of Boeing Plaza with you. The Deuce now arrives Sunday ~1230, after a drop in to the Milwaukee Airshow. The guy flying it is from Fond du Lac.

Where? What kind of aircraft? How late?

Great airplane. Great mission.

T-6 washout rate is only about 10% according to a friend in that world. He said it is uncommon to washout for airsickness since they have the B Chair workups pretty well perfected.

So... Random13... I see you also posed this exact question on the Navy's forum. You've received good answers to your questions, and now I'd like to know where YOU are in the commissioning process, and which Service you are seriously looking at. What's your story?

Hacker, are you at least coning to the event?

You KNOW I'll be there. Actually, we are bringing The Deuce (and a Black Talon). She arrives Monday, leaves Monday. https://www.eaa.org/airventure/eaa-airventure-news-and-multimedia/eaa-airventure-news/2025-04-10-us-air-force-to-bring-iconic-u-2-dragon-lady-to-airventure-2025 Unless Congress changes it, the U-2 is done "operationally" in 121 days. Oshkosh will be the last time in public... unless things change. We shall see.

33 years of combined service so far... and I'm not done yet. The people, the mission, the flying. 10 years ago, I tried to move into a very different and new career. Didn't care for some of the people and their level of integrity; didn't enjoy "the mission"; there wasn't much flying.

And a shooter isn't helpful if there is no good intel/recce to get them where they are needed. Or better yet, to get the intel so early that you don't need the shooter after all. You appear to have a very myopic view of what "ISR" is. We don't operate in a vacuum, and we are often able to integrate with bomb droppers. It's been proven time and again that attempting to bills an aircraft that "does it all" is foolish. Yes, there are some ISR platforms that can go kinetic. And there are a lot that those platforms cannot do, WRT ISR. Had they weaponized the U-2 when they considered it many decades ago, the political implications would have been very limiting: there are a lot of sovereign nations that likely would have never allowed us access to their airspace. No one aircraft does it all. The U-2... still... has some very unique capes that other ISR platforms don't have. There are numerous instances where a non-kinetic U-2 was the only ISR platform over Americans, and it resulted in great success. One of our smart WIC grads could certainly explain this better than I, but I completely reject your assertion that we should be armed to be effective.

Indian food is WAY better, and also my favorite. Hence, I'm pulling for India.

Nice tribute by The Blues. https://www.instagram.com/share/_9-DtxI4t

Yeah, well, people vote for those lenient Superior Court Judges. And they vote for in support of the Appellate Judges nominated by the governor. It's the "will of the people"... at least it is here in the DPRK.

Looking forward to seeing what the experts discover. NOT looking forward to what the YouTube aircraft ambulance chasers will speculate on, to get their ratings up.