Spy plane hop aboard a U-2

[NumeroUno]

I was in operations in a missile battalion in Alaska and we protected the Dew Line and Eielson Air Force Base and the U-2s that flew out of there. I remember the sight of watching them take-off... when they landed there was a boot on the tip of the wing and the pilot would slow enough to lay the plane over on the boot, different then they describe.

> Hop aboard a U-2
>
> Ride in a spy plane. See the world at 70,000 feet.From 70,000
> feet you look down 35,000 feet at a jetliner passing below
> at its normal cruising altitude of 35,000 ft.
>
> Turn up your sound and expand your picture. Only the
> International Space Station is higher. Really awesome...
>
>
> http://www.wimp.com/breathtakingfootage/
>
>
> Fasten your seat belt for a fantastic ride.
>
> This video is a once in a lifetime experience of a
> British civilian getting a flight at over 70,000 ft. in a
> U-2 spy plane. Please note at the take-off the assist
> wheels on the outer edges of the wings which drop off upon
> take-off. The wings are so long that they need
> temporary support until lift-off. What is not shown is
> at the landing the plane actually slows to a small enough
> speed that two guys are actually able to grab the wing tips
> and put those assist wheels back on.
>
> The civilian getting the ride is the host of the car
> show Top Gear on BBC shown through Europe at 9:00 pm Sunday
> night in Belgium . The views are spectacular as the
> U-2 flies at altitudes which constitute "SPACE."

[Blind Squirrel]

Some random memories that video brought back:

In the late 80s the Russians needed hard cash so bad that they would go to air shows and offer rides in a Mig for $10,000. (I believe I read about this in Aviation News and World Report in it's coverage of an air show in Canada)

Speaking of air shows, I forget which new fighter it was, but the U.S. knew the Russians would be taking pictures of our latest fighter at air shows so that they could copy stuff. Knowing that, we displayed our latest fighter at Farnborough ... complete wth a few early external errors we had already discovered and corrected.

Combat pilots were (still are?) very suspicious/skeptical of some types of on-board software. Hard to understand that mentality. Well, except for the pilot flying an early version of a particular fighter down to South America for the first time. The story I heard was that when he flew over the equator, the plane suddenly, unexpectedly, inverted because of the software.
Those guys just don't appreciate nerd humor.

From the department of high tech engineering:
During night time testing of the F117 (Stealth fighter) out at Tonopah, they couldn't figure out what was causing unexpected radar returns from the plane. Different ideas were floated around. Before the next test flight, my Step Dad ended up climbing up on the wings of an F117 and used duct tape to cover certain small parts of the wings to see if they were the cause.

Lastly, a personal story that should be in Ripley's Believe it or Not:
My girlfriend at the time was a fellow engineer on the same project as me when our group went down to Miramar to get a tour of Top Gun as part of an information exchange. She and I actually drove down the previous day and spent the night at my friend's house. After the tour, us dweebs went to lunch with some of the Top Gun pilots. Inexplicably, my girlfriend developed a sudden severe case of amnesia and forgot who I was or that I was there. She made quite sure that she sat with the pilots, never spoke to me, and in fact never so much as looked in my direction the entire lunch. Go figure.

Snoopy Squirrel
(Wannabe)

[DonnieS]

Some random memories that video brought back:

In the late 80s the Russians needed hard cash so bad that they would go to air shows and offer rides in a Mig for $10,000. (I believe I read about this in Aviation News and World Report in it's coverage of an air show in Canada)

Speaking of air shows, I forget which new fighter it was, but the U.S. knew the Russians would be taking pictures of our latest fighter at air shows so that they could copy stuff. Knowing that, we displayed our latest fighter at Farnborough ... complete wth a few early external errors we had already discovered and corrected.

Combat pilots were (still are?) very suspicious/skeptical of some types of on-board software. Hard to understand that mentality. Well, except for the pilot flying an early version of a particular fighter down to South America for the first time. The story I heard was that when he flew over the equator, the plane suddenly, unexpectedly, inverted because of the software.
Those guys just don't appreciate nerd humor.

From the department of high tech engineering:
During night time testing of the F117 (Stealth fighter) out at Tonopah, they couldn't figure out what was causing unexpected radar returns from the plane. Different ideas were floated around. Before the next test flight, my Step Dad ended up climbing up on the wings of an F117 and used duct tape to cover certain small parts of the wings to see if they were the cause.

Lastly, a personal story that should be in Ripley's Believe it or Not:
My girlfriend at the time was a fellow engineer on the same project as me when our group went down to Miramar to get a tour of Top Gun as part of an information exchange. She and I actually drove down the previous day and spent the night at my friend's house. After the tour, us dweebs went to lunch with some of the Top Gun pilots. Inexplicably, my girlfriend developed a sudden severe case of amnesia and forgot who I was or that I was there. She made quite sure that she sat with the pilots, never spoke to me, and in fact never so much as looked in my direction the entire lunch. Go figure.

Snoopy Squirrel
(Wannabe)

Women.