Remember the U-2 Spyplane? Did you know it still flies?

[Bill Mattocks]

Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the former Soviet Union in 1960, the year before I was born.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Gary_Powers

Now, 50 years later, we're still flying the things. Want to see what it's like at 70,000+ feet? With video!

http://defensetech.org/2010/10/05/u-2-still-flies-believe-it-or-not/

As I slipped open the sunshade of my spacesuit, I could see that the sky above was black. The curved white and blue earth fell away below the horizon. Sailing like Icarus past 70,000 feet, I was now the 11th highest human on earth (Soyuz astronauts would solidly hold the top-10 that afternoon).

 

[Blade96]

I'm kind of a cold war fanatic so yes I've seen the things =]

I've even given a presentation on francis gary powers.

I'm not surprised they're still used. those things are pretty cool.

 

[Gemini]

I had seen something on the tube regarding that not too long ago. The SR-71 was retired, but the U2 was not. It wasn't mentioned, but I don't think we're flying over...there...anymore. :shrug:

 

[Ken Morgan]

When you have something that works this well, you don't f**k with it.

 

[MA-Caver]

I had seen something on the tube regarding that not too long ago. The SR-71 was retired, but the U2 was not. It wasn't mentioned, but I don't think we're flying over...there...anymore. :shrug:

It is surprising that they retired the newer plane and kept the older one. The SR-71 was supposed to be the one to replace the U-2 because it was faster and thus a heck of a lot harder to shoot down.

Yet it's surprising that we're even using spy planes when we got satellite imagery technology so fine that we can read the fine print off of someone's newspaper.
Now understandably the planes would be useful in a high overcast type of day in that they could fly below the cloud cover... but don't we have unmanned drones for that now?

(scratches head) just don't understand the military mind.

Still a lot of history involved with that. Francis is supposedly a distant cousin of mine. Something that I need to check out in depth sometime.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Apparently the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was a victim of budgeting or the lack there of and the Lockheed U-2 was not but it could be soon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2

A classified budget document approved by the Pentagon on 23 December 2005 called for the termination of the U-2 program no earlier than 2012, with some aircraft being retired by 2007.[22] In January 2006, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced the pending retirement of the U-2 fleet as a cost-cutting measure, and as part of a larger reorganization and redefinition of the Air Force's mission that includes the elimination of all but 56 B-52s and a complete reduction in the F-117 fleet.[23] Rumsfeld said that this will not impair the Air Force's ability to gather intelligence, which will be done by satellites and a growing supply of unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance aircraft.

However, Congress has not, as of 2009, passed legislation to retire the U-2 as there is no system able to replace it. Proposals to retire the U-2 have been met with significant resistance from military leadership due to gaps in capability that would present if the U-2 were removed from service. In 2009, the Air Force stated that it plans to extend the U-2 retirement from 2012 until 2014 or later.

Possible replacements

RQ-4 Global Hawk

RQ-170 Sentinel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_RQ-170_Sentinel