U-2 "Dragon Lady" Operations (Video)

The climb out was amazing on that touch & go.

so beautiful and unorthodox....there aren't too many airplanes that need 150' to take off and 3,000 to land. Touch and gos would be fun, however with that wingspan you wouldn't want to be doing these in strong gusty crosswinds :)

That is their typical climb out, had a U2 operate out of our base (Westover) in Mass. a few years back for NASA and every take off was the same.

In early May 1984 I was in Moscow and managed to visit the Red Army Museum. On the second floor I went into a room that had what looked like a pile of junk in a corner surrounded by a rope barrier. As I approached, I realized it was airplane remains and on closer inspection I saw Roman lettering. I burst into nervous laughter and reached in and shook a piece of the metal. A woman guard came up and shouted, nyet, nyet. Then she pointed to a missile suspended above, a replica of the missile that brought it down. The wreckage was, of course, the U2 flown by Francis Gary Powers in 1960. My story is found on www.coldwar.org the site begun by Gary Powers Jr. Look under my name, Walter James Murray, Exhibits and Cold War Stories. Last train....

Awesome indeed! Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q48Swb2ATww

Keep the U2 - I just want the T38 :)