///AMG
Well-Known Member
You would think they would know all the people with over 1000 U2 hours already.
True....that can't be a very big community
You would think they would know all the people with over 1000 U2 hours already.
The cool thing with working for an airline with a good mil/civ mix are some of the stories. I remember taking a tour of the Smithsonian with a captain once and went through the aircraft carrier mockup of a ready room and him finding his old notes as part of the display.
"Hey! I wrote that!"
This is a civilian government job? I thought NASA just recruits directly from the other branches of the military?
While they do hire a large majority of ex-mil types, they do in fact have some research pilots (as well as others) that have no previous military background. The chief pilot during the F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire program was a civilian only. No idea how he found himself in such an awesome gig, but it can happen.
Long time ago, my first encounter with the machine was when there was one flying out of Bien Hoa, east of Saigon. And then again at U-Tapao in Thailand. I got to know the guys flying them and the Lockheed tech-rep. We went out and climbed in the cockpit before the pilot showed up for the sortie. I remarked how spacious the cockpit seemed. My incorrect impression became evident when the pilot waddled out in his pressure suit with helmet and gloves. Spacious wearing the suit it was NOT.
Haha......mil comp taildragger signoff.
I've always wondered about the space suit. It appears that it takes some assistance to get into and out of. If the U-2 guy went down over enemy territory, how the heck would he E&E with that gold/bronze colored space suit? Would seem like a pain in the ass, unless there's some quick-doffing mechanism on it.
SR-71A (61-7969 / 2020)
...so there they were in the jungle, in their spacesuits and trying to find a ride to Korat.This aircraft was lost on 10 May 1970 during an operational mission from Kadena AB, Okinawa against North Vietnam. Shortly after air-refueling, the pilot, Maj. William E. Lawson initiated a normal full power climb. Stretching before him was a solid bank of cloud containing heavy thunderstorm activity which reached above 45,000 feet. Heavy with fuel, the aircraft was unable to maintain a high rate of climb and as it entered turbulence both engines flamed out. The RPM dropped to a level too low for restarting the engines. Lawson and RSO, Maj. Gilbert Martinez ejected safely after the aircraft stalled. The plane crashed near Korat RTAFB, Thailand.
Haha......mil comp taildragger signoff.
I've always wondered about the space suit. It appears that it takes some assistance to get into and out of. If the U-2 guy went down over enemy territory, how the heck would he E&E with that gold/bronze colored space suit? Would seem like a pain in the ass, unless there's some quick-doffing mechanism on it.
1960 incident...
Because of the U-2's extreme operating altitude, Soviet attempts to intercept the plane using fighter aircraft failed. The U-2's course was out of range of several of the nearest SAM sites, and one SAM site even failed to engage the aircraft since it was not on duty that day. The U-2 was eventually brought down near Degtyarsk, Ural Region, by the first of three SA-2 Guideline (S-75 Dvina) surface-to-air missiles fired by a battery commanded by Mikhail Voronov. The plane's pilot, Francis Gary Powers, successfully bailed out and parachuted to safety. Powers carried with him a modified silver dollar which contained a lethal, shellfish-derived saxitoxin-tipped needle, but did not use it. In bailing out, he neglected to disconnect his oxygen hose and struggled with it until it broke, enabling him to separate from the aircraft. He was captured soon after parachuting down onto Russian soil.
The SAM command center was unaware that the plane was destroyed for more than 30 minutes. One of the Soviet MiG-19 fighters pursuing Powers, piloted by Sergei Safronov, was also destroyed in the missile salvo. The MiGs' IFF transponders were not yet switched to the new May codes because of the May 1st holiday.
A close study of Powers' account of the flight shows that one of the last targets he had overflown was the Chelyabinsk-65 plutonium production facility.[8] From photographs of the facility, the heat rejection capacity of the reactors' cooling systems could have been estimated, thus allowing a calculation of the power output of the reactors.
Familiar with that incident. What Im talking about is actually E&Eing post-landing, not getting captured right after landing in enemy hands practically.
This is a civilian government job? I thought NASA just recruits directly from the other branches of the military?