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U2 over Lake Tahoe

GRADS

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A few pics taken from a U2 over Lake Tahoe.

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stoker

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My uncle (Lt. Colonel) was in charge of the U2 program for the CIA. He was an Air Force test pilot prior to working for the CIA. He had some really interesting stories about his operations during the Korean War along with his experience with the SR71.
 

GRADS

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The U2's are based out of Beale AFB which is like 30 miles from my house so we see them fly over occasionally. You can always tell when one is coming because they are loud as hell.
 

hallett21

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Why did they keep the U2 and retire the SR71?


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GRADS

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Beale AFB is/was an SR 71 base as well. I've seen one fly over our house in 20 years.
 

monkeyswrench

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Likely $$$$. I think I remember hearing the SR71 was stupid expensive to fly.

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I don't know if anything since burns it, but the Blackbird burned JP7...I don't know the chemistry difference, but I'm guessing race gas for turbines?
 

YeahYeah01

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Only contributing i have to the SR 71.

I was involve on the decomishing of the bulk of the air crafts.

Quite a few parts contained asbestos. So they needed to dispose of them correctly. So I spent about a month following trucks out to NV where they were buried in a haz waste landfill. There was a lot of moving parts involved. But in a nut shel the containers were sealed by the government, I followed them, inspected the tags to make sure nothing was tampered with and verified they were buried in the ground.
 

monkeyswrench

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Only contributing i have to the SR 71.

I was involve on the decomishing of the bulk of the air crafts.

Quite a few parts contained asbestos. So they needed to dispose of them correctly. So I spent about a month following trucks out to NV where they were buried in a haz waste landfill. There was a lot of moving parts involved. But in a nut shel the containers were sealed by the government, I followed them, inspected the tags to make sure nothing was tampered with and verified they were buried in the ground.
Doesn't surprise me, the toxicity of the materials involved. Given the era which it was built, that's what they had. Stories of the F-117, stealth fighter, say it's skin is coated with some nasty stuff.
 

Sleek-Jet

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Why did they keep the U2 and retire the SR71?


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The Blackbird role was largely eclipsed by satellites and UAVs.

The U2 will probably be eventually retired for the same reason.
 
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Desert Whaler

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Doesn't surprise me, the toxicity of the materials involved. Given the era which it was built, that's what they had. Stories of the F-117, stealth fighter, say it's skin is coated with some nasty stuff.
Yeah, about that toxicity . . . . In high school I had a friend who's Dad worked at Ford Aereospace . . . . he'd bring hand tools home that were 'spark free' . . . made out really weird materials & super expensive. Cro-bars that cost $600, crescent wrenches that were $250, crazy. I guess they used them in environments where 1 spark could be bad party.
 

OLDRAAT

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"I don't know if anything since burns it, but the Blackbird burned JP7...I don't know the chemistry difference, but I'm guessing race gas for turbines?"

Special oxygenated mixture for high altitude flying. Most call it "moon juice" :)
Yep, race gas. 👍
 

Water Romper

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This tells you how much I know about airplanes- I thought it was THIS U2. :p
 

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YeahYeah01

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Yeah, about that toxicity . . . . In high school I had a friend who's Dad worked at Ford Aereospace . . . . he'd bring hand tools home that were 'spark free' . . . made out really weird materials & super expensive. Cro-bars that cost $600, crescent wrenches that were $250, crazy. I guess they used them in environments where 1 spark could be bad party.
Wonder if it was beryllium?? Expensive and non sparking
 

78DiMarco

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That thing is way up there as you can about see the curvature of the earth... Nice one Grads! thanks
 

STOKN22

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My uncle (Lt. Colonel) was in charge of the U2 program for the CIA. He was an Air Force test pilot prior to working for the CIA. He had some really interesting stories about his operations during the Korean War along with his experience with the SR71.
Please tell🌞
 

stoker

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Please tell🌞

During the Korean war he trained American Chinese to fly the U2 incase they got shot down they would have a better chance of escaping. I couldn’t find anything on the web about him running the program but I was told of it by him and his daughter. He was full of stories and was informative. While working for the CIA at times his wife would be followed to make sure she didn’t talk about his work. When she and my mom where staying at my grandparents house one time my mom had to sneak my aunt out of the garage in the trunk of the car so they wouldn’t be followed. I had asked him about UFO’s one time and his reply was “theirs or ours?”.

 
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