U-2 Dragon Lady Takes Off and Flys to 70,000 Feet

[Roach]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7ae_1334276573 Edited April 13, 2012 by Roach

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

Cool, a little trick flying buy the Raptor

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=39e_1330353150

[AJsarge]

As fancy as the raptor showboating is, the U-2 at Flight Level 700 is a practical application of that aircraft's capabilities. To put it in perspective, most commercial airliners fly at 30,000 - 36,000 ft. It's also over 1/4 of the way to these pilots being able to earn astronaut wings at 50 miles (264,000 ft.)

 

Added: I had to show my office off. This seems to be one of the better videos out there, and the demo program is built to show off all the maximums and minimums that the aircraft can do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YEhwEGbGag

 

This is a "Heavy" aircraft by ATC standards, capable of carrying an M1A1, 2 semi trailers with trucks, or the equivalent of a C-130 at maximum takeoff weight in cargo. While not high compared to a fighter, it can still pull 2.5g turns with all that weight, and carry it across the pacific ocean from California to Japan without refueling. All that, run by a tiny crew of 2 pilots and 1 loadmaster. The fun part? The tactical descents to 2,000 ft followed by an Assault Landing (shown at the end of the video) to a 3,500 runway. We can then back up, combat offload cargo without the use of forklifts or other cargo equipment, and take off again. All this on hard-packed dirt/gravel runways previously only accessible by C-130s.

Edited April 14, 2012 by AJsarge

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

Well in the last recent years its not enough for a fighter to just go fast, now with thrust vectoring they can do fantastic maneuvering a low speed in order to lock and shoot down enemy fighters faster, no more going aroung again to get a missle lock. just flip the plane over and lock, fire.

 

 

[Elvis~SPARTA~]

Used to fly those bad boys over my house in Long Beach. Very huge. If they shut down the production line, Long Beach will be a ghost town compared to its former history in aviation.