That guy has a helluva job. Sure, he has to eat baby food through a straw; and he probably has to piss in his suit. But imagine seeing what he sees every day! 
I wonder why nobody (or if anybody) has tried to build a homebuilt that could give a taste of what the U-2 does?
Wow, the Air Force is getting lax. I would’ve thought 20/20 vision would be a minimum requirement for that job. 
why do they still have U-2 planes? I would have thought that satellites would have replaced their spy function?
also, how does it keep from tipping over on the ground, when it only has two sets of wheels, in direct line?
Unlike satellites, a U-2’s flight path cannot be predicted. Assets can be assigned as need arises.
The wings have titanium skids on them for landing. (Of course, it would only tip over at low speeds.) For take-off there are outrigger wheels called ‘pogos’ that fit into sockets near the wingtip. These fall off upon take-off, and the ground crew puts them on after landing for taxiing.
“But all we’ve ascertained from satellite photos is that it’s not on the roof!”
FYI, that’s James May, taken from “James May At The Edge Of Space” (or possibly “May On The Moon”, they both used similar clips)
(If the BBC could be bothered to sell TV licences to non-brits, or use Region 0 rather than Region 2 for their DVDs, I think millions would pay to watch them)
From what I hear, that thing is a stone-faced bitch to fly. At operating altitude, there’s about a 10 kt speed range between stalling and overstressing the airframe.
I couldn’t watch the whole thing. For some reason it was too scary.
wonderful!
Thanks