Hairyplanes

[zotz]

Linked from /., The Onion, 2056 edition.

Also, a U-2 has crashed in an unnamed Middle-Eastern country returning from Afghanistan. Interesting that it's an unnamed country ("due to host nation sensitivities"). So where do U2s fly out of in the area? Saudi Arabia? Or somewhere on the other side? They've apparently been flown in and from Georgia in the last couple of years. [Gaaa. Read the bloody article, Graham. Abu Dhabi. But did it come down there or in Iran or Pakistan?]

Incidentally, if any of you are looking for further proof that military pilots have no sense of self-preservation whatsoever, here it is.

Comments

[jhaelan.livejournal.com]

Last link had me in stiches

[scy11a.livejournal.com]

Wow! That brings the importance of accurate performance calcs home. Wonder where they'd have ended up if they'd had to do an accelerate-stop (ie engine failure at V1). On second thoughts, I don't wonder at all.

[zotz]

. . . because as soon as you got there you'd have 80,000 tons of nickel-steel bearing down on you at thirty knots to finish the job?

[scy11a.livejournal.com]

Pretty much : )

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

The U2 crashed in the United Arab Emirates; public info from American news sources...

[zotz]

Thank you. Very close to home base, then, and it's the Emirates they're trying to avoid raising tension in or for.

[gnomatron.livejournal.com]

bloody hell, they must be sodding special bits of kit for them to still be in service after 50 years.

"The site of the crash has been secured to ensure the safety of local citizens and the integrity of the site for the investigation team, the statement said."

I'm sure it's quite normal to not let the public footle about on the crash sites of airplanes, but why muck about? Everyone knows it's a spyplane...

[zotz]

There have been various models of U2. The ones flying now aren't the original series, which were apparently very unreliable. If you want reliable and longlasting, it's the B52 you want to look at.

Everyone knows it's a spyplane...

I'd guess they don't want people to know exactly how to build their own equivalents.