[decimon]

I thought Bono was already a drone.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

These were formerly based in Japan, among other locations.

[org.whodat]

Looking at the four and five year old pictures taken by Russian satellites, one has to wonder if you cannot count the hairs exposed on the beach with the current American ones.

[Abathar]

I didn’t even know they still flew those things.

[ReformedBeckite]

unbelievable that we were still using them.

[19th LA Inf]

From the article: "The U-2, designed in the 1950s for the requirements of the Cold War, is a single-seat plane that can fly at extremely high altitudes and speeds and go without refueling for long missions, making it highly suitable for spy missions."

It's true that the U-2s can go pretty high, but they are definitely not a high speed aircraft. One of the limitations, at least in the earlier models, was what was known as the "coffin corner", the airspeed/altitude situation where the mach limit and the stall speed coincided.

There used to be one of the first series on display at the SAC museum in Omaha, and it was obviously constructed with basic glider technology of the 50s, with flaps and ailerons connected to the wings by piano hinge. The later U-2s still in operation are more sophisticated and powerful, but still have similar airframe speed limitations.

[CholeraJoe]

The Global Hawk has more capable surveillance systems and longer loiter time. It’s potential vulnerability is its stated maximum altitude of 65,000 feet. I doubt that is its true maximum altitude, since being unmanned, it shouldn’t have human systems/life support concerns.

[MatD]

I got to work with this bird a little bit about 10 years ago. Amazing seeing them cracked open at just how ... simple they were. Granted, I am not an aero engineer or anything.