R
iding a wingspan roughly as wide as a 10-story
building is high, the U-2 pilot, insulated in a full
pressurized flight suit and astronaut-like helmet, grips the stick and makes a final check on his
alignment with the runway. The Lockheed spyplane
is in the final seconds of a long, high-altitude recon
mission overflying volatile hotspots to see what the
bad guys have been up to lately.
Despite the hostile areas it just visited, the most
dangerous part of the mission is landing. The U-2
was made to fly, but it’s a handful to land. Its long
wings amplify every breeze, but they must be kept
level. Just a few degrees off horizontal will drag the
wingtip, r