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Charlie en Pensacola, Florida en Abril de 1990 en su primer uniforme de aviador!

You have come a long way Charlie!

Picture taken in Pensacola, Florida, 9 years ago Charlie in his first flight suit

U-2 "Dragon Lady" animated

This coming May, Charlie will fly to California to spend 5 days at the Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento. Charlie's assignment will be to evaluate the flying qualities & performance of the U-2. Thus, he will have to fly the "Dragon Lady".

The success of the U-2 might have made the difference between the United States' survival or not. At the time of the U-2 development stage, the Soviet Union was developing an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile), and tensions between the East and the West were being strained to the breaking point. Compared to the United States, the Soviet Union had ten times as many troops, eight times as many tanks, and four times as many airplanes.

The U-2 was designed to fly at least fifteen thousand feet higher than any airplane had ever before flown, and had the highest-resolution cameras in the world, designed by Edwin Land, maker of the Polaroid camera.

The United States was developing its own long-range bomber, the B-52, to counter the Soviet bomber Bison. But the B-52 would be almost useless because American Intelligence had only the most rudimentary idea where
Soviet bases and key industrial areas were. There was a massive amount of photomapping to be done. Thus, since the U-2 was used for intelligence purposes, the U-2 began not as an Air Force plane, but for the CIA. Code-named Rainbow, the U-2 was probably the greatest aerospace bargain ever, with each plane costing only $1 million including development costs.

The U-2, renamed later to TR-1, began Soviet overflights on July 4, 1956. For five years the U-2's cameras captured photos of ICBM testing sites and air bases at over 70,000 feet above the most secretive society on earth. The U-2 first proved that there was no bomber gap between the United States and the Soviet Union, as was previously suspected. Soviet overflights ended on May 1, 1960, when Francis Gary Powers was shot down.

The U-2, in all its various forms, is still flown each day somewhere in the world. For example, NASA uses a fleet of specialized U-2s, called ER-2, for high altitude research. The U-2/TR-1 has been used in countless crises and peacetime operations, making it one of the oldest airplanes in use today.

Primary Function: U-2: High altitude tactical reconnaissance

Contractor: Lockheed Aircraft Corp.

Power Plant: One Pratt & Whitney J75-P-13B engine

Thrust: 17,000 pounds (7650 Kilograms)

Length: 63 feet (19.2 meters)

Height: 16 Feet (4.8 meters)

Wingspan: 104 feet (32 meters)

Speed: 430 MPH (692 km/h)

Maximum Takeoff Weight: 40,000 pounds (18,000 Kilograms)

Range: Greater than 3,000 miles (4,287 km)

Ceiling: Above 70,000 feet (21,212 Meters)

Crew: One

Cost: Classified

Inventory: Classified