The US Air Force celebrated the 70th anniversary of the famous U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane on July 31, 2025 – not with a cake but by setting new endurance records for the class of aircraft on the first ...
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Why the U-2 is one of the hardest aircraft ever to land

The U-2 spy plane was designed to fly higher than almost anything else on Earth, and that single requirement shaped every ...
The Lockheed U-2 'Dragon Lady' spy plane is famously one of the oldest aircraft types in service with theUnited States Air Force. The aircraft is a relic of the Cold War and first entered service in ...
Flying from Beale AFB, a Lockheed U-2 aircraft, using the specially chosen callsign DRAGON 70, was heard communicating with ATC about a plan to set an endurance and altitude record for the ‘category ...
Seventy years after the Lockheed Martin U-2 spyplane made its first flight, the distinctive high-altitude jet has set a new endurance record for the type. A two-seat TU-2S trainer variant of the U-2 ...
The historic flight, which was 11 years in the making, saw the TU-2 flying longer than 14 hours and traveling over 6,000 NM across all 48 contiguous states of the U.S. On Aug. 1, 2025, we reported ...
Two of the US Air Force’s (USAF’s) distinctive high-altitude spyplanes made a rare public appearance at a UK air show over the weekend. The Lockheed Martin U-2S Dragon Lady jets participated in the ...
The U-2’s retirement is driven by a complex interplay of operational costs, concerns about its performance in contested airspace, and a strategic pivot towards unmanned and space-based systems. The ...
Taking Women’s History Month by flight, Lt.Col. Merryl Tengesdal is the first African-American woman who is qualified to fly the U-2 Dragon Lady plane. Known as the hardest aircraft to fly, Tengesdal ...
The infamous U-2 spy plane has been a part of our collective psyche since May 1, 1960, when the Soviet Union shot one down while flying a reconnaissance mission over its airspace. This event, which ...
Designed as a replacement for the manned U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane, the RQ-4 drone has vastly expanded the US Air Force’s surveillance capabilities. The RQ-4 Global Hawk is a vital ...