Taming the Dragon Lady

  • Published
  • By By Airman 1st Class Chuck Broadway
  • 9th RW Public Affairs
BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., (ACCNS) --  Flying high above the Earth, surrounded in darkness, Capt. Neal Hinson studies the gauges inside the cockpit of the U-2 Dragon Lady. He's been flying for ten hours, cramped, tired and restricted by the astronaut-style flight suit he's wearing.

Still, there's no where else he'd rather be. Sitting in the cockpit, he feels at home, alive.

"It's an exhilarating experience," Captain Hinson said. "It definitely makes you feel like a man when you fire the engine and start roaring off into space. It's just brute force and a lot of fun." 

While flying the U-2 is not for the faint of heart, getting to that point is also no easy task.

To become a U-2 pilot, applicants must submit a package and ,if selected, come here to undergo a formal interview with several commanders. If all goes well, the applicant will be selected to become a member of the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron, where all U-2 and RQ-4 Global Hawk pilots are trained. 

"The training is awesome," Captain Hinson said. "You train mostly on your own after the initial solo flight and instructors monitor the pilot's objectives using GPS." 

After graduating from the 1st RS, U-2 pilots go to work for the 99th RS. A typical mission pilot spends two months flying operational missions at one of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing's deployed detachments before returning for two to three months of continuation training. 

Most pilots fly the T-38 twice a week and the U-2 two to three times a month. Flying the T-38 provides a less expensive way for pilots to maintain qualifications on instrumentation and aerobatic maneuvering. 

But, the U-2 isn't simply a fun aircraft to fly. It has a special, and very necessary mission. The U-2 is tasked to fly high-altitude Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions to capture imagery of targets or possible threats. The information the U-2 collects helps combatant commanders make the right decisions on the frontlines.

"We satisfy requirements so that bombs may or may not have to be dropped," Captain Hinson said. "We find the bad guys and make sure they're dealt with appropriately, but if commanders have the right information it may not warrant weapons deployment. If they don't have the right intelligence, they won't be able to make good decisions." 

U-2 pilots may get all the glory, but there is a small group of people behind the scenes that make every mission possible. This group is the mission planners, a dozen or so inactive pilots who create flight plans and provide the pilots with any other necessary information. 

These crew members plan flight patterns before each mission. After flights are completed they collect charts and flight plans and store them for future missions. Items such as fuel and communication cards as well as other flight materials are placed on cardboard cutouts so pilots can handle the materials while inside the U-2 space suit. 

"Mission planners are hired to transform distributed ground systems products into something pilots can use to efficiently and safely collect targets," said Lt. Col. Eddie Efsic, 99th RS Mission Planning Flight commander. 

High above the Earth, Captain Hinson watches the sun rising over the curved horizon. Despite the itch he can't scratch and the sweat that covers his body, he is happy. 

There's no where else he'd rather be. Up here, at 70,000 feet, he feels at home.

Up here, he feels alive.