It might sound a bit odd, but the scene that sticks out all these years later in Ron Howard's excellent Apollo 13 takes place before the astronauts get off the ground. As they're preparing for liftoff, a crew man puts his foot on Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks, of course) and pushes him down into his seat. Then straps the ol' boy down as the astronaut winces. Then they shut the door on the rocket men, the glass of the door only inches from their faces.
If you're claustrophobic at all, it's spooky.
But at least the men on board could get unstrapped once in orbit and move around a bit. U-2 pilots can't even do that.
The pilots in those high-altitude spy planes wouldn't have any room to stretch if they could get unbuckled. The cockpit of a U-2 doesn't allow for pilots to move their heads much, so they have to rely on folks in chaser cars to guide them off the runways and into the air. And once in the air, it's 70,000 feet or bust. And for many hours they have to breathe pure oxygen--any nitrogen in your system could kill you if your spacesuit lost pressure--and they eat something called go-gel, which is a amphetamine-laced paste to keep them alert.
Now that's a special breed of pilot. And not any kind of job most of us would want any part of.
But for years, for decades, the U-2 pilots have kept an eye on the world. ("In God we trust. All others we monitor.") Soon enough, it appears as though the U-2 will be retired.
Drones are taking over. Not only can drone pilots sit comfortably in a nice office thousands of miles away from their gadgets, they're in no danger of being shot down and taken prisoner. (The most famous U-2 pilot was the unfortunate Francis Gary Powers. It would be two years before the Soviets gave him back to the United States and the Eisenhower administration.)
And drones are cheaper. They cost about half as much to fly as the U-2.
Some pilots hold out hope that the U-2 can stay airborne, noting that the planes are in use as much today as during the Cold War. At any given time, day or night, at least one of them is looking down on the Islamic State, searching for targets. And flying at the edge of space is just cool. One pilot said in the paper that once you fly the U-2, it's hard to think about flying closer to the ground.
Maybe. But drones are cheaper and, more importantly, safer. No doubt some folks in the military liked the M1 carbine just fine, too. Technology passed it by. And Homo faber, man the tool maker, will no doubt find something to replace drones in the future.
For now, at least, the U-2s are still rumbling down the runways, flying high until their scenery goes dark, and looking down on the bad guys from 13 miles up. And will as long as their country needs them.
If you're claustrophobic at all, it would be horrible. If you're not, yes, it must be the coolest thing.
Editorial on 09/08/2015