Six years ago Mrs. Charm, Mr. Boy and I bought the rancho from a couple who were moving away from Texas. She was a homemaker. He was an airline pilot who had flown U-2 spy planes before he retired from the Air Force. I won’t mention names, they’d probably not like me to.
I’ve read about the U-2 so I have some idea of what it is like to work in full pressure suit at seventy thousand feet–more than twice as high as jetliners cruise. But, until now, I’d never seen the curvature of the earth from a U-2’s cockpit, out there on the edge of the black. Magnificent view really.
Via Flightblogger.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
Mind you, I’m not knocking U2, it has done its service. Still, my dream will be to make a similar trip in a Blackbird. To remind you, it has a ceiling of 80,000 ft, speed of over 3M and was never shot out of the sky.
Mind you, I’m not knocking U2, it has done its service. Still, my dream will be to make a similar trip in a Blackbird. To remind you, it has a ceiling of 80,000 ft, speed of over 3M and was never shot out of the sky.
Since they’re both retired, and the Blackbird cost the most the fly, you probably won’t get your wish, even vicariously.
The rancho’s former owner was quite normal, I thought, for someone who used to spend hours at a time listening to himself breathe–like a scuba diver.
Since they’re both retired, and the Blackbird cost the most the fly, you probably won’t get your wish, even vicariously.
The rancho’s former owner was quite normal, I thought, for someone who used to spend hours at a time listening to himself breathe–like a scuba diver.