The U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane is one of the most iconic aircraft in the Air Force’s fleet, but many people have never gotten a glimpse of it — until last night.
A U-2 conducted a flyover before Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
As Airshow News — which posted this great video of the flyover — noted on its Twitter feed, a low-altitude flyover by a Dragon Lady is a rare occurrence indeed. The U-2 typically flies at extremely high altitudes, sometimes near space, and has a ceiling of more than 70,000 feet. It flies so high that its pilots must wear full-pressure suits similar to astronaut suits.
The wide-winged U-2 carries an impressive variety of sensors, including an electro-optical infrared camera, an optical bar camera, and an advanced synthetic aperture radar. But not even the Dragon Lady could find any trace of Alabama’s defense Monday: The Crimson Tide got shellacked by the Clemson Tigers, 44-16.
A U-2 Dragon Lady just made a rare low-altitude flyover to kick off the #NationalChampionship ! pic.twitter.com/us0kQye5AD
— Airshow News (@NewsAirshow) January 8, 2019
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