Flying from Beale AFB, a Lockheed U-2 plane, utilizing the specifically chosen callsign DRAGON 70, was heard speaking with ATC a couple of plan to set an endurance and altitude file for the ‘class and sophistication’ of plane.
Aviation fanatics have been in a position to file the pilot of DRAGON 70 speaking with the Atlanta Air Route Visitors Management Middle (ARTCC) through which he acknowledged that the plane had departed from their Californian base at 9:30pm the earlier night, meaning to return the next afternoon.
In direction of the tip of the sortie, he stated he aimed to take the plane to the next altitude and declare a brand new file for the plane. This is able to coincide with the plane being on the lightest potential weight, permitting for optimum altitude efficiency. Although a file was damaged, we don’t know what the outdated file was, nor what the brand new file is.
DRAGON 70 (U-2) wkg ATLANTA CENTER on UHF explaining they’re making an attempt to set an endurance and altitude for class and sophistication of plane. 😎
OTD 70 years in the past, Anthony LeVier made the primary flight of the Lockheed U-2 at Groom Lake on August 1st, 1955.
It’s too dangerous their ADSB is… pic.twitter.com/cvF0BHWiWA
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) August 1, 2025
Regardless of the plane’s age, the Lockheed U-2 Dragon Girl’s precise altitude efficiency stays labeled. Civilians who’ve been provided backseat rides within the twin-seat TU-2S plane, like Adam Savage, have remarked that though they know the precise altitude that that they had reached on their flight they aren’t in a position to disclose something apart from ‘above 70,000 ft’.
The U-2’s file breaking flight was organised to mark the plane sort’s seventieth anniversary of flight. The primary U-2 check flight, on Aug. 1, 1955, was unintended. Throughout a deliberate excessive pace taxi check, the prototype U-2, generally known as Article 341, lifted from Groom Lake – generally generally known as Space 51 – at solely 70 knots. Take a look at pilot Tony LeVier quickly found the U-2’s notorious tough touchdown course of for the very first time, barely damaging the airframe when making an attempt to convey it again onto the bottom.
This anniversary has been famous throughout lots of the U-2’s public appearances throughout 2025, particularly on the Royal Worldwide Air Tattoo (RIAT) at RAF Fairford, UK, and at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin. On the former, a U-2 ahead deployed to the bottom with the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron carried out a flying show whereas carrying operational mission gear just like the dorsal satellite tv for pc datalink pod, both ‘Senior Span’ or ‘Senior Spur’ relying on mission necessities.
Undoubtedly our @airtattoo spotlight from right now was the USAF U-2S spy airplane in Senior Span mission configuration as a part of the flying show. Lengthy could the Dragon Girl reign over RAF Fairford 🐉#AvGeek #RadioGeek #RIAT25 pic.twitter.com/XzmuidKPXZ
— Navy Monitoring World (@MilMonWorld) July 19, 2025
DRAGON 70 was not transmitting on the best transponder modes for flight monitoring web sites like Flightradar24 to show its flight path, although even when it was it probably would give us no additional data concerning the plane’s altitude. To assist defend details about the U-2’s capabilities and its operations, the altitude reporting operate inside the plane’s transponder is normally configured to ‘max out’ at 60,000 ft.
Listed below are some images taken from U-2 pilot and pal who took @TheAviationist patch to 70K ft (69,068 ft really primarily based on the altimeter…) in a Dragon Girl just lately. No higher approach to rejoice Skunk Works seventy fifth anniversary! pic.twitter.com/OQGv7TQKWu
— David Cenciotti (@cencio4) June 14, 2018
When speaking with civilian air visitors management, U-2 pilots will request clearance to above 60,000 ft solely, with out referring to particular altitudes. Codewords are used to speak precise altitudes with navy air visitors management with out revealing the data to anybody who is likely to be listening in.
Way forward for the U-2
The Dragon Girl was because of retire from the U.S. Air Power in 2026, and a few plane have already been withdrawn forward of this date. Nonetheless, as has occurred beforehand, the plane’s sunset date is a topic of intense scrutiny by Congress and we could effectively see the kind proceed to function past this date. Notably, U-2s are nonetheless engaged in lively intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions each day from ahead working places, and these present little signal of slowing down.
Whereas lots of the U-2’s unique capabilities at the moment are coated by satellites, the flexibility to quickly reconfigure U-2 airframes with completely different sensor payloads and job the plane to completely different places in actual time imply there’s nonetheless vital utility to be gained from its use.
Unmanned plane can take a few of this burden, and certainly there are plans for unmanned plane to start working from RAF Fairford within the close to future. Nonetheless, the RQ-4 World Hawk, which is the closest unmanned various to the U-2, has a smaller payload than its manned competitor.
The RQ-4 itself is because of be withdrawn within the years to come back, being succeeded by extra succesful plane just like the labeled and provisionally named ‘RQ-180’, however stays in frequent operational service probably because of decrease operational prices and the extra versatile basing allowed by a publicly acknowledged plane sort.
