U2 Senior Span at Fairford

[Trevatanus]

Saw my first U2 in flight at the weekend it / they are on deployment at Fairford at the moment, and I, along with many others, went to Fairford to see it return from a mission on Saturday afternoon.

IMG_1007 by Jim Pritchard, on Flickr

IMG_1017 by Jim Pritchard, on Flickr

IMG_1018 by Jim Pritchard, on Flickr

IMG_1023 by Jim Pritchard, on Flickr

IMG_1063 by Jim Pritchard, on Flickr

[Trevatanus]

K50 DEL said:

If you get a heads-up on a rtn or t/o time again I'd love a message OP, never managed to get a pic of one of these and would love to!

Rumours of a U2 op tomorrow mate, no idea on times, will update if I hear anything more

[Trevatanus]

u2 leaving now.
if the mission is the same as Saturday (I honestly dont know) would be back at 1630.
will update if i find out.

ETA: Eta confirmed

Edited by Trevatanus on Thursday 31st August 10:48

[Trevatanus]

Eric Mc said:

They may not be USAF personnel.

Don't the CIA run the U2?

[Trevatanus]

One thing of interest... this morning flight was using the callsign "Quid09"

Sneaky buggers

(I believe Quid callsigns are usually assigned to KC135's and the like, NOT U2's!)

[Trevatanus]

LeighW said:

2fast748 said:

This picture surprises me for a number of reasons:

...
The non-American chase car!
...

Looks like a Pontiac GTO to me.

This help?

[Trevatanus]

ukaskew said:

2fast748 said:

The fact it's been taken at all (not very secret squirrel is it?)

I can't imagine that's particularly an issue for a decades old aircraft (that was on display at RIAT a few weeks back). Very few people will know where it's going or what it's doing, which is all that really matters. That it still has that capability to this day is hugely impressive.

Very true, but it's not about the airframe, it's about what's hanging off it

And I'm told that it's flying in the general direction of Red Square......

[Trevatanus]

hurstg01 said:

Trevatanus said:

One thing of interest... this morning flight was using the callsign "Quid09"

Sneaky buggers

(I believe Quid callsigns are usually assigned to KC135's and the like, NOT U2's!)

[tin hat on]Perhaps all the smoke-and-daggers pods and stuff aren't actually what we think they are but are fuel tanks for inflight refuelling
[/tin hat off]

Probably for dispensing chemtrails.

[Trevatanus]

Mission 0800 - 1730 today

[Trevatanus]

One currently up and due back at 1800 if anyone happens to be around.

[Trevatanus]

Chase car yesterday was apparently an F Type, and by all accounts the driver got a little "out of shape" on the runway

[Trevatanus]

Fairford still very busy, with a couple of B1's currently on deployment
Rockwell B1b Lancer by Jim Pritchard, on Flickr