this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2026
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Most of the people who knew how to build that plane are dead to be fair
I mean, it's not that old of an airframe. I'm only middle aged and I saw the last time it flew in 1991. My dad just retired from the FAA a couple years ago and when he was in the military he maintained the flight suits for the SR71 and U2 programs.
The original engineers may have passed, but the crew and engineers responsible for the huge amount of maintenance for the airframe are still around and probably have more functional knowledge about the airframe than the designers.
Edit: 1999 not 1991.
Manufacturing and design knowledge is mostly lost and rediscovered every few decades by the US. On one project or the other
Seconding this; my dad worked on the U2 for 30-odd years and he's still kicking!
Oh nice, were you guys stationed out at Beale AFB?
Sorry, I'm terrible about seeing my notifications. Yep, we were at Beale between 94 & 98, but overseas before and after that.
No worries, same here. We were there from 96-00, there's a good chance we've run into each other before! There's an even better chance that our fathers worked together in some capacity, it was a relatively tiny base and the U2 program was pretty small.
I think Beale was one of my favorite bases I've ever lived on, I used to go hiking in the foot hills basically everyday during summer. I feel like it was small and remote enough where you could get into a lot of shit as a kid without ever really getting in any trouble.
By chance did you guys ever go to one of the Christmas parties in the old skunk works building?
Not me personally, we lived off-base and I was only about 12 when we left-- but my folks probably did for sure!
Funnily enough, I've been helping them clean out their kitchen so they can have it redone and the sheer volume of old squadron/hangar dance/etc mugs they have absolutely beggars belief. I'd bet there's one or two in the hoard that corresponds to one of the dances you're thinking of.
Nice, I think I was in my early teens when we left as well. I'm sure my dad has a box of old photos in it somewhere, but his last few years of service kinda soured any fond memories he had left of his time in the Air Force. Though I think that's kinda common place for senior NCO, I haven't met too many dudes above Master Sargent who I could claim were jolly guys.
Only a few more years before the mesothelioma takes the last of the maintenance crew, that thing was genuinely filled nose to tail (proverbially, it was actually full of fuel) with asbestos