Awesome, if real!
Can a U-2 be fitted with a long, sharp needle? 
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I have some doubts if its real because from photo it looks that the U2 is in higher altitude than ballon but the ballon looks that have an aspect from below…
Also these type of balloons goes higher than U2 service altitude. So many things here that looks fake. What is fun is that many famous official news worldwide are happy with this photo, BUT in the past is common that many journalists sadly fall in some fake infos specially when they requires tech analysis to proof them.
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The Post says the image was verified in a press conference.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/22/u2-chinese-surveillance-balloon/
But, yeah, I agree that there are issues with the picture. Why take the pic like that, through the cockpit? Then again, maybe that’s just the pic he took for the family album, and that then was leaked at dragonladytoday.com, which looks like it was photographed from a screen. The U-2 probably took more pics too 
And while I’ve seen every major news site report this, I have yet to see the official statement from DOD.
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Razor blades on the wingtip! 
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also looking even more deeper, that U2 plain shadow casted in the spherical balloon looks another item to think thats fake.
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Q: Two different questions. An online publication called Dragon Lady Today, I believe, published a photo of a U-2 flying above a – a balloon. Can you confirm that the photo’s authentic? And will you be releasing it?
And then I’ll ask the second question in a second.
MS. SINGH: I – yes, I saw that report. I can confirm the – the – the photo’s authenticity and we are planning to release it, and hopefully you’ll be getting something in your inbox soon.
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I’ve seen a lot of comments on the U-2’s shadow on the balloon but don’t get what the hubub is about. The shadow just looks like a profile silhouette of a U-2, as it would be in a bank with the sun at a certain angle. Perfectly usual and normal to me…
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I guess it is because we now live in the mis-information age… and it is getting harder to tell truth from fiction, so the reflex (especially when it comes to .gov statements) is: They said it is true, they must be lying. They said it is fake, they must be lying.
IMO that photo is genuine. I don’t know what the classified ceiling of a U2 is but it is probably one of the few aircraft that could be up there above it and using sensors to potentially collect very low wattage satellite signals that would otherwise be lost in the noise for a ground station. I think it is simple as a pilot with a camera going 'cool, my shadow on the balloon, I will take a snap of that… ’
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In this clip, James May gets a ride in a U2.
5:29 mark they level off at 70k.
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I didn’t have any problem with the visual appearance of the photo, just amazing that the pilot was able to get into position in order to take it.
I was much more surprised that pilots carried a smartphone (presumably) in the cockpit. Back in the day having a personal electronic device in the pit on an operational mission used to be a no-no.
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Assuming it is a smartphone?
Go-Pro’s seem quite common in the cockpits of all sorts of military aircraft these days?
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Could be.
But the pilot probably had a hand held camera in the cockpit.
Especially on recon and intercept missions.
I guess that’s how the pic in that article was taken.
I know RNoAF and SwAF pilots have hand held cameras in the cocpit. Or, at least they used to. Modern aircraft maybe has got enough sensors and cameras mounted on them, to sufficiently identify intruders
Famous Sled Driver, Brian Shul used to take his personal camera with him, in the Blackbird.
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I wonder how much it cost to fit May into that flightsuit.
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Funny how you will remember things wrong. I know the video you posted is the one I remember because of James May needing to scratch his face but for some reason it was Jeremy Clarkson that my memory had associated to that flight.
Wheels
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I dont think they could’ve shoehorned Clarkson in there lol.
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Hammond would of crashed it
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I am reviving this thread JUST to share this screenshot of an amazing patch and sticker from a social media account yall should be following because he’s hilarious.
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$5 says they backtrack, find out it’s from China again, and shoot it down. History repeats.
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