A Closer Look At The U-2

A U-2 over the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, March 23, 2016. US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Robert M. Trujillo

Business Insider: U-2 spy planes have lurked all over the world for 64 years — here's how the Dragon Lady keeps an eye on the battlefield

* The U-2 spy plane has been operating all over the world for more than 60 years.
* The Dragon Lady's mission has remained the same over that time, but how it does it has changed considerably, and the Air Force is always looking for ways to gather more information and distribute it faster.

The 64th anniversary of the U-2 spy plane's historic, and accidental, first flight came in early August.

While much about the Dragon Lady has changed in the past six decades — most of the 30 or so in use now were built in the 1980s, and they no longer do overflights of hostile territory, like the 1960 flight on which Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union — the U-2 is still at the front of the military's intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mission, lurking off coastlines and above battlefields.

The U-2 is probably most famous for what pilots call "the optical bar camera," Maj. Travis "Lefty" Patterson, a U-2 pilot, said at an Air Force event in New York City in May.

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WNU Editor: 64 years .... and still flying. Quite an achievement.