{"id":483679,"date":"2026-07-21T03:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T17:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simpleflying.com\/what-u-2-dragon-lady-pilots-do-before-missions-most-other-pilots-history-never-done\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T03:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T17:00:11","slug":"what-u-2-dragon-lady-pilots-had-to-do-before-missions-that-most-other-pilots-in-history-have-never-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=483679","title":{"rendered":"What U-2 Dragon Lady Pilots Had To Do Before Missions That Most Other Pilots In History Have Never Done"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"display-card-hyperlink-article\" data-id=\"2055259\"><a href=\"https:\/\/simpleflying.com\/sr-71-blackbird-pilot-preflight-routine\/\" >Simple Flying has already written about how the next-generation successor<\/a><\/span> to the <span class=\"display-card-hyperlink display-card-hyperlink-no-vignette\" data-id=\"712743\"style=\";  ;\" class=\"display-card-hyperlink display-card-hyperlink-no-vignette\"><span>Lockheed U-2<\/span><\/span> Dragon Lady spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird, was extreme. To operate the SR-71, pilots had to perform a number of preparations typically reserved for astronauts, like having special diets, breathing oxygen, donning space suits, and more. But the pilots operating the Dragon Lady trailblazed some of those procedures in the 1950s before the Blackbird came to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flying a Dragon Lady at an altitude of at least 70,000 feet forces pilots to perform some procedures mostly associated with astronauts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,629,1328],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aircraft","category-pilots","category-united-states-air-force"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO Pro 4.9.10 - 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