AW SHUCKS!

1991.10.15

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Ron must have the "right stuff," though a casual observer would never notice it.  A few days ago he set a record by being the first person to fly a U2-class aircraft over one of the poles, the North Pole.  No pilot had flown higher over the North Pole than Ron, but his demeanor in the flight debriefing meeting never showed the pride that he must have felt.

During the flight he radioed back that he'd be returning later than usual, possibly 45 minutes later.  The flight plan (that we knew about) didn't call for going to the pole, only about 85 North.  We had been asking for as northerly a flight as possible, but no one mentioned going all the way to the pole.  At the flight debriefing, sensing that the extra time in the air might have taken him to the pole, we asked if he got to the pole, and he said he didn't know.  "It was dark in the cockpit, and I didn't have a flashlight for reading the INS.  I got farther than about 87 degrees, though."

A few hours later Roland analyzed the INS data, and found that Ron had made a perfect "loop around the pole" and then came back flying exactly over it.  At 67,000 feet, his loop was almost twice as high as any previous flight over the pole.  Ron must have felt "on top of the world," in the darkness of his cabin, alone in his space suit.  Not even the astronauts have been over the pole.

I recall that when Ron gave his briefing, he shuffled his feet, as usual, and went through the list of which instruments worked and which had anomalies.  He reminded me of the old cowboy movies, when the hero is asked about his feat, and responds with an embarrassed "Aw shucks, it was nothing."  None of the other U2 pilots who fly our plane has this self-effacing manner.  Ron probably holds more U2 records than any other U2 pilot.  When the most common model of the U2 fleet was retired a few years ago, the so-called C model, Ron took the last one up for the final flight, and set an official altitude record.  (Although the SR-71 flies higher, at 85,000 feet, it is still classified, and the Air Force will not let it compete for this record.)

In the bar, that evening, someone cleverly asked Ron how the INS behaved when its exactly over the pole, since there's a longitude ambiguity there.  And, without pausing, Ron answered "the INS behaved just fine!"
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