No Rest for a Cold Warrior

Special abilities. There are also some unique U-2 capabilities that could be lost in the transition to Global Hawk. The U-2 can carry a wide-angle film camera that provides very detailed photographs that are unclassified and can be shared widely. It is still used frequently to assess the damage from natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina. The camera has also been used for three decades as a formal part of the verification provisions of the 1977 Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The U-2 flies weekly over the Sinai and provides both sides with images to monitor the border areas. Another key advantage is the U-2's superior "standoff" ability that enables it to peer deep inside a hostile country such as North Korea while flying outside its border.

Still, the Global Hawk replacement is coming along quickly. The newer versions of the plane will carry eavesdropping equipment similar to that on the U-2 and are scheduled to deploy to bases in Europe and Asia starting in 2009 or 2010. Some in Congress continue to complain about delays and cost overruns. But much of the added cost comes from the decision to turn the Global Hawk, built originally as an experimental plane, into the U-2's successor. The Global Hawk has become very expensive, reportedly costing more than $120 million per plane, including its new sensors. Says Northrop's Walby: "We are inventing things we didn't know you could make."

For the elite fraternity of U-2 pilots, the switch to an unmanned replacement will be a bittersweet one. Just inside the U-2 operations building at Beale Air Force Base, there is a poster with a close-up photo of a U-2 pilot in his spacesuit. The caption reads: "The Ultimate Computer."

With the Global Hawk, pilots will no longer be risking their lives, but U-2 flyboys remain strongly attached to the plane they refer to as the "Dragon Lady." They describe flying it as a mystical experience in which pilots learn to read the plane's vibrations and other sensations. "You gotta be able to fight the dragon before you can dance with the lady," says Bob Ray, who logged 1,400 hours in the U-2. He is one of just over 800 pilots who have ever flown the U-2 in an operational mission. There are, says Ray, "more people with Super Bowl rings than have flown the U-2."