Flying SR-71, U-2, or Space Shuttle

[Pinion]

correction

OPIE is correct. FAIPS regularly apply for the U-2, and most do quite well. My faux pas with MWS was not meant to disparage our FAIP Brethren!

 

[Draginass]

The U-2 is probably the toughest airplane in the inventory to fly. It's physical, mental, and you do it while all alone for 12 hours at a time sitting in a space suit. Gotta really respect those guys. Not too many neutrals . . . you either love it or hate it.

Believe it or not, the promotion rate, especially to Lt Col really stinks in U-2s, or at least it used to.

 

[John Hewlett]

Heres an interesting point

There are only a handful of SR 71 pilots that are still active. However one of the major requirements for flying it is marriage. You have to be Married to fly the SR 71.

Thought you might find this interesting

John

 

[PilotOnTheRise]

At one time NASA had the minimums posted for Space Shuttle Pilots ... I don't know if they still do. Visit www.nasa.org and see. From what I remember, it required a hefty amount of experience! -- As far as flying certain aircraft in the military -- I thought you were assigned the airplane you will fly, whether fighters, transporters, bombers, etc., and then trained for them. Can you bid to other a/c in the military too ... how does that work?

 

[Sonic Cruzer]

Astronaut Selection Info

Check out the Astronaut Hopefuls Website/mailing List.


www.ashos.org


ASHOS is a site dedicated to people trying to become astronauts. The mailing list gets pretty active during the selection cycles as people (lucky people) share notes on their interview experiences. There are several people who are on the mailing list that are now ASCANs (i.e. Terry Virts) or Active Astronauts (i.e. Garrett Reisman).

The requirements are posted on the site and the application forms are available for download.

All the military branches have their own internal selection processes. These selectees THEN have to compete against the civilian applicants for the NASA boards. On a side note - I would love to know whether or not reservists have to go through the military boards.

I'm pretty sure that with the ISS holdups, the Astronaut Corps won't be growing to much in the next 1-3 years. They had several huge (15-25 ppl) classes in the late 90s and most of these folks have not had their first flight yet.

I also recall finding an AF Officer career handbook online that laid out all the flight career paths including, NASA, TPS and U2 tracks.