Only one U-2 on RAF strength, based at Watton (I think) for weather research and only for a brief period.

Not sure who we were trying to kid with these implausible misdirections but high-alt recce was a serious thing for the RAF for many years, so the participation would have been of no surprise to anyone, even back then.

"based at Watton (I think) for weather research"

Ah yes... weather research..................... ;)​​​​​​​

Yes and no, some U2s were modified with scoops and particulate filters to monitor the fall out from Russian nuclear tests at Nova Zemlya - they flew out off the UK and took samples over the Barents sea outside Russian airspace.

To keep it pertinent to the thread, they also did it with flights out of Australia - "Operation Crowflight"

https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet...on-crowflight/

They were crazy times

Fascinating - knew about the carrier Ops wrt French tests - but not the Australian operations.

https://www.adastron.com/lockheed/oddities/U-2.htm

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3eba6dd74a.png
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7f13769870.png
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b81cf628d3.png
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....0801230fe3.png
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e4f3ba9487.png


56-6718: "City of Sale" (the "City of Sails" is further east and colder)

The U-2 dead stick landing from 300 miles out at East Sale was still the subject of much mess bar discussion in the late 70's.