No Curry, I think he meant the SR-71s are retired, no longer flying. Plus the U2 is quite slow. I think I saw 104 knots indicated at 70,000 feet in the video. I wonder what that translates to in True Air Speed. Or maybe that was TAS?
Yes that footage never gets old. Lucky man, James May gets to fly in interesting aircraft and drive fabulous cars for a living. As he's a pilot. I wonder did he log that flight? I would have.
At one point he asks the pilot if he ever gets bored with the view. Personally I never get much above 10,000 feet and it's only the view that stops the flight from being boring. Even after eights hours in the cockpit.
The view from a U2 has to be even more amazing than any footage could ever represent it.
