If you’re out of work and happen to be looking for a career change, Lockheed Martin is hiring. The only catch is, you have to be a highly skilled airplane pilot who enjoys dancing with death.
According to an early April job posting, Skunk Works, Lockheed Martin’s secretive aerospace division, is seeking a full-time U-2 spy plane pilot to assist with testing and compliance operations in Palmdale in Los Angeles County. Ever since the notorious “Dragon Lady” started flying spy missions over the Soviet Union in the 1950s, fewer than 1,500 pilots have been brave enough to tame it.
That’s because the Cold War aircraft — a sleek surveillance plane capable of flying 400 mph — has earned the reputation of being one of the most difficult planes in the world to operate idue to its light frame and unusual “bicycle” landing gear. “As a result, there have been several accidents and fatalities over the years,” the National Museum of the United States Air Force website says.
One of the more infamous events involving a U-2 spy mission took place in 1960, when pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down and captured while flying a mission over the Soviet Union, leading to the cancellation of the Paris Summit, a crucial event that aimed to ease tensions between the United States and the USSR. The CIA pilot was subsequently convicted of spying and sentenced to years of imprisonment and hard labor, but in 1962 he and an American student were exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
Aside from carrying out secret missions, pilots have to maintain a strict speed of 460 mph to “stay in the thin margin between stalling and high-speed buffeting,” also known as “the coffin corner,” the museum’s fact sheet about the plane continues. And even if pilots successfully complete their reconnaissance missions, they’re then faced with the daunting challenge of landing: Pilots are usually “fatigued after long hours of flying in a pressure suit” and are followed by chase cars that provide altitude information, and then ground crew inserts supports in the plane’s wings.
Depending on the location, the salary ranges from $156,400 to $311,650, the posting said. Job responsibilities include, among others, possibly conducting demonstration flights for government officials and personnel, as well as maintaining safety standards. The given schedule is four 10-hour days, with three days off per week.
Lockheed Martin press representatives did not respond to SFGATE’s request for more information by the time of publication.