Hm, you're right. That plane isn't as fast as I thought.
The U-2's ceiling is more than 85,000 feet (25,900m), which is impressive enough. It would have been nice if May could have used a British aircraft. The Mach 2+ English Electic Lightning could reach the same altitude, but I doubt the 2-seat trainer version could.
http://www.fighter-planes.com/info/bac.htm
"The official ceiling was a secret amongst the general public and low security RAF documents simply stated 60,000+ ft (18,000 m), although it was well known within the RAF to be capable of much greater heights. Recently the actual operating ceiling has been made public by the late Brian Carroll, a former RAF Lightning pilot and ex-Lightning Chief Examiner, who reports taking an F-53 Lightning up to 87,300 feet (26,600 m) at which level "Earth curvature was visible and the sky was quite dark". In 1984, during a major NATO exercise, Flt Lt Mike Hale intercepted an American U-2 at a height which they had previously considered safe from interception. Records show that Hale climbed to 88,000 ft (26,800 m) in his F3 Lightning. Hale also participated in time-to-height and acceleration trials against F-104 Starfighters from Aalborg. He reports that the Lightnings won all races easily, with the exception of the low level supersonic acceleration, which was a dead-heat. "
That must have been downright terrifying.
